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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
