Draft in process
Bookchin’s central argument runs as follows
MB: “The last three decades, and especially the late 1950s, mark a technological turning point that negates all values and social programs of previous history, by making possible an era at once materially abundant and virtually free from toil. Young people, realizing this, have begun to adopt a whole new lifestyle, eliminating all the repressive attitudes and hierarchical institutions previously necessitated by scarcity and the need to work. “
WSK: I lived through that age, the 1970,s wages were good, I made $14/hr as a clerk in a Dominion food store, a tank of gas was $15 dollars, my 74 Chevelle cost me $3,000 dollars 2 years old used, and my now wife, then girlfriend and I were able to save while living at home; not the down payment on a home, but the price of a home, $48,000 for a 1400 square foot new semidetached 2 story home with a 0% mortgage for 5 years. Canada’s population was 19 million, labour was in demand, land cheap. Massive immigration had not started. We were living in an age where Post Scarcity Anarchism could be envisioned.
BK: “A new vision of what society could be like is making the toil and renunciation of present-day society increasingly intolerable to people of every class, especially the young. Riots, crime, and other forms of rebellion by the declasses who intuitively reject the values, forms, aspirations, and institutions of the established order become chronic.”
WSK: 1968 was a turning point, TV, Radio, Music were not under state control, in Poland, France, the United States, and Mexico there was a spontaneous combustion of rebellious spirits around the world. JFK, RK and MLK amongst others were shot as a result. Nations and cultures were still independent. Their was of course the specter of communism so the owners of the means of production had to treat you nice, it really does not take much to control the means of production and every one knew it. With the fall of communism so went the threat and our quality of lives diminished. }}
Simultaneously, the destruction of the natural environment by a hierarchical society threatens to destroy the entire “biotic pyramid” on which human life depends.
{{ The environment was on everyone’s mind, and as problems developed they were solved, acid rain, ozone destruction, lead in gasoline, tailpipe emissions, but not the underlying problem of overpopulation, just window dressing }}
Bookchin looks to a massive popular revolution, somewhat like an extended version of the French upheaval of May, 1968, to emerge from these contradictions. Neighborhood assemblies, stimulated by dropout youth, would thereupon take over direction of society on a decentralized basis. People would leave the cities and factories to found autonomous, face-to-face communities in the countryside, which would become the new unit of society. They would be carefully adapted to the local ecology, and would utilize new, small-scale automated technology to provide for the needs of the community while eliminating toil. Human beings in the process would not only become free, but would become rounded members of a rounded society, fulfilling their desires in all realms of life.
{{ This never happened; as the ruling class saw that they were loosing control, they clamped down. “the powell memo”, mass immigration, consolidation of the media to control the messaging, all contributed to a loss of freedoms and tightening of yolk around our necks.}}
Bookchin’s argument superimposes a revolutionary dialectic on a number of themes that were “in the air” during the 1960s. These ideas were reflected in many of the bestsellers of the period. The idea that we live for the first time in a society where the problem of material scarcity has been largely overcome was popularized in J.K. Galbraith’s The Affluent Society. The idea that in response, youth have developed a new lifestyle that is completely transforming society received wide circulation in Charles Reich’s The Greening of America. The threat of ecological disaster has been increasingly borne in upon public consciousness since the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. Post-Scarcity Anarchism is an attempt to integrate this matrix of ideas into the tradition of left-wing anarchism.
Digital Deism building on post scarcity Anarchism
In that Bookchin is dead and before his death he renounced anarchism and the trends in the ecology movement towards psuedo religions like Deep Ecology, Earth first, he also rejected the adoption of Taoist and Buddhist mashups of ecological ideas.
I embrace Bookchins acceptance of rational thought, critical theory, human involvement in nature as natural and a rejection of religion and faith as having any part in a rational dialogue, my feelings are summed up the ideals of Digital Deism the Central argument runs as follows; thank you Murray.
Since the 1970’s we passed a technological and environmental turning point that negates all values and social programs of previous history. Protests against the Vietnam war were a threat to the power elite as new technologies like television and tape recording were unleashed with little social control. That lead to a political uprising in opposition to the war. That mistake would not be made again.
To undermine the arrogance of a revolutionary youth, the elite invoked a program of mass immigration, easily achieved due to overpopulation globally and effective propaganda systems fine tuned with the consolidation of the media.
Combined with the ongoing ecological collapse an end of an era that was at once materially abundant and virtually free from toil has been engineered out of existence.
For young people today, crippled by student debt, “service” jobs, high prices and lowering expectations adopting the previously mentioned “hippie” lifestyle, freed from hierarchy and tradition is but a distant echo they cannot comprehend.
To restate: The “old guard” in the 70’s began systematic program of mass immigration, in the 80’s a systematic program of mass media consolidation and in the 90’s a system of monitoring and manipulation successfully reinstating hierarchical institutions previously threatened by a post scarcity reality so dangerous to society.
That new vision of what society, free of war, work and suffering had to squashed; Once control of the media was consolidated in the late 80’s a new paradigm of; anti-labour, incited race riots, sensationalized crime, and other forms of “culture war” were programmed into the mass media to draw attention away from the now 1% increasing amassing of wealth and power. Simultaneously, the destruction of the natural environment by a reinstated hierarchical society continues to to destroy the entire “biotic pyramid” on which human life depends. This is course of no concern to the rich who believe the victims will only be the poor.
In the 90’s with the advent and widespread implementation of monitored and manipulative media popularized as “social media” the likelihood of massive popular revolution like, the French upheaval of May, 1968, are no longer able to happen. Society is now segmented into about 600 well understood profile types, or Meta profiles and specific messages are targeted to achieve a desired consumer and political response. The age of the individual has ended as narcissistic manipulation is perfected capitizing on the tendencies and desires that we all share.
To emerge from these contradictions a new ethic of digital deism. A rejection of faith, honouring the enlightenment, a focus on free and independent technology. This must be based in the neighborhood dismissing all central control. With a completely urbanized, domesticated population facing an extremely uncertain future we are facing a collapse of the cities and the loss of most of the human population of our planet.
End of edit, next paragraph to be worked
This argument superimposes a revolutionary dialectic on a number of themes that were “in the air” during the 1960s. These ideas were reflected in many of the bestsellers of the period. The idea that we live for the first time in a society where the problem of material scarcity has been largely overcome was popularized in J.K. Galbraith’s The Affluent Society. The idea that in response, youth have developed a new lifestyle that is completely transforming society received wide circulation in Charles Reich’s The Greening of America. The threat of ecological disaster has been increasingly borne in upon public consciousness since the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. Post-Scarcity Anarchism is an attempt to integrate this matrix of ideas into the tradition of left-wing anarchism.