“The present crisis should be spurring us to reflect upon our behavior and imagine a truly different future for ourselves. But the imaginative and conceptual power necessary to do so has been taken from us by the experts and specialists who have monopolized technological development. There are surely too many who still think we can sit back and let technology solve climate change for us.”
It is indeed frightening how the belief in technology-as-savior is so widespread, when it is in fact technological development that has been the cause of so much destruction, mostly because said technological development has been subservient to capitalist interests, if not developed for them outright.

If ever there was a technological component to the solution, it wouldn't be useful without a complete revolt against the present sociopolitical economy.

“In short, the ideology of technology has become a cause of widespread impoverishment of imagination in today's society.”
Likely even more so with the advent of A.I.

“The wealth held by the twenty-six richest capitalists in the world is equivalent to the total assets belonging to the world's poorest 3.8 billion people, nearly half the world's population.”
And if you're curious who the twenty-six richest capitalists in the world are exactly, here you go:

  1. Bernard Arnault & Family – $233 billion (France)
  2. Elon Musk – $195 billion (South Africa/Canada/USA)
  3. Jeff Bezos – $194 billion (USA)
  4. Mark Zuckerberg – $177 billion (USA)
  5. Larry Ellison – $141 billion (USA)
  6. Warren Buffett – $133 billion (USA)
  7. Bill Gates – $128 billion (USA)
  8. Steve Ballmer – $121 billion (USA)
  9. Mukesh Ambani – $116 billion (India)
  10. Larry Page – $114 billion (USA)
  11. Sergey Brin – $110 billion (USA)
  12. Michael Bloomberg – $106 billion (USA)
  13. Amancio Ortega – $103 billion (Spain)
  14. Carlos Slim Helu & Family – $102 billion (Mexico)
  15. Francoise Bettencourt Meyers & Family – $99.5 billion (France)
  16. Michael Dell – $91 billion (USA)
  17. Gautam Adani – $84 billion (India)
  18. Jim Walton & Family – $78.4 billion (USA)
  19. Rob Walton & Family – $77.4 billion (USA)
  20. Jensen Huang – $77 billion (USA)
  21. Alice Walton – $72.3 billion (USA)
  22. David Thomson & Family – $67.8 billion (Canada)
  23. Julia Koch & Family – $64.3 billion (USA)
  24. Zhong Shanshan – $62.3 billion (China)
  25. Charles Koch & Family – $58.5 billion (USA)
  26. Giovanni Ferrero – $57 billion (Italy)

Surprising absolutely no one, 17 of those 26 are American.

That is not to say there is no poverty in America; about 12% of Americans live below the poverty line and a whopping 49% have less than $500 in savings.

“We usually think of capitalism as something that provides wealth and abundance, but the truth is quite the opposite. Capitalism is a system that functions by producing scarcity.”
Perhaps manufacturing scarcity might be the more apt terminology.

All quotes above are from Kohei Saito's brilliant SLOW DOWN: The Degrowth Manifesto.

Happy new year.

#reads