A casual capitalism chat
A quick bit of context here. I am currently in my last year of university doing a social science/environment degree
I am anti-capitalist so of course there will be some bias here. I am aware of the difficulty of imagining a world without capitalism and that a world like that may not be as comfortable as it currently is. That last bit is debatable but anyway. So on a whatsapp chat I have found myself debating the fact that techno-optimism is not necessarily the way forward when considering how to mitigate climate change.
My argument in this case is that we can develop sustainable tech all we want, but who is the overall winner? As good as sustainable tech is the constant need to keep developing does at some point play into capitalism's need for constant growth. As the name of the blog suggests I am no professional but surely we have most of the technology already. Project drawdown being a good example.
I recommend a social development away from capitalism. The usual argument to this is that communism didn't work in Russia so that's that door closed then.This is an idea promoted by capitalists to stop us dreaming or contemplating another world. It astounds me that people fall into this trap because if you were to critically look at capitalism it is currently not working anywhere. Sure you may live a fairly comfortable life now but you are still at the mercy of capitalist policies. This is also not taking into account the price of that comfort being paid by those far less fortunate than you or I.
This isn't to say that we should all adopt communism or socialism or for that matter anarchism. All I'm trying to point out is that we should be looking for ways to better our world so that everyone can benefit from it. My usual answer to people who can't envision a different world is to point to the zapatistas of Chiapas. It's not a perfect system and i'm sure there are people there who have issues with certain policies but at the end of the day it proves you can move away from capitalism. I think people need to be free to dream of better ways of living. Kill the capitalist in your head and dare to think outside the box.
I don't know if anyone will read this but I hope it helps somebody or if not then thats ok. It's just nice to put thoughts to words.