New article online: Choice and capitalism: A lesson from ecological marxism
A sign from Occupy Frankfurt. Credit: EnvironmentBlog, http://www.flickr.com/photos/environmentblog/7286501352/
The focus of most environmental and social activism today is on lifestyle; the choices we as individual consumers make. This focus is wrong according to Michael Bueckert, who argues that we should instead target the constraints of capitalism with our resistance, as these are the pillars that support the current economic paradigm.
Bueckert offers three imperatives of capitalism; produce or die, infinite growth and competition. These three things are integral to capitalism; by resisting these we can begin to change the world economic system. To be more effective, we must realize that capitalism itself is the problem, and we must exercise political agency beyond the realm of consumer choice, pushing for systemic change at the levels of policy, taxes and law.
Sorry, comments are closed.