By Bernard Harcourt (Reviewed by Bernard Marszalek)
It occurs occasionally that someone outside of a problem will have an insight that escaped those who are focused on finding a solution. This phenomenon has achieved the unenviable status of a phenomenon that can be commoditized by the Consultancy Industry, even if the insights produced for the fee fail.
The Center for Global Development (CGD), a think tank with former US Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence Summers as head of their Board of Directors, announced that “we may have reached Peak Progress.” The CGD believes that a declining population coupled with “diminishing returns .
One summer during my youth I was hired to work the assembly line at a television manufacturer. This was in the days when America had a manufacturing base and actually produced consumer goods.
A new industrial policy when we need a de-industrial policy
The most popular poster for the Green New Deal reveals startling assumptions.
Looking at it as a whole, ignoring the details for now, the poster exhibits a sense of movement. The train is the focal point and duplicates similar depiction of trains, for example, in vintage French posters.
In Search for a Better Life
There is a widely held assumption about the economy: it must keep expanding or we are in trouble. When questioned those holding this view are less assured that growth can go on indefinitely. So, while continued growth of the economy amounts to “common sense” for many, there is considerable hesitancy to believe this without qualifications.
Last year, a compilation of degrowth perspectives appeared in the form of a modest encyclopedia of sorts, titled Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era. The short essays in this book define a number of degrowth-related terms, some easily recognized as universal concepts familiar to activists across the world, like the commons, environmental justice, and peak-oil, and others that may puzzle: conviviality, anti-utilitarianism, and post-normal science.
“No modern solutions to modern problems” – B dS Santos
Hardly a week goes by without another dire warning about climate change. Whether the alarm comes from a university, an animal protection outfit, a human rights NGO or an intrepid TV journalist warily broadcasting in the front of a melting iceberg, their message of impending catastrophe hardly registers amongst the other debilitating news of terrorist bombings and police violence.