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12 | Tue PuitosopHy or Eco-Pourrics
but rather merely the furtherance of the growth of production capacity
and the regulation of the distribution of produced goods.
‘This system was struck by three fatal blows by the end of the 20"
century. It became clear that the multiplication of goods does not
necessarily lead to wellbeing. The further increase of production capacity
has become pointless, even outright dangerous. And the principle of
popular sovereignty has become an empty formality.
‘The destruction of the natural world has not only not freed us from
deprivation, but has rather acquainted us with new forms of poverty:
hundreds of millions of people no longer have access to clean drinking
water and sufficient nutrition. Maybe they can acquire a smartphone,
firearm, antibiotics and chainsaw, but they have lost their security and
self-respect together with their untouched natural surroundings. ‘The
multiplication of goods no longer results in an increase in the quality of
life even in rich countries: we have entered the age of wasteful
compulsive growth that destroys our health, relationships and
environment and offends our taste and sense of justice. We have found
a solution for the problem of subsistence that, as Thoreau already noticed,
is more complicated than the problem itself.
‘The collapse of the ecosystems and the climate catastrophe has made
irrational that which until now has been called rational husbandry: the
increase of yields with no regard to anything else. Nevertheless, the
logic of the reproduction of capital continues to extort the expansion of
production capacity despite the fact that the environmental and social
costs of increasing the circulation of goods and energy (and which
societies are forced to cover) are today greater than the expected profit.
The mass production of our goods has been revealed to come at the cost
of the exhaustion and irreparable pollution of our natural resources.
Science, pressed into the service of the technological-industrial complex,
has turned from the benefactor of humanity into the greatest source of
the threats it faces. As our ancestors trembled from the unpredictable
blind forces of nature, so do we tremble today from the unforeseeable
consequences of scientific discovery and make sacrifices at the altar of
the inevitable and almighty economic necessity — even human sacrifices.
Finally, as regards the political consequences of the matter, the
program of enlightenment hoped that the victory over nature would
lead to the liberation of humanity. However, what has been built on the
ruins of vanquished nature is the hitherto most effective system of total
surveillance and suppression. Most countries have failed to keep even
the appearance of the self-determination of the political community