jason and yanis on vision
jason hickel and yanis varoufakis on vision – june 2024 – Jason Hickel and Yanis Varoufakis | A VISION FOR THE FUTURE | Podcast 8 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_3j3sHP6eg]:
This podcast is released alongside the acclaimed new docuseries ‘In The Eye Of The Storm — The Political Odyssey Of Yanis Varoufakis’. Watch it here: http://www.eyeofthestorm.info [trailer there.. but have to purchase film]
via yanis tweet [https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1798709870759403914] which links to 1 hr video
notes/quotes:
3 min – j: even though we can fix our ecological problems very easily/quickly.. we’re prevented from doing so because we’re hostage to capitalist control .. same for our formidable social crisis.. a lot of people have difficulty resonating w/eco crisis because social crisis more prominent for them..t ie: 1/2 can’t access decent health care.. affordable housing, econ insecurity.. c immobilizes our capacities..
we need a problem deep enough to resonate w/8bn today.. a mechanism simple enough to be accessible/usable to 8bn today.. and an ecosystem open enough to set/keep 8bn legit free
5 min – j: we live in a shadow of a society we could easily achieve if we had proper democratic control over the productive forces.. the opposite of c is democracy.. t
not deep enough .. finite set of choices of decision making is unmooring us
any form of democratic admin.. results in same song
12 min – j: it’s in order to create the conditions for perpetual accumulation that capitalism requires growth..t
have: testart storage law
need: graeber stop at enough law
13 min – j: catastropic social consequences.. deeply unstable econ.. reason: access to basic resources is dependent on whether capital is willing to employ you.. t
need means (nonjudgmental expo labeling) to undo hierarchical listening as global detox so we can org around legit needs
14 min – j: socialist econs never had this.. always able to ensure access to good/services necessary for survival
but we’ve never yet done that.. ?
15 min – j: only solution to perpetual crisis of unemployment is more growth.. artificial scarcity of c could be easily over come
20 min – y: even if not becoming unemployed they will be producing things that society doesn’t really need in a way that depletes resources w eco/social damage.. t c is inefficient and therefore unjust
deeper issue: none of us grok legit needs.. need global detox to hear/see/be about that essence
need 1st/most: means (nonjudgmental expo labeling) to undo hierarchical listening as global detox so we can org around legit needs
25 min – j: well being metrics.. what matters is not aggregate production but what we are producing and whether we have access to them
need: org around a problem deep enough (aka: org around legit needs) to resonate w/8bn today.. via a mechanism simple enough (aka: tech as it could be) to be accessible/usable to 8bn today.. and an ecosystem open enough (aka: sans any form of m\a\p) to set/keep 8bn legit free
26 min – j: could have much higher levels of well being.. w/more rational/just allocation of production toward things we know to be most effective at generating social outcomes we can achieve much higher levels w/much less aggregate output
nothiing of that to date.. because we have no idea what our legit basic needs are
27 min – j: discourse about degrowth.. misunderstanding.. reduce all forms of production.. agony/misery.. but what they’re calling for demo dm over what forms of production increased/decreased
so same song.. finite set of choices of decision making is unmooring us
28 min – j: so question here is.. what can we do to do things that we know are going to improve our chances of achieving eco/social goals..t and do those things
rather.. question is .. what are our legit basic needs.. then.. let’s org around those ie: missing pieces
j: we know people can do that.. not rocket science.. just requires achieving demo control.. that really needs to be our objective.. problem is fail to realize what needs to be achieved here.. something like a demo social system
33 min – y: in this world.. there is no measurement of econ activity other than gdp that makes sense.. for those that stay let’s stop gdp.. like saying.. if i’m dying w high fever.. we should stop measuring my temp using celsius.. the metric doesn’t matter.. what matters is you have a system whose capacity to maintain itself in some kind of semblance of dynamic equilib depends on more/more gdp growth .. so do we attack the symptom.. the failure of gdp to correlate w human prosperity.. or the cause.. that we are all slaves of c accumulation.. t
rather.. both symptoms of deeper cause: missing 2 legit needs.. and so.. khan filling the gaps law and hari present in society law et al
35 min – y: under soviet planning system.. they relied on quantification.. today.. w algo’s and ai.. that way of matching .. you could design a really brilliant system whereby prosperity would be max’d.. t
there’s a legit use of tech (nonjudgmental expo labeling).. to facil a legit global detox leap.. for (blank)’s sake.. and we’re missing it
legit freedom will only happen if it’s all of us.. and in order to be all of us.. has to be sans any form of m\a\p
36 min – j: my current position.. econ is 1\ soci necessary sector.. publicize things we know we all need.. the core econ decommodified.. 2\ rest of econ.. no reason can’t be mediated by post c markets.. 3rd tier finance.. insane that this world changing power in hands of a few.. if demo managed.. make investments based on what we agreed.. this would be world changing.. needs to be conceptualized/theorized further
oi..
41 min – j: no reason we can’t have a public fin system
42 min – y: if digital wallet.. suddenly banks wouldn’t be able to create money out of nothing
43 min – j: c and growth major perpetuators of war
47 min – j: (on fossil fuel ness).. is it utopian sure.. but you should do it
not utopian enough
1\ undisturbed ecosystem (common\ing) can happen
2\ if we create a way to ground the chaos of 8b legit free people
how we gather in a space is huge.. need to try spaces of permission where people have nothing to prove to facil curiosity over decision making.. because the finite set of choices of decision making is unmooring us.. keeping us from us.. ie: whatever for a year.. a legit sabbatical ish transition
there’s a legit use of tech (nonjudgmental expo labeling).. to facil a legit global detox leap.. for (blank)’s sake.. and we’re missing it
ie: imagine if we listened to the itch-in-8b-souls 1st thing everyday & used that data to connect us (tech as it could be.. ai as augmenting interconnectedness)
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be you. 