I like the term « economy for life » but it could face the same issue as wellbeing economics and other positive terms because these terms can easily be coopted by capitalism. The advantage of degrowth is that capitalism cannot use the term so it will stay an anti-capitalist theory.
I also find it weird that « fully automated luxury communism » is mixed up in the list of alternatives to capitalism as it is clearly a delusional theory. It is actually at the root of technosolutionism and accelerationist theories which are then the basis for green growth. What I mean is that selling an mythical fully automated luxury communism is used by capitalism to subvert the mind of anti-capitalist activists who would then be ok to accept the development of IA, automated cars and other technosolutionist non-sense (because they would wrongly believe that these technologies can be used for wellbeing without realising that the minority controlling these techs are actually in power).
In 350 BCE (or thereabouts) Aristotle wrote "without conscience to govern his appetite, Man is the most savage of the animals". Our unwillingness or inability to control our appetites--for material possessions, power, and life itself-- is what has caused the current polycrisis . Our species is behaving towards Earth like a cancer behaves in a body, and like a cancer we will destroy ourselves along with the rest of life unless we accept that. We keep finding ways to grow and consume, overcoming all the limits that keep other species in balance. But cancers do sometimes go into spontaneous remission and that is what I am hoping for.
I like the term « economy for life » but it could face the same issue as wellbeing economics and other positive terms because these terms can easily be coopted by capitalism. The advantage of degrowth is that capitalism cannot use the term so it will stay an anti-capitalist theory.
I also find it weird that « fully automated luxury communism » is mixed up in the list of alternatives to capitalism as it is clearly a delusional theory. It is actually at the root of technosolutionism and accelerationist theories which are then the basis for green growth. What I mean is that selling an mythical fully automated luxury communism is used by capitalism to subvert the mind of anti-capitalist activists who would then be ok to accept the development of IA, automated cars and other technosolutionist non-sense (because they would wrongly believe that these technologies can be used for wellbeing without realising that the minority controlling these techs are actually in power).
Fully agree! Economy for Life is actually degrowth, just in different words.
In 350 BCE (or thereabouts) Aristotle wrote "without conscience to govern his appetite, Man is the most savage of the animals". Our unwillingness or inability to control our appetites--for material possessions, power, and life itself-- is what has caused the current polycrisis . Our species is behaving towards Earth like a cancer behaves in a body, and like a cancer we will destroy ourselves along with the rest of life unless we accept that. We keep finding ways to grow and consume, overcoming all the limits that keep other species in balance. But cancers do sometimes go into spontaneous remission and that is what I am hoping for.