Degrowth and flourishing, or stay the same and perish along or stay the way

If we truly desire a dignified and thriving future for generations to come, we have no choice but to degrow by decisively eliminating our consumerist culture

 

Álvaro J. de Regil

So far this century, in a sector already fully aware of the planetary crisis, ordinary citizens have been called upon with increasing frequency to reduce their consumption urgently. We call for cutting fossil fuel consumption, abandoning them and replacing them with renewable energies, eliminating our consumerist habits, caring for nature, our entire planet, Gaia. However, we have not managed to transcend the citizen's maginary to become aware that either we cut our consumption or we will face an enormous existential risk. This is because capital has systematically prevented this, alienating us from our essence. This not only alienates us in our work and social relationships, from our sense of identity with the community to which we belong and with nature, of which our species is a part, but also prevents us from talking about the impact of the capitalist system on our planet, our home. Indeed, capitalism alienates us from our essence, harassing societies daily with its Promethean discourse that everything can be achieved through technology, that happiness lies in having—not in being—and that we must therefore strive to possess and consume.

The fact is that the vast majority of studies published by the scientific community have consistently sounded the alarm throughout this century, warning that unless we urgently change the unsustainable course we are currently on under capitalism, we will face planetary catastrophes not only from climate change, the most visible of these, but from eight other essential planetary processes that provide the conditions necessary for life to flourish and be sustained. If we fail to do so, as early as 2040, we will face multiple catastrophes that will cause perhaps millions, if not billions, of human deaths in the decades that follow. Likewise, we are well on the way to bringing about the sixth mass extinction of species and the probable extinction of life on the planet, as known to those who survive. This constitutes the collapse of civilisation and an enormous existential risk. A collapse which, ironically, is being brought about directly by the very civilisation that is so often touted—preeminently Western civilisation—because of its capitalist, warmongering, colonialist, and racist nature, the emblem of which is undoubtedly the United States. 

This essay is based on the geocratic paradigm I have been developing since 2020, which proposes reorganising ourselves to take care of our planet. To take care of us, it is necessary to put the planet's needs before our own. The latest version of Geocratia can be found here.

This essay focuses on demonstrating that it is perfectly possible to reverse the dystopian trajectory we are on, and that this is done by applying market logic through the exercise of our power of consumption. First, it is argued that it is clearly possible to greatly reduce our planet's response to the crisis the capitalocene has brought it into, after having enjoyed the equilibrium it maintained throughout the Holocene. This is achieved by changing our way of life, through a cultural shift, by decreasing our consumption of resources to styles that allow us to fully enjoy life while taking care of the planet, staying within the planetary boundaries necessary for its stability, and living much better by consuming less of everything. In Geocratia, degrowth is a consequence of cultural change and not a model or an end in itself. The end is to save ourselves by saving our planet by replacing capitalism. Second, there is a clear way to convince the majority needed to materialise such a change, by replacing the dystopian trajectory we are unconsciously following through the subterfuge of the culture of consumerism. This happens by following market logic, adopting a new culture of sustainable consumption aimed at satisfying our real and universal needs, and discarding everything the market instils in us about what we must consume, even if it is absolutely unnecessary and harmful to people and the planet. Indeed, market logic is the only one that significantly influences government decision-making, because by adopting the new geocratic consumer culture, the blow to the system is direct, forcing governments to change the bulk of their economic, social and environmental policies for the benefit of people and planet and to the detriment of capital. Moreover, regardless of the pace at which governments replace their policies, people and the planet will benefit from the fall in consumption. Finally, applying market logic, it also opens the door to organising ourselves in rural and urban geocratic communities under different forms of social organisation (nation, province, municipality, city, community, village...), beyond the increasingly obsolete concept of the nation-state


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