8 books you should read about collapse
I’ve been enjoying her videos. Anyone read any of the books mentioned?
- Doughnut Economics - Kate Raworth
- The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions - Jason Hickel
- The Collapse of Complex Societies - Joseph A. Tainter
- Apologies to the Grandchildren: Reflections on Our Ecological Predicament, Its Deeper Causes, and Its Political Consequences - William Ophuls
- Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change - William R. Catton Jr.
- The Long Descent: A User's Guide to the End of the Industrial Age - John Michael Greer
- Limits to Growth - Dennis Meadows, Donella Meadows, Jørgen Randers, William W. Behrens III
- Breaking Together: A Freedom-loving Response to Collapse - Jem Bendell
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Looks like a "balanced" list, something a centrist would put together.
Curious as to what reading materials you would recommend? I’m currently reading Islam and Anarchism by Mohamed Abdou which is relatively radical compared to the books listed here.
I would remove the ones that reinforce conservatism and ideologies like "Law of the jungle", EvoPsych determinism and related. The Overshoot podcast has plenty of interesting authors on.
Can you elaborate on the ones that do that? I haven’t read most from this list. Just finishing the Tainter one now. And have read Hickel’s Less is More but have wanted to read The Divide.
Thank you for the Overshoot podcast recommendation. I will check it out
No, the answer would be... at least a huge article worth of text if not a book.
Understand that there are "collapsologists" who are in it to keep the current system, the current social order, hierarchy and classes going. There are also those who see it as an opportunity to dominate and eliminate competition. None of them are nice people; the ethics of collapse revolve around trying to save people, especially children. They do not revolve around conserving systems and keeping BAU going.
Biological determinism is conservative/fascist tradition, mostly a pseudoscience, that revolves around "good blood", genetics, IQ, skull shape... and more modernly trying to Evolutionary Psychology. It's a way to lay claim to "human nature" as an explanation for maintaining the conservative or traditionalist social order, from top to bottom, including culture and economy. Social darwinism and ethnic cleansing are common practices inspired by such ideas.
https://libcom.org/article/against-sociobiology
There is much to read. In collapse circles, there are a lot of these people. Fascism is always concerned with rebirth, with apocalypse, and values a "war of all against all" collapse, since the fascists consider themselves superior (advantaged in such a deadly competition.) In collapse circles, you will find those who, when it comes to choosing between reducing consumption and reducing population, will demand genocide in order to keep a certain population's lifestyle (or improve it.) This applies a lot to 'eco'fascists; for them it's a more obvious form of territorialism: "exterminate the ones who are not like us!"
Oh I was looking for you to name the books that you identified that do this.
Yes, I am staying clear away from those who want to conserve any of the current system.
Vanessa Machado de Oliveira’s Hospicing Modernity has been so transformative in this regard. Have you read it?
I've heard of it. I usually read science papers and reports. The books are useful for understanding systems if you don't already. I try to develop my own understanding or "world model" and related narratives, at at least first.
Hospicing Modernity | Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti - YouTube, since I mentioned the Overshoot podcast before.
Unfortunately, my book reading list requires a few life times so I have to avoid using my time on those who only confirm my beliefs, on those spreading misinformation and conservative stories, and so on.