More emergency brake

[Tom Walker]

‘A new way of life’: the Marxist, post-capitalist, green manifesto captivating Japan
Kohei Saito’s book Capital in the Anthropocene has become an unlikely hit among young people and is about to be translated into English
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/09/a-new-way-of-life-the-marxist-post-capitalist-green-manifesto-captivating-japan

As I have mentioned before, the metaphor of the emergency brake has become somewhat of a cliche. It referred originally to the "revolutionary general strike," which today seems about as imminent as the second coming, perhaps less so. In my view, it doesn't have to be that way. 

The concept of the general strike in the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth was modeled on the "turn out" in rapidly industrializing Britain. Workers in the 1842 "Plug Plot Riots" could literally activate the emergency brake on production by removing the plugs from steam engine boilers. 

We no longer live in a world where industrial workers can shut down production. We no longer live in a world where labour defines production and production defines the economy. 

Redefining the revolutionary general strike for the twenty-first century requires coming to terms with the role that superfluous consumption plays in the contemporary economy. Kenneth Burke's 1930 satire, "Waste -- the future of prosperity" has long ceased to be hyperbole. Superfluous consumption is now the "locomotive of history." Wasteful consumption is not a "choice" that rational actor Homo economicus makes; it is the compulsory default hamster wheel that is extremely difficult to opt out of.

Difficult but not impossible.

Cheers,

Tom Walker (Sandwichman)

[Ashley Colby]

An adjacent book about Japanese culture -- and the potential for a revival of traditional, craft culture -- is Neurotic Beauty by Morris Berman.

https://www.amazon.com/Neurotic-Beauty-Outsider-Looks-Japan/dp/1621342190

Ashley Colby Fitzgerald

ash...@rizomafieldschool.com

PhD, Environmental Sociology

Executive Director Rizoma Foundation, Loconomy Project

Co-founder Rizoma Field School

My book: Subsistence Agriculture in the US

Twitter @RizomaSchool @RizomaFound @LoconomyNow

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[Tom Abeles]

Saito's book in Japan, Capitalism and the Anthropocene will, apparently, be issued in English as Marx in the Anthropocene. Capital in the Anthropocene is the recent publication of John Bellamy Foster

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[Philip Vergragt]

Hi Tom, this book seems to be very interesting for us. Any idea what made it so successful? We have been trying to communicate these ideas for years. Did you read the Japanese version or just book reviews?

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From: sco...@googlegroups.com <sco...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Tom Abeles <tab...@gmail.com>
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Subject: Re: [SCORAI] More emergency brake

 

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[Tom Walker]

Hi Philip,

No, I haven't read the book. I can't say what made it popular. Perhaps the time is ripe?

Cheers,

Tom Walker (Sandwichman)

[Ashwani Vasishth]

Took me a false start to find this, so presuming to share it here:

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     Ashwani
        Vasishth         vasi...@ramapo.edu          (201) 684-6616 (Jabber-enabled)
                   http://phobos.ramapo.edu/~vasishth
          --------------------------------------------------------
                      Professor of Sustainability
                  Convener, Sustainability Program (BA)
              Convenor, Environmental Studies Program (BA)
                    Director, Center for Sustainability
                      http://ramapo.edu/ramapo-green
                     http://ramapo.edu/sustainability

You can ALWAYS set up an Appointment with me, without negotiation, seven days a week,
              at: https://calendly.com/vasishth/webex-meeting

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              505 Ramapo Valley Road, SSHS, Mahwah, NJ 07430
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I respectfully acknowledge that Ramapo College is located on the ancestral and traditional Indigenous territory of the Ramapough Lenape Nation.

Capital in the Anthropocene

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[Tom Walker]

Thanks for finding this review, Ashwani!

Cutting right to the chase:

The novelty of the book, according to Saito himself, is its argument that Marx’s ‘final destination’ as a thinker was not just eco-socialism, but the more radical position of ‘degrowth communism’. Saito does not mince his words when explaining the novelty of this reinterpretation.

...

Unfortunately, this is where the book’s main weakness appears. The evidence that Saito presents for Marx’s alleged adoption of degrowth communism is simply not very convincing.

 

Saito almost exclusively bases his claim about Marx’s conversion to a degrowth philosophy on two sources, or rather, a few passages in two sources: Marx’s letter exchange in 1881 with Russian revolutionary writer Vera Zasulich and Critique of the Gotha Programme, which Marx wrote in 1875 but was published posthumously by Engels in 1891.

Not having read the book, the problem I see is that Marx's late position is more consistent with his earlier position in the Grundrisse. Capital was the outlier. I have left a longer comment elaborating on this argument on the site of the review.

Cheers,

Tom Walker (Sandwichman)

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