The Environmental Watchdog MasterThread

jadis · 06-09-2022, 08:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheBig3

How are you defining capitalism in this case?

I only ask because I'm currently reading The Mushroom at the End of the World, and the author suggests that markets alone don't make capitalism, it requires investment. It's a poorly written book (because economists can't write) but the subject matter is interesting, and she's a Left-wing economist endorsed by Adam Tooze so you might enjoy it.

Never read her but FWIW Tsing is an anthropologist, and those have a reputation for being great writers (at least the two most famous anthropologists of the 20th century, Margaret Mead and Claude Lévi-Strauss, were famously great writers). Though of course there's no universal standard, some would say Lévi-Strauss wrote in unintelligible jargon etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

In the Marxist sense (who has underrated writing style btw).

I love the 18th Brumaire and the other texts where he's in a more essayistic and aphoristic mode but the Capital is tough going for my humanities-addled brain, doubt I'll ever push myself through it from beginning to end.

TheBig3 · 06-09-2022, 03:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jadis

Never read her but FWIW Tsing is an anthropologist, and those have a reputation for being great writers (at least the two most famous anthropologists of the 20th century, Margaret Mead and Claude Lévi-Strauss, were famously great writers). Though of course there's no universal standard, some would say Lévi-Strauss wrote in unintelligible jargon etc.

She sort of does that. She didn't appear to have an editor (that did any work) she suffers from Academese, and she goes off on these semi- to completely unrelated tangents. Why John Cage comes up AT ALL is based on the title of one of his works?

It does make for a better Anthro book, and I think I'd be less hostile toward it if it had been labeled that way. The story of the matsutake pickers is fascinating though.

**Frownland** · 06-09-2022, 04:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jadis

I love the 18th Brumaire and the other texts where he's in a more essayistic and aphoristic mode but the Capital is tough going for my humanities-addled brain, doubt I'll ever push myself through it from beginning to end.

The biggest thing for me is his repetitiveness but whenever he goes off on the imagery of capital's metamorphoses or sassy takedowns of classical economists, it's good ****.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheBig3

She sort of does that. She didn't appear to have an editor (that did any work) she suffers from Academese, and she goes off on these semi- to completely unrelated tangents. Why John Cage comes up AT ALL is based on the title of one of his works?

Cage was a dedicated mycologist who had a capitalist critique or two himself, so it's not that surprising.

TheBig3 · 06-09-2022, 08:11 PM

Look, can't you just let me ****ing hate John Cage?

**Frownland** · 06-09-2022, 08:33 PM

Of course not.

The Batlord · 06-09-2022, 09:31 PM

What'd he do? Punch you in the nuts?

TheBig3 · 06-09-2022, 10:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord

What'd he do? Punch you in the nuts?

Yeah, actually he did punch me in the nuts. It's called 4′33

The Batlord · 06-09-2022, 10:45 PM

I'm not even a Cage stan but I do appreciate that malding over 4'33 is the ultimate litmus test for boomer music fans.

TheBig3 · 06-10-2022, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord

I'm not even a Cage stan but I do appreciate that malding over 4'33 is the ultimate litmus test for boomer music fans.

If it's boomer to hate that...piece, then I'm a boomer. It's what a 14 year old thinks is deep.

Anyway, the Environment...

For all the carping about how unions force people to join, then use their dues for political purposes, it seems the utilities have been doing just that to stall renewables.

Quote:

The argument that has dominated this discussion so far has been about consumers’ rights. Ratepayers have been “captive” to the industry, the senators wrote in a joint letter to FERC, and the trade associations use their money to “lobby for policies that frequently run counter to ratepayers’ interests.” These policies might include the right to build unnecessary power plants (the costs of which get passed on to ratepayers) and to impose extra charges on customers who use solar panels. This is a timely argument, given that millions of households have fallen behind on their utility bills since the pandemic began, and many face the threat of having their power, water, and gas shut off.

jadis · 06-10-2022, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

The biggest thing for me is his repetitiveness but whenever he goes off on the imagery of capital's metamorphoses or sassy takedowns of classical economists, it's good ****.

Yeah that can be amazing once you read long enough to get into that repetitive groove. Hard to sustain, too, when he goes off on a quantifying tangent that you're too bad at math to follow.

06-09-2022, 08:11 PM	#924 (permalink)
TheBig3 killedmyraindog Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Boston, Massachusetts Posts: 11,172	Look, can't you just let me ****ing hate John Cage? __________________ I've moved to a new address

06-09-2022, 08:33 PM	#925 (permalink)
Frownland SOPHIE FOREVER Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: East of the Southern North American West Posts: 35,541	Of course not. __________________ Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth. d e a f b o x