Practical remarks about degrowth

Lasse Nordlund, Finland in one of the posters shared following in a gallery during 2nd Conference on Economic Degrowth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity, Barcelona 26-29 March 2010.


The fundamental block to social change is not our lack of knowledge about global problems.

Unfortunately, a return to rural based existence and primary production is equated with impoverished lifestyle.

A change to the society also necessitates changes to our social standing within it. Most of us resist change until the very end out of the fear we will loose our place in the social hierarchy.

People in acknowledged positions of power will want to ensure their positions in the midst of any potential social upheaval. Such individuals tend to prefer to oversee others whom they expect to do the "dirty work" of social change.

We should not distinguish between "Handworkers" and "Headworkers". Self-sufficiency is an intellectual challenge also for the headworker.

Current systems of government have gone through a political "Evolution" over hundreds of years. They are optimized to efficiently control large populations of individuals. If this were not the case, these governments would have collapsed long ago.

The belief, that fundamental systemic change is possible within already - existent political channels ensures the dominants society's continuity - regardless of the specific individuals involved.

Job and career specialization are not necessarily related to increased productivity. A division of labour instead ensures a complete dependence between individuals, which disallows them to leave contemporary society.

Let us examine our assumptions of political processes. We must allow for the possibility that what we believe is resistance to injustice is in fact a disastrous support to it.

If you pay taxes and redirect your personal resources back toward the system, it really doesn't matter what you are thinking.

Creating independence from social services, trade and food supply will reliably minimize our contribution to an exploitative system.

Rediscovering the simple life is not so difficult. Learning back to the roots demands less efforts than learning skills for life in an abstract society.

YOU DON'T NEED TO BE RAMBO TO GET STARTED!