Surviving the Future: Culture, Carnival and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market Economy
This is an extract of a much larger work by David Fleming which since his passing away Shaun has selected and edited. The basic premise is that the world's economies will collapse pretty soon, by the end of the century and probably a lot sooner, and that we therefore need to look at how to survive in that world rather than focussing on how to avoid the "climatic" or climate induced society (as we know it complete with market economy) breakdown. Whilst there are some great insights and focussed analysis of the current situation and how we can survive, they are offset by at times a naivety regarding how orderly society will be and an arrogance in the style of writing. Maybe you need a certain arrogance when telling a tale such as this? And without naivety the alternative is self centred survival at the expense of all else. But Fleming does stray down such as path as there is an underlying dig at the dangers of too much cultural homogenisation through migration which comes over as slightly xenophobic. He goes on about culture and how it's being eroded and whilst I'd agree with a lot of that it feels as he's bemoaning the loss of his culture rather than embracing a changing culture. Cultures can be very entrenched, I would argue at the expense of individualism or outsiders, but again can change extremely quickly when needing to or when hitting a critical mass. On entrenchment Fleming seems to long for years gone by when people had a structured village life, with lots of holidays, and where religion brought people together. He ignores the strait jacket of conformity and the weight of religious intolerance. Witches being burnt? Pogroms? Homophobia? And I need not note how badly treated most villagers were as they were basically owned by landlords. I feel that he picks and chooses his arguments without any reference to criticism.
There is a good point made about too much being made of transparency in modern life rather than placing trust in people. Whilst I don't think that this is strictly true his conclusion that we should shun transparency seems naive at the very best. And an argument for corruption and cronyism. His analysis of capitalism is poor economics. Saying that money only represents other forms of capital is patently untrue as in this screwed up world money does indeed reign supreme and that's the problem. Financial instruments such as hedge funds are not backed by other forms of capital. Fleming also has an odd view of the "tautness" of current capitalism. Whilst he's right in theory he's blatantly wrong in practice. His stating that in the future we should be slack is exactly what the rich do, and by that I include large parts of the developed nations, who do indeed waste their time in not making more money but in having fun. And he states that there are no ostentatious buildings resulting from industrial society. Take a look round most city centres. Bristol, Liverpool, Leeds, London. The most ostentatious are from the 1800s excepting churches. And on the latter. They were built on the blood of those forced to pay for and build them.
His conclusion that we should prepare for the new world by creating transition towns is again naive. If society does break down to a massive extent then those without will take from those who have regardless of whether they are working together in a nicely arranged "village". And all countries won't break down at the same time and the powerful will win out if there is chaos. The way to prepare is to create the right society structures now, not to wait until it's too late.
On the positive side it's an interesting read and makes you think for yourself. And there's a great succinct warning of Green Authoritarianism. Worth reading. Prepare to disagree. Prepare to be challenged.
