{"id":46662,"date":"2019-06-15T17:27:14","date_gmt":"2019-06-15T22:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=46662"},"modified":"2019-06-15T17:27:18","modified_gmt":"2019-06-15T22:27:18","slug":"how-much-will-the-us-way-of-life-have-to-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=46662","title":{"rendered":"How much will the US Way of Life \u00a9 have to change?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"http:\/\/unevenearth.org\/2019\/06\/how-much-will-the-us-way-of-life-have-to-change\/\">How much will the US Way of Life \u00a9 have to change?<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>On the future of farming, socialist science, and utopia<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/unevenearth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/blueberries-painting-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3003\"\/><figcaption>Image:&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/kscart.com\/\">Karla S. Chambers<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Debates about the Green New Deal\u2014Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s version and occasionally radical varieties such as that of the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gp.org\/green_new_deal\">US Green Party<\/a>\u2014have incited much discussion about paths to utopia. Central to these conversations is the labour question: who will do the work of making the world, and how will that work be apportioned? And how much will the US Way of Life \u00a9 have to change?<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ecologically-minded socialists and degrowthers tend to point out that cheap energy and excess material use are built into the socio-technical structures of capitalism. Getting rid of capitalism requires replacing capitalist technology. We must build, literally, a new world, which may require more labour and much lighter consumption patterns in the core, especially among the wealthy. Eco-socialists also tend to be more attentive to agriculture\u2019s role in development in the periphery and core.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Eco-modernists tend, instead, to focus on eliminating exploitation while maintaining as much as possible of the physical infrastructure and patterns of consumption of capitalism. They imagine machines that will take the place of the current ecologically destructive physical plant, including in the countryside\u2014prototype AI bots to supplant fruit pickers, or non-existent carbon-dioxide-sucking machines in place of restorative agriculture, a proven method of sequestering atmospheric carbon. Very frequently, they imagine a totally post-work world, creating the conditions for a new utopia:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.versobooks.com\/books\/2757-fully-automated-luxury-communism\"><em>Fully Automated Luxury Communism<\/em><\/a>. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those who hold the latter position often forget that the current distribution of labour is the fruit of a very specific historical moment, marked not merely by a temporary cheapness of energy\u2014and tell Bangladesh, the Seychelles, or your grandchildren that petroleum is cheap\u2014but specific sectoral allocations of labour in farming, industry, and services in the core states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How much will the US Way of Life \u00a9 have to change? On the future of farming, socialist science, and utopia Debates about the Green New Deal\u2014Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s version and occasionally radical varieties such as that of the&nbsp;US Green Party\u2014have incited much discussion about paths to utopia. Central to these conversations is the labour question: who [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,7],"tags":[203,234,299,26058,11323,26057],"class_list":["post-46662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","category-survival-2","tag-degrowth","tag-ecology","tag-farming","tag-socialist-science","tag-uneven-earth","tag-way-of-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46662"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46664,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46662\/revisions\/46664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}