I almost got fired for working overtime at a retirement home when I was younger. I was in charge of closing and sometimes opening. They complained that I needed to finish up sooner or clock out sooner. I told them people would die if I didn’t do my job properly, and I’d report them. They let me stay, but they made it hard. The old folks loved me, though, and everyone them felt like my grandparent. I was told by people around me that I should pick my battles better, but I knew I’d picked the right one. Fuck, it sucked so much, though. Doing good work and demanding pay is a battle.
I’m sick of people asking to borrow my surplus value of workers labour and never giving it back.
Macro economics says If I don’t take it someone else will. And they’re probably worse than me. Be happy I took it.
Well, give it back! I need it!
with a tiny investment of $2k, a couple seminars and private meetings I will let you sign on 10 people who you are allowed to take surplus value from, and all I want in exchange is half of it.
“I’d have to be stupid not to invest”
Imo resources from the southern hemisphere outdoes indigenous land by a lot
They kind of go hand in hand, don’t they?
Well, USA and canada are pretty big and on the northern hemisphere
what does this have to do with solarpunk?
Solarpunk is anti-capitalist and anti-colonialism.
Is there a solarpunk without those things? I only wanted to sign up for a future world running on renewables, eg. the opposite of climate doomerism
Sure, it’s a big tent, if all you want is the “solar” part and not the “punk” part you can participate in that half 😆
But the “punk” in solarpunk refers to left anarchist politics and rebellion against the capitalist economic machine, and has ever since the term was invented. I’ma borrow from this Reddit post that answers your question quite well:
The punk comes from DIY attitude. Build-your-own-robot.
The punk comes from mutalist, anarchist, decentralized organization, like in Ursula LeGuin’s dispossessed.
The solar panel itself implies anarachy as people provide power for themselves rather than rely on a central plant or authority. And yet by networking your homesteads together in a horizontal mutalist way you provide insurance agianst variance in both supply and demand.
Without the punk, you just have techno optimism, e.g. the Picards on their vinyard without a care in the world because the Federation can provide all their needs without effort, probably with fusion power or something even more fantastic.
Sure, it’s a big tent, if all you want is the “solar” part and not the “punk” part you can participate in that half 😆
Ty ❤️
But the “punk” in solarpunk refers to left anarchist politics and rebellion against the capitalist economic machine, and has ever since the term was invented
Yeah TIL 😅 I really have no desire for anarchy, especially when I live an incredibly comfortable life here in Australia
The punk comes from DIY attitude. Build-your-own-robot.
I do a lot of self hosting and I do like DIY so that parts true
My initial association was with Steampunk and its imagery and like the opposite of blade runner visually, this sort of style:
https://www.ecosia.org/images?q=solarpunk
or maybe its been a lifelong fascination since building one of these bad boys in Sim City 2000:
Without the punk, you just have techno optimism, e.g. the Picards on their vinyard without a care in the world because the Federation can provide all their needs without effort, probably with fusion power or something even more fantastic.
That’s true, I did think the other day that if fusion comes along we can bin pretty much all renewables as they’ll be considered more wasteful than fusion, but I quite like that I generate enough power from my solar to power my own home and car… but at the same time I’m here for the planet first, independence from the grid second… I’m gonna leave that, that’s a future conundrum I can have when we get to it
Nope. Capitalism is the name of the cause of that doomerism.
You don’t have to be a dirty commie to be solarpunk, but I am personally very adamant that none of the solarpunk vision can come true without a fundamental re-jiggering of our economic mindset.
capitalism in my mind can also be the solution to the climate problem while keeping our living standards significantly higher than they were even 100 years ago
i have an ev, solar, battery and heat pump, all products of capitalism
combine capitalism with some socialist polices and you have all the best places to live in the world
Sure! Let’s rein in capitalism!
This is probably somewhat pedantic but capitalism that is properly tamed by socialism is no longer capitalism. Yes, capital will always exist, but once you adopt an economic system that subjugates capital to human needs, it’s not capitalism anymore.
