The cenic route:
We’ve ballsed up the Holocene and turned it into the Anthropocene said Eugene Stoermer in the 1980s (in more civil terms). The ‘Anthropocene’ was then revived and popularised by Paul Crutzen in the 2000s.
But others have pointed out that the ballsing up is down to particular ideas, not all people. In this vein, Jason W Moore coined the term, #capitalocene, to firmly point the finger…
…David Runciman has a critique of the Anthropocene in his podcast, Past Present Future, and sets yet another cene: the Leviacene.
It draws on his obsession with Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes as a foundational work for the era of modern states.
It’s an interesting listen, walking carefully through why the Anthropocene and other adjacent diagnoses are unhelpful before setting out why he thinks the Leviacene maybe a more useful framework https://overcast.fm/+BAwtQa9GU4
This week David explores a different way of thinking about the current epoch: what if this isn’t the Anthropocene but the Leviacene? Who or what is really driving planetary destruction? Can human nature explain it? Or should we be looking at the political and economic superpowers that are leaving their marks all over the natural world?For more on these themes, David’s new book The Handover is available now, including as an audiobook. Listen to our earlier podcast with historian of science Meehan Crist on Malthus and Malthusianism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
…I doubt we will ever be coherent enough at planetary scale to manifest an entirely new paradigm in the time we have to do so. The current one has been many hundreds of years in the making.
What seems more likely is that the pragmatism and humility voiced by people like David Holmgren show us the path https://overcast.fm/+2tlUT6780
On this episode, Nate is joined by ‘permaculture’ author and educator David Holmgren to discuss his experience within the movement and what it might look like for more systems to be designed using permaculture in the future. While often thought to…
…The Great Simplification podcast by Nate Hagens (see link in previous toot) focuses on the technocratic aspects of what we might do instead of the dead end power play that’s currently consuming us.
For a gentler, more arts focused walk with the same themes, I’ve recently discovered The Great Humbling https://overcast.fm/+ZeWvl3424
It’s a shame that none of these podcasters are on here yet :(
Welcome back to Season 5 of The Great Humbling! Here are some show notes… series at a school called HOME starts on 7 & 8 November. Ed has been reading Dougie Strang’s book, . Dougald mentions the cluster of authors who were part of the first…
@CalNativeLandscape agreed.
In my case what doesn’t help is that my professional work is being on the web. Which, in the manner of the hammer and nail adage, makes every problem look like it needs a website.
There *are* some things I’m working on on the web which might help. But I really do need to get out there doing completely unrelated physical work in the community
@CalNativeLandscape I admire you sticking to your guns on the plastic lawn (ugh, I hate those).
It’s a tangled energy-blind web we live in and the US seems more tangled than most.
Best wishes with your endeavours, Tim
@urlyman interesting. Concerns I have are 1. Assumption that control is scale variant. 2. That humans & leviathans are rational.
He admits to having no control but posits that states and corps do have control. But he neglects to interrogate what shapes the states and corps, as if they operate in a vacuum, and according to entirely internal logics.
I would venture that forces of capital apply pressures that steer humans and human societal structures in ways that are scale invariant.
Jonathan Schofield
Tim Moore
James Tindall