Love of the World
At the end of "Capitalism and its Critics" we focus on the apparent growth imperative of capitalism and the equally apparent ecological limits to economic growth. This is a sobering topic. It seems to be a situation of an unstoppable force accelerating toward an immovable object, and we are caught in the middle. For today's students, there are plenty of other reasons for pessimism as well. The political forces of ethno-nationalist, populist authoritarianism are growing globally. Some like that; some think it's wrong. Many who understand history sense its dangers. But wherever you stand politically, that trend is not a sign of an optimistic age. It is a retreat behind walls, a retrenchment of identities, a general melancholy of political introversion. And it is a despairing of global cooperation at a time when we need to solve global collective action problems more than ever. Not only to face the coming climate apocalypse, but also our other self-imposed existential th...
