Degrowth Revisited
- 5 min read
Recuperation redux
I recently discovered John The Duncan’s videos on Youtube, and I think it’s really good, sincere stuff. I watched his one about degrowth, and I need to read the background material. I’d also recommend the one about Left Wing White Supremacy which I think a lot of people would benefit from watching. I’m going to call him JD for the rest of this article because it’s what he puts on his videos.
When I shared the white supremacy one I got push back from a comrade because he’d done the degrowth one too and god forbid we might learn something from someone we might disagree with over other issues. The word degrowth seems to wind people up a bit, and I was against the concept too originally. Greta Thunberg has used it, amongst other Green luminaries, and it’s caused a lot of frothing at the mouth from reactionary sources because it challenges the prevailing capitalism’s desperate need for growth at any cost.
JD explains that degrowth as posited by the people who came up with the idea requires the destruction of capitalist relations. The straw man that assumes it’s tried under existing conditions is of course silly and unworkable. I got the response In order to achieve socialism we must create abundance.
