Imagining Alternatives

"It seems to be easier for us today to imagine the thoroughgoing deterioration of the earth and of nature than the breakdown of late capitalism."

Frederic Jameson

Certain readers of this blog will argue that they imagine either as equally preposterous but his point concerns the state of imagination more generally. It is about what John Lennon wrote his famous song about: I wonder if you can?

Those few with imagination propose alternatives in defiance of those who claim none exist. I give you this pamphletby the Organization for a Free Society as an example of work by those unwilling to succumb, work we should all be doing ( I include myself).

On Revolution: We stopped at an I Hop on the way to Oregon where a sign asked us to "Join the Pancake Revolution/ Pancakes to the People! seriously.

In the latest Mother Jones is a review of Revolution:The year I fell in love and went to Join the War- about Deb Unferth's time spent in Nicaragua in 87. "She didn't become a revolutionary" says the reviewer "but she did become a grown-up."
Two pages away we find an interview with rocker Eugene Hutz who fled Kiev in 86. "I have no agenda.I know what I love to do and that's my religion. I think political revolution discredited itself ONCE AND FOR ALL TIME.." I would rather read The Economist or Wall Street Journal.

National Geographic is doing a series on population, noting the earth is nearing the 7 billion human mark. They begin by taking a swipe at modern Malthusian Paul Ehrlich for stating in his 1968 book The Population Bomb that "hundreds of millions..are going to starve to death" in the 1970's. The authors state "the bomb was a dud.The green revolution...was under way.Today many people are undernourished but mass starvation is rare."

Actually, almost 130 million did die of causes related to malnutrition throughout that decade.They still die every day which seems like mass starvation to me.
They then state: "In Kerala, on the south west coast,investments in health and education helped fertility to fall to 1.7.The key, demographers there say, is the female literacy rate.." They seem uninterested, however, in WHY Kerala is advanced in these areas compared to the rest of India. Anyone know?

The article ends with: "How many of us there will be and how we will live-depend on CHOICES WE HAVE YET TO MAKE..."

Will "we" all have equal say? Will some choose to be poor and starve? This is a familiar capitalist narrative, that "we" all have agency and power, yada yada, but of course we know such choices never show up on a ballot or in a Market. Perhaps the February issue will tell us about the role of economic structures in reproducing inequality and the ideology around it, especially when it comes to impact and ecological footprint. Right.