Written by
Sebastian Livingston and first published at The Socialist
This article
is intended to be an introduction to an ecosocialist approach to production and
consumption. What we have today is a hegemonic obsession with mass production
that is catastrophic to the evolutionary processes which allow the biosphere to
uphold life as we know it. Capitalist modes of production based upon endless
economic expansion and mass consumption disrupt the equilibrium of ecosystems
by reshaping the metabolism of nature which regulates earth systems. Within
this article I will discuss some issues that I see as problematic in achieving
an ecological society and address possible solutions. This is not intended to
provide a critique of consumers, my aim is to develop an assault on the
hegemonic creation of consumer culture and its devastating impact in
maintaining the status quo. This is not an outline for revolution, it is merely
my attempt to put forth issues as I see them and contribute to the discussion
about the construction of consumer culture as a barrier to achieving social
transformation.
“Once upon a
time the working class had nothing to lose but its chains; but now it has been
absorbed within capitalism, is a prisoner of consumerism, and its articles of
consumption own and consume it.” –
Michael A. Lebowitz
We have the
productive means to fulfil our material needs and to liberate ourselves from
alienated labor. However this idea is incompatible with capital which does not
aim to address real human needs beyond what is required to reproduce itself.
Rather capitalism is contingent upon the realization of wealth accumulation, an
endless expansion that is based upon the production and consumption of
alienated products. This mass production is a fundamental problem that
restricts our ability to create an ecological society by being the unshakable
cause of most of the environmental problems we face today.
In order to
mobilize and attack expansive production, consumer culture must be attacked.
This entails attacking the hegemonic institutions that spread consumerism,
develop our identification with material goods, and enforce the association
between goods and freedom. Capitalist forces expend great resources to ensure
that we are socialized to identify ourselves with what we consume far more than
with what and how we produce which creates a barrier between us and critical
revolution. In fact, Americans are subjected to over 20 times the global
average of targeted advertisements. We are made to identify so strongly with
commodities that a rejection of capitalism will equate to a rejection of self
and require a redefinition of freedom that will demand a revolution that stems
beyond the workplace. Within advanced capitalism consumer culture serves as a
counter-revolutionary safeguard, a sedative. And as we come to identify with
the products of our alienated labor rather than realize our alienation within
the process of production we sink deeper into the veins of capital, becoming
the reproductive organs of the beast.
The working
class as a revolutionary subject is the force by which the world will be
changed. However, change will only happen if the will to do so exists. The
American social contract, which states that what we can achieve given our
rights as free and equal people to ascend the social economic ladder with no barriers
but our own determination, is a pacifier based upon dishonest assumptions. It
enables the institutionalized ignorance of systemic oppression, inequality, and
environmental exploitation while generating the individualism needed to ignore
the roots of the problem. We need to change the course of the struggle away
from a struggle for upward mobility, which is at the heart of the capitalist
conflict, to one of economic sufficiency and cultural sustainability.
A struggle
for upward mobility is a conservative struggle. It will aim to reform until
reforms have returned the working class to a state of equilibrium within
capitalist society or one of equally distressing productivism. The world cannot
survive our economic system. We have an environmental crisis that requires
complete recognition however such recognition will require a cultural
revolution, one that rejects the products of alienated labor. In order to
survive, capital must expand therefore it must synthesize needs and implement
planned obsolescence in order to produce and maintain a market for its growth.
A systematic manufacture of discontent places commodities as an affordable
means of social achievement therefore contentment by upholding an understanding
that has elevated capitalism to a position synonymous with freedom by the mere
fact that it provisions the goods. This paves the way for a consumer culture
that is impervious to systematic change.
Commodity
accumulation leads people to not only identify with the means of destruction
but it also paralyzes their ability to mobilize action against the ecological
crisis. The resistance to capital must be built in communities most affected by
modes of exploitation, those closest to the realization of capitals limits of
sufficiency. Poor communities and communities of color are an ecosocialist
revolutionary force and the movement must take root in these areas. We must aim
to disintegrate links in the chain of capital reproduction by building
community sovereignty which will enable the active thinking required to
liberate humanity from our impoverished condition. We must acknowledge the
multi-faceted struggle for ecosocialism as one encompassing the total
impoverishment of humanity which entails not only the patriarchal plundering of
earth’s environment but also the systemic theft of our self-governing,
self-realizing, debt free value.
It is widely
recognized that the profit motivated consumer fueled industrial waste and
pollution is a broad and time sensitive issue which must be addressed to
prevent absolute ecological catastrophe. However, capital cannot provide a fix
without dissolving itself. The climate issue is in a stage of terra incognito
so the global environmental crisis will be positioned to fall onto the
consumers and a new “green” market will conjure the illusion of ethical mass
consumption and market growth (see Jevon’s Paradox). Consumer culture
identifies the free market with freedom in general which is a landmark of
success for a system that must perpetuate itself through alienated production
and identification with the products of alienated labor in order to avoid
overthrow. In light of the urgency of our current ecological situation there is
no alternative route to developing an ecosocialist bloc and dismantling
advanced capitalism that does not entail the targeted dismantling of social
identity with consumer goods. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism.
The continued
existence of the biosphere as we know it depends upon the reduction of the
human industrial impact. This stands in contrast to capital’s need to portray
the false idea that human needs are unlimited and that the earth and its
natural limits are capable of accommodating such an absurd reality. It is
implanted into the growth strategy to enforce such a notion, for once actual
needs are fulfilled the market will stop growing so the system must manufacture
discontent to raise demand. This demand situates society in a state of
derangement which merges desires and needs while denying that consumption is
culturally manufactured and that our culture is the stimulus for environmental
instability.
In order to
liberate mankind and do so in a way that enables a cultural symbiosis with
nature we must seek a social model that distances itself from accumulation.
This entails establishing the preexisting condition for revolution which is a
class based insurrection against mass self-recognition in commodities. The
ability to disdain capital commodities will enable the induction into common
knowledge the absolute limits of capital production. We must reinvent a human
identity that is aligned with our place in nature as actors within an
ecosystem. This in practice is counter hegemonic against the conservative
forces surrounding capital exploitation of nature. We must see the impact of our
consumption in disrupting the metabolism of nature, but we must recognize it as
systemic and not limited to individual lifestyle politics. We must see the
reality behind our identity with these alien products as a defining attribute
of capitalism’s incompatible relationship with the natural world and its
alienating impact on human consciousness. We must recognize consumer culture as
a coercive socializing agent of capital not simply a lifestyle choice made
between masses of individuals.
Ecological
society is made possible by limiting production to fulfill actual needs and to
do so by means of maximizing use value. This will eliminate profit by
redistributing surplus time back into society by means of reduced working hours
and allocating surplus towards human and ecological development. A true
cultural revolution will entail human efforts being aimed toward human
liberation and ecological harmony. In order to achieve this the dominant social
value system must be replace with one not dependent upon material haves and
have-nots. We can no longer define the pinnacle of achievement as the output
capacity of our civilization and a person’s ability to obtain a suite of
commodities in a private wealth generating system. A new understanding of
surplus will be developed to recognize the creative output of humankind as a
common heritage made possible through historical efforts and the reshaping of
natural environments, raising a new understanding of ourselves in nature
history.
The obsession
with production has generated circumstances which require an active assault on
our cultural understanding of productivity. Productivism must be understood as
an enemy to ecological and social balance. A new society will not arise like a
phoenix from fire and ashes it will be built on the foundations of history
which is entwined with social injustice, oppression, exploitation, and
environmentally destructive forces. In building a socialist society we will be
forced to deal with the inevitable cultural reproduction of capitalist ideals
and do so in part by abolishing the emphasis on productivism. The socialist
world view that maintains a possessive relationship between humanity and nature
will be condemned to the same toxic existence as its capitalist predecessor.
In the
construction of a new world there must exist the preconditions to harness the
new order. A transformation from our current alienated world will not be
carried out by a seizure of the means of production alone but must entail a
seizure of our identity from the clench of alienated goods. The contentment
with this capitalist arrangement of society will last until problems arise that
cannot be diverted by means of it, such as the crossing of planetary boundaries
and the global displacement of entire populations, an approaching inevitability
of our economic model. A revolutionary condition is looming and a force beyond
our timeless socioeconomic conflict is a driving element. Natural contingencies
will arise which will push aside humankind’s ability to negate systemic collapse.
The readiness to adapt to and seize the state of nature and the state apparatus
may not be present in the common stock of knowledge. The revolution may be
ready for us, but we may not be ready for the revolution.
Ecosocialist Participatory Economy
Ecosocialist
economies are not contingent upon growth, they are oriented toward the
development of human potential which means that they do not aim towards
commodity production as an end but as a limited means towards the fulfillment
of human needs. Contrary to capital’s logic human needs are not unlimited so as
to develop an entire economic system around that premise is counter intuitive
in its limited potential for human enrichment and its paradoxical existence in
a world of finite resources. In ecosocialist society economic value will be
transformed, prioritizing use value. Whereas in capitalist society economic
exchange value dominates all forms of social worth, placing all other
achievement in subordination to it.
Ecosocialism
focuses on use value as the aim of productive output but use value is not the
lens through which we view nature. Capitalism’s utilitarian view of nature is
divisive, it limits our ability to identify ourselves within the natural world.
This is a cause behind capital’s inability to see limits to expansive
production. The logic behind capital production creates barriers where
boundaries should be, making obstacles out of natural limits. It is not an
issue of fossil fuels alone which deem our consumption immoral, for once
achieved, a renewable energy structure will not erase the exploitative
productive systems that capital relies upon. A clean energy source does not
prevent the exploitation of nature and people for profit. It is only with the
full self-determining power of workers to control their own destiny that we can
produce an ecological economy.
The
democratization of our entire society is essential in establishing an
ecological order that is able to see the abolition of inequality and exploitation.
Democracy must be established to a degree in which it allows people to truly
control their own heritage. What is a common heritage of society such as the
products of labor exist within a social commons therefore must be
democratically regulated and distributed. People not profit must decide what is
produced and what is consumed while taking into account the impact it will have
on ecosystems and workers alike.
The
environment is to be considered more than a source of raw materials and by what
it generates to accommodate for human life alone. Our economy exists within the
biosphere as a social ecosystem, a subcategory that is a part of a
self-regulating earth system in which we as organisms alter at great expense to
the harmonious flow of life. It is imperative that nature be protected from
privatization by enacting democratic laws surrounding the regulation and
preservation of environments from human exploitation. With our knowledge of
environmental science we can reduce our impact and protect nature and the
people who are most vulnerable to environmental instability.
In a
democratic economy decisions must be weighed and votes balanced according to
the degree in which the measure would affect the voter. Those most impacted
will have more say. Worker, producer, and consumer councils are an organization
structure that will accommodate for the diverse needs of each system while
enabling the preservation of unique ecological limitations per region. A social
opportunity cost will be considered in the process of what is produced in
relation to its environmental and social exploitative relationship. This is a
system in which a true social accountability is accepted and social production
becomes normative. Privatization is criminal in a system such as this for it
immediately reduces the democratic integrity that a social society operates on.
Major sources
of inequality and power such as inheritance must be rejected in this system as
it gives disproportionate social influence to people least affected, the deceased,
which is then sequestered away from society and funneled into the hands of the
few which leads to disparate power structures. Corporate decisions alike would
be seen as anti-social however the democratization and worker ownership of the
workplace can help eliminate this problem. It is necessary to state however
that worker ownership of the enterprise will be a vital element of social
society it is not a sure-fire way to ensure the integrity of our biosphere is
maintained. The bureaucratic development of social means of production can
easily assume the same exploitative characteristics of a capital enterprise and
it has in the past. Therefore a circulating responsibility structure should be
implemented as well as an establishment of democratic council powers and social
vetoes to ensure that what is produced is regulated according to the standards
of the environmental treaties.
The world
will experience a lifestyle shift that will enable a new standard of economic
equality to become institutionalized. We will need to decide what people need
to live a good life with health and opportunity. Necessities such as access to
water, food, shelter, clothing, transportation, communication, education,
health care, sanitation, culture, the pursuit of personal development must
exist in the new social contract as a standard guaranteed to all. For most of
the world’s population the conditions of life will be vastly improved, while
the minority wealthy classes will experience a neutralizing shift from
excessive consumption to sustainable socially conscious living. We must ensure
the elevation of impoverished people to an equal global standard while not
barring their ability to achieve self-reliance.
In a society
not bound by the limitations of economic growth, resources such as labor will
be freed up to provide for the continual progress of our human legacy. The
divestment of human capital from profit and power-driven maintenance of
consumer lifestyles will enable a social investment into more culturally
enriching productivity. An ecosocialist economy is based upon evolution not
expansion and when advancements in productivity sufficiently fuel society we
will have achieved surplus time for all.
Environmental
consciousness must be emitted into the common procedure of production in that
what is taken and produced must be quantified not only by its human value but
by the implications such maneuvers will have on the socio-ecological world. As
producers within nature we have an obligation to not only sustain our
environment but also improve it. As an eco-conscious society we must strive to
enhance our relationship with nature by inventing an economy that produces more
than neutral but positive environmental results. This will be achievable with a
new productive philosophy and through a new division of labor as humans are
liberated from hours spent supplying synthesized needs. Resources then can be
redirected towards creative pursuits, science, engineering, and socioecological
development motivated by ecological sustainability and social accountability,
not economic profitability.
There is no
question that capitalism is a self-serving system that has no place in an
ecological social organization. The disasters it creates with its monstrous
growth principles devour the earth as well as the minds and bodies of all who
exist here. We must seek to build a resistance to this oppressive and
exploitative system by focusing our efforts away from reform which only
strengthens the system. We must establish community sovereignty to allow pre socialist
conditions to exist in the hearts and minds of those who are most threatened by
capitalist exploitation. The understanding of ourselves as social beings must
extend its association to reconnect our society to nature and to do so by
liberating ourselves from the shackles of consumer culture.
Notes
“The
Socialist Imperative” by Michael A. Lebowitz
“Creating an
Ecological Society” by Fred Magdoff and Chris Williams
“Parecon:
Life After Capitalism” by Michael Albert
“Consumer
Culture & Modernity” by Don Slater
