The concept of eco-swaraj seems quite close to the old notion of landscape, something I explored in some depth here.
"The Swedish word landskap can mean the same as the English landscape. It was also the word for the old counties of Sweden, administrative units that go back some thousand years. In the landskap people determined the laws and took decisions in the yearly thing. We find the same suffix -skap in words like äktenskap (marriage), vänskap (friendship), gemenskap (community), grannskap (neighborhood), medborgarskap (citizenship) and vetenskap (science, what we know). It is related to the old English ship as it is used for friendship. It signifies that what we have in common.
Land is also another word for nature. Landskap, therefore, is the nature we have together, where we live. The word express that we are part of the landscape and that the landscape is part of us. The ”us” in the landskap are the people living there, not the people owning property or mines there or a distant state claiming dominion.": https://gardenearth.substack.com/p/landskap-model-for-future
I love the campfire image evocative of citizens assemblies and oral culture.
I also find it ironical that the farther you get into your written analysis the further you got from the embodiment if that concept. On the other hand we need to embrace complexity and not knowing, avoiding the seductive lure of the comfort of new orthodoxies.
"When the power of love is greater than the love of power there will be peace" Jimi Hendrix
Karl Popper claimed that "a nation is a collection of people united by a common misconception about their history." A false narrative is created to make everyone pull in the same direction. People who question the myth need to be eliminated. Ironically, the grandfather of neoliberalism -- Friedrich von Hayek -- argued that a free market would save the world from evil totalitarian states: a weak state would not be able to amass the armies required to fight wars. As long as everyone traded peacefully within the laws of the "free market", everything would be fine. I guess this shows the danger of too simplistic ideas.
I've just begun a project in which I'm discussing the notion of degrowth with various writers and thinkers, then publishing these conversations as articles in various publications. My primary personal focus in these conversations is on considering what degrowth politics would look like if it largely sidesteps the state and its government (on all scales on down to the county and municipality). The premise is that politics is about decision-making in groups, and the groups need not be subsumed under government. A neighborhood can be a group, right?
I'm trying to re-imagine politics outside of the state and its mode of politics.
Let me know, all, if you want to engage in these conversations.
Switzerland is a working model of devolved power to the cantons and communes (towns and villages) with referenda on local, state and national issues that the people disagree with or wish to promote and it works extremely. We have even been known to to vote for more tax!
« A nation state should be the political apparatus with which collaborative decisions are made on a global scale»
The concept of eco-swaraj seems quite close to the old notion of landscape, something I explored in some depth here.
"The Swedish word landskap can mean the same as the English landscape. It was also the word for the old counties of Sweden, administrative units that go back some thousand years. In the landskap people determined the laws and took decisions in the yearly thing. We find the same suffix -skap in words like äktenskap (marriage), vänskap (friendship), gemenskap (community), grannskap (neighborhood), medborgarskap (citizenship) and vetenskap (science, what we know). It is related to the old English ship as it is used for friendship. It signifies that what we have in common.
Land is also another word for nature. Landskap, therefore, is the nature we have together, where we live. The word express that we are part of the landscape and that the landscape is part of us. The ”us” in the landskap are the people living there, not the people owning property or mines there or a distant state claiming dominion.": https://gardenearth.substack.com/p/landskap-model-for-future
I love the campfire image evocative of citizens assemblies and oral culture.
I also find it ironical that the farther you get into your written analysis the further you got from the embodiment if that concept. On the other hand we need to embrace complexity and not knowing, avoiding the seductive lure of the comfort of new orthodoxies.
"When the power of love is greater than the love of power there will be peace" Jimi Hendrix
Karl Popper claimed that "a nation is a collection of people united by a common misconception about their history." A false narrative is created to make everyone pull in the same direction. People who question the myth need to be eliminated. Ironically, the grandfather of neoliberalism -- Friedrich von Hayek -- argued that a free market would save the world from evil totalitarian states: a weak state would not be able to amass the armies required to fight wars. As long as everyone traded peacefully within the laws of the "free market", everything would be fine. I guess this shows the danger of too simplistic ideas.
Sounds in line with Eco-Anarchist principles. Good luck to them!
I've just begun a project in which I'm discussing the notion of degrowth with various writers and thinkers, then publishing these conversations as articles in various publications. My primary personal focus in these conversations is on considering what degrowth politics would look like if it largely sidesteps the state and its government (on all scales on down to the county and municipality). The premise is that politics is about decision-making in groups, and the groups need not be subsumed under government. A neighborhood can be a group, right?
I'm trying to re-imagine politics outside of the state and its mode of politics.
Let me know, all, if you want to engage in these conversations.
Switzerland is a working model of devolved power to the cantons and communes (towns and villages) with referenda on local, state and national issues that the people disagree with or wish to promote and it works extremely. We have even been known to to vote for more tax!
« A nation state should be the political apparatus with which collaborative decisions are made on a global scale»