Reply To: Slow Down by Kohei Saito

  • Anand Pandian

    Organizer
    March 28, 2024 at 4:39 am

    A great discussion about the book: the concept of an imperial mode of living, Saito’s critique of Marx and his critique of contemporary constructions of the future, as well as the strategies of collective organizing he suggests as pathways toward a viable degrowth communism. We talked about the stagnation of capitalist economies around the world, slowing down as a phenomenon already underway, about the limits of both productivism and a kind of Promethean modernism, and about tensions and impasses between individual and collective self-understanding. Lastly, we talked about failures in contemporary imagination and the need to shift the parameters of reality to think beyond capitalism, which is related directly to our hopes with the EDC of working together to recuperate other futures, lean into practices of materially remaking the world, and working with cities and localities as arenas of engagement. I may continue to share more thoughts here; please feel free to join in…