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The original theme of this issue of the Breakthrough Journal was
“Whole Earth Discipline,” celebrating the remarkable contributions of
Stewart Brand to environmental consciousness and to the birth of
ecomodernism. But as the issue took shape and the essays started to
arrive, it became clear that the theme running through this issue is
equity.
“Whole
Earth Equity” is perhaps a more fitting theme at this particular
moment. As we have come to better understand the social and political
underside of the digital revolution, Brand himself has been criticized
for his part in the development of tech culture and his faith in the
democratic potential of personal computing. What in the 1960s and ’70s
seemed like a radical celebration of individual agency, egalitarian
community, and the liberatory potential of craft and technology has
since been read by some as a rejection of politics and institutions and
an embrace of a techno-libertarian ethic that has contributed to rising
inequality, creating enormous wealth for those at the top of the new
tech economy while leaving many more behind.
Ecomodernists
too have faced similar criticisms, for what some regard as an
unreflective embrace of modernization and for what others charge is a
technocratic vision of the future devoid of politics and emancipatory
struggle.
At
bottom, all of these critiques come back to contested notions of
justice, equity, democracy, and technology. What does a just and
equitable future look like? Should we be more concerned about the far
larger distributional differences in wealth and consumption between the
developed and developing world or the smaller disparities closer to
home? What are our responsibilities to future generations, to non-human
life, and to each other? What circle ought we to draw around the scope
of democratic deliberation, and what decisions ought to be made by whom
and at what scale?
In this issue: S. Margot Finn on the problem with food justice (as social justice advocates have defined it), Yael Borofsky on the Cape Town water crisis and what happens when environmental concerns blot out those of poverty, Jonathan Symons on the elitism of the anti-extractivist narrative, Leigh Phillips on creating the capacity for global governance through unified global government, and Brandon Keim on a conservation ethic that isn't utility-based. Plus, new this issue, a visual gallery focused on how iconic images can help us envision (and actually work toward) a better future. |
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