Utopia Revisited
To me a utopia is a place of infinite resources and an emphasis on empathy and utilitarianism. Human rights are respected and upheld, and every person has equitable access to everything they need to survive. Similarly to the constructivist ideology, I believe that human nature is not set and norms and values are highly dependent on what we as a global society choose to believe in and prioritize. Access to infinite resources would negate the need to compete and increase the likelihood that countries and individuals would cooperate. However, since we live in a world with entropy, resources are finite and scarce, forcing cities, states, and people to focus primarily on their own survival. I think that we can possibly have both profit and sustainability. If producers can reduce pollution to below what the Earth can return to the carbon cycle, then those producers could pollute, generate profit, and still be sustainable.
The documentary argues that modern supply chains are based off of colonial notions of the state and reflect powerful nations and entities interests. This design has led to the wide scale exploitation of global south countries. This has been accomplished through many means, such as, foreign investment, IMF/WB loans, and depreciating the value of raw materials in the global market, while the majority of these resources flow out of these global south countries and to global north markets. I agree that this strategy is wrong and should be stopped. Resource producing countries should have more control over the resources they export. However, i do not see a plausible solution. Institutions that can make a change include the IMF, WB, UNDP, UN,UNSC, and various NGO’s. As well as ethical corporations and companies. The story of Kisenda in the DRC stood out to me. The scene stood out to me because the story is identical almost anywhere you go, from enslaved Brickmakers in afghanistan to backbreaking labor mining sulfur in India. According to the film, 60% of cobalt of the worlds cobalt comes from the DRC, and suffers from large scale exploitation by outside industries. Due to these current economic conditions and due to centuries of extreme exploitation under King Leopold II and Belgium, the DRC suffers from widespread corruption on most levels of the government. This makes me sceptical of the whether or not the mining system being proposed in the video is truly ethical.
A post-growth economy is one that knows that exponential growth is unsustainable and works to transform their industry from one of growth to one of long term sustainability.
Growth is the expansion of a pre-existing system while development is the improvement and evolution of a system. Concepts like coops help create local jobs and foster local communities. This may be at odds with the modern economics however. Globalization could be helpful for sustainable development because of the concept of comparative advantage and specialization. However, historically and in practice. Globalization has not helped with sustainability. I am curious to understand how economic, cultural, and social human rights operate within the country. How is the right to water, for example, approached by the country.
