Who's afraid of economic growth?
Daniel Ben-Ami has written what I believe is a very important essay on Spiked on the anti-growth and limited-growth movement which is so much in evidence amongs environmentalists, the intelligentsia, and the leftist-minded these days.
My own main problem with the anti-growth movement is that it contains, I believe, a latent fascism. There is an assumption that someone other than me ought to determine how I chose to live my life, and that they (the anti-growth folks) are the ones to do it.
From his intro:
The aim of this essay is to examine how cynicism about growth has become a central element of contemporary anti-humanism. It will examine the indirect forms that growth scepticism takes while pointing out its link to environmentalism. It will then consider how anti-growth thinking has moved from being an elite middle-class phenomenon to an idea widely held throughout society. A key factor in this shift was the capitulation of the left to environmentalist and anti-growth thinking from the 1970s onwards. The slowdown in economic growth over the same period, which in turn helped undermine the legitimacy of the market, was also important.
another:
...mainstream politicians and thinkers have maintained a formal attachment to economic growth despite any reservations they may express. A direct attack on growth would be almost unthinkable. If they argued explicitly for a levelling off of living standards, let alone their decline, it is hard to see how they could maintain popular support. This tension - between formal support for growth while expressing doubts about its benefits - is particularly worth exploring. It provides an opening for a restatement of the need for economic growth as part of a broader development of a new humanism.
Please read the whole thing. It is excellent brain food.
