Notes while reading Post-Growth Living by Kate Soper. Stream of thought for now, may condense when finished.
p.15, very interesting point that “the Anthropocene” is actually quite and evasive term - impolies this was just the natural effect of “Anthropos” at large, never mind the many ways of living that didn’t cause the effects we now fear - were those indigenous or nature-respecting ways of life not actually “Anthropos”? E.g. Jason Moore suggests the Capitalocene; however, Alf Hornberg argues this also obscures the real crux, since Soviet Socialism certainly contributed greatly to environmental destruction as well.
- I think Mackenzie Wark says something about Soviet Socialism maintaining the logic of Capital, despite not being directly Capitalist?
p.17, re use of terms “neo-colonial” and “neo-imperial” - I totally understand the desire to acknowledge that these things now take different forms, but is the neo- really needed?
p.18, interesting connective tissue with (Brian Merchant’s Blood in the Machine)
p.19, “old economy”, “old world” is great phrasing, from a persuasive writing/campaigning POV. Not sure I follow the implication at the end of this page.
On Posthumanism:
- p.20, for a critique of “new materialism” (uncertain if this is a direct subconcept or just a related school of thought), se Andreas Malm’s Fossil Capital p.78-118
- p.22, for objections to posthumanism in Srnicek & Williams’ “Inventing the Future”, see J. Cruddas’ article ”… challenge the rise of cyborg socialism”, New Statesman 2018
- TODO: sort out this reference
- p.27, reminds me of Steppenwolf!
- In terms of writing her overall argument, I’m not totally sure why making this point about posthumanism was necessary so early in the text.
p.28, resonates w Mackenzie Wark
p.29, interesting criticism of Jason Moore’s ‘Capitalism in the Web of Life’
p.39, quote at the bottom here is very compelling/convincing
Footnote 6 on p193 for this chapter is very interesting, also Note 18 on the following page
p41, point that decoupling has only been achieved by offshoring carbon intensive industry is a vital one to keep in mind
p.42, this Streeck quote marits more thought
p.44, “think politically privately” -> There’s something interesting about use of terms here. This is using the language of a binary you want to argue against in order to present your alternative? i.e., if we are factoring the political into our private thoughts, what is the inherent distinction? the personal then is political, so this would be synonymous with simply “thinking privately”. This is a very blurry thought.
ditto, “when we were passengers, not customers” is a great line. Chimes with the oft bemoaned loss of “third spaces”, or just places in a city where you can just ‘be’ for free.
p.48, concept of “need saturation” is fascinating(ly horrifying)
ditto, “Dependent as it is on revenue from commercials”. I’ve been gestating a thought about whether “creative” (in the broader sense referred to in many recent notes) work is just fundamentally inconsistent with being handled in market exchange, and trying to force it to work is what creates all the dissonances of intellectual property law, loss of commons etc. In that context, this quote made me think - if you propose that the degree of advertising in our society is unsustainable and harmful (not a difficult proposal to support), then a whole lot more creative industry enters the space of being economically unnatural, despite clearly being “humanly” natural! i.e. the argument that the sustenance of market economies for creative work is a harmful mismatch of can also be extended to all those industries.
p.49, excellent point - so much of leftist thought (including mine by and large) is focused on access to and distribution of wealth and prosperity, but perhaps this is still tacitly endorsing the underlying conceptions of the ‘good life’ that have got us in this mess. In this sense, perhaps we aren’t challenging the orthodoxy of capital radically enough
ditto, look into William Morris and Edward Carpenter
p.50, what was/is the Next System in the US?