I'm fairly convinced that the status quo can do nothing to prevent the collapse of complex industrial society. Obviously it's a complicated topic, but if you assume the position that by 2030 there will be dramatic, uncontrollable warming of the planet (and all of the side effects that will bring), what is to be done to prevent that?
As a guy with a decent work-from-home kind of job (for now) and enough resources to be comfortable, it's been incredibly tempting during quarantine to think about building a house off the grid, finding a stable source of drinking water, and building a sustainable farming homestead in rural America. 2020 has demonstrated that things don't always just work out. I'm worried about the precarious material conditions that pervade contemporary urban culture (at least from the perspective of sustainability if food/water/power systems are interrupted). And I know I could develop the skills I need to live like that.
But obviously, something can be done to prevent a collapse. We could work together to ensure the stability of urban environments, and produce all of the energy and matetials we need here, locally. We could put everyone to work with this goal in mind. We could build a better world collectively.
But how? How do I find a group of people to work with? How do I convince the liberals who just shrug and say, man, isn't it just terrible that trump is in charge? How do I find anyone who's thinking about this shit, and realizes that actually yes, this can all fall apart. Things are not as stable as they seem. Climate change is literally the only issue that matters in any time frame beyond 10 years.
What is next? What is there to do?
I agree we need to burn the system down. But, until we do, the system will keep sourcing the bodies it needs from wherever it can, making individualist efforst at depopulating developed countries futile. Developed countries have all had declining birth:death rate ratios for years and years, but they keep their population growing through immigration. Because that’s what the system needs.
It’s not about ‘developed nation people’, it’s about ‘developed nations’. You can’t stop it by not reproducing, you have to dismantle it.
And how do you dismantle it? By winning the class war. Not having children does nothing, because capitalism ‘promotes’ immigrants to counteract that. Again, it’s already been happening for decades.
But not having children does weaken us. We need to build left power to dismantle the system. We need to win the class war and, unfortunately, children learn their politics largely from their parents.
So to me, not having children has a negligible material impact. You either dismantle the system or you don’t. And you know what doesn’t help us dismantle the system?
Having the average leftist have 0.5 children while the average chud has 3-5.
It’s gross and weird to think about. And I think you’re rad and cool and based! (And also have a dope username) But, I just totally disagree with you about this haha. Oh well! :P
There's plenty of orphans and foster kids to adopt and teach Marxism to. Until the revolution, the average first-world lifestlye that you'd be multiplying by reproducing is not going to become any less carbon-intensive, and frankly, given the generally productivist attitudes on the left, I'm not all that confident that it'll become any less carbon-intensive after the revolution.
We agree, definitely, that the left is faaar more productivist than it should be. And also that adoption > procreation any day .
But if there isn't an ecological liberation element to the revolution, it is not my revolution :red-fist: