Re: [OPE] Anitra Nelson, "Fictitious Capital and Real Compacts"

I'm very frightened by Anitra's vision of the future. It doesn't seem to
 me to be a progressive vision.

"In a compact society our everyday practices will be modest and
effective, minimising resource and energy use to meet simple and basic
needs."

My needs, and most others, are neither simple or basic. And in the
future I'd like everyone's needs to become more numerous, complex and
developed.

"Some people would need to resettle according to the natural
opportunities and limits of local and regional environments. Even so,
place-based living would allow for mobility outside local groups,
especially for members with skills and knowledge to share. Non-monetary
exchange has always relied on customary rights and responsibilities with
local and personal variations associated with social and environmental
circumstances and developments. Non-monetary exchange will involve
compacts and networks that allow groups to have access to basic needs
and wants from outside the local area when necessary."

Now I can't freely move! Or I may need to enter a long deliberative
process in order to arrive at a "compact" that "would allow for mobility
outside local groups".

Count me out.

"Sustainability requires the end of the market, production for trade,
and trade. Instead, we must care for the earth, care for people, and
share the surplus."

It worries me that "the earth" comes before "people" in this list. The
earth should not be cared for, it should be mastered. That mastery
includes of course, making it a habitable place in perpetuity. The
environment is an object, not a subject.

_______________________________________________
ope mailing list
ope@lists.csuchico.edu
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/ope
Received on Wed Oct 15 16:23:30 2008