Entropia La Revue

Kunst ist Subversion

Jean-Claude BESSON-GIRARD — 2010-06-04T10:29:30Z

Von Jean-Claude Besson-Girard, Kunstmaler, Autor von Decrescendo cantabile, Petit manuel pour une décroissance harmonique (Parangon Verlag), Direktor von ENTROPIA (Revue d'étude théorique et politique de la décroissance.

Die Idee einer « Wachstumsrücknahme » stellt unseren Glauben radikal in Frage ; sie bedeutet ein nicht weniger radikales Umstoßen von dem, was wir unter « Kultur » verstehen.
Es existiert keine menschliche Natur, die von der Kultur, die die Menschheit in der Gesellschaft formt, unabhängig sei.
Die Fähigkeit zu symbolisieren ist das Herz einer jeden Kultur. Die kulturelle Vielfalt ist das Symbolische Pendant der biologischen Vielfalt ; aber um den Wert der Kultur zu verstehen, sollte ihr Sinn selbstverständlich nicht auf die Produktion und den Konsum von kulturellen Gütern reduziert werden, wie uns der Produktivismus konditioniert zu denken.
Die Kultur ist ein komplexes Ensemble, das Wissen, Glaube, Moral und Gewohnheiten einer Gesellschaft einschließt ; die Kunst ist ihr riskantester Teil. Es handelt sich also nicht darum, « die Kunst eine Subversion werden zu lassen » sondern darum, anzuerkennen, dass die Kunst Subversion ist. Sie ist kein dekorativer Zusatz für irgendeine « Lebensverschönerung ». Sie ist die Spur, das Ergebnis der vollkommenen Hingabe derjenigen, die damit dem Ruf der Kunst wie einer Notwendigkeit folgen, manchmal bis zur Lebensgefahr.

Was kann im Angesicht eines Systems, das den_die Künstler_in in uns ausschaltet, getan werden ? Ich kann hier nur ein paar Wege schildern und ein paar Haltungen vorschlagen, die eine Entkonditionierung bezüglich des gewohnheitsmäßigen Diskurses über Kunst und Kultur erlauben. So verstehe ich nicht gut, was eine « humanistische Kunst » außerhalb des Sinnes, den sie sich in Europa seit der Renaissance angeeignet hat, bedeuten könnte. Sie hat in anderen Kulturen und Epochen keine signifikante Wirkung. Sie erlaubt uns nicht, die Geburt der Kunst und ebenso wenig die chinesische Malerei, zu erfassen… Jedoch scheint es mir, dass das Eigene der Kunst aller Epochen und Kulturen ist, dass sie Zeuge einer Beziehung zu dem Heiligen ist und dass diese Beziehung das Vorrecht der menschlichen Spezies ist, welche Bewusstsein über ihre Endlichkeit erlangt und sich mit einer besonderen Intensität bei den Dichtern manifestiert. Es drängt, das von der Romantik geerbte Bild des Künstlers, das in außerhalb des oder sogar höher als das gemeinsame Schicksal stellte. Dieser missbräuchliche Anspruch hat nach und nach die Kluft und das Unverständnis zwischen Künstler_in und Gesellschaft geschaffen.

Wenn wir heute verloren sind, ist das grundsätzlich, weil wir der poetischen Dimension unserer Existenzen den Rücken zugekehrt haben. Diese Dimension ist diejenige unserer sinnlichen Beziehungen zum Ganzen des Realen, welches der Grundstoff aller menschlichen Kreation ist... Wir müssen die Kreuzung wiederfinden, an der wir den falschen Weg einschlugen. Dieser Weg führte uns, wie wir jetzt wissen, in die Sackgasse der Wahrnehmung und der Empfindsamkeit, die uns betäubt und wie von unserem essentiellen Teil amputiert lässt... Es ist zu behaupten, dass die Kunst und die Kultur weder auf Nutzen ausgerichtet sind, noch irgendeiner Macht unterworfen sind. Die Kunst und die Kultur erbringen keinen Nutzen, deshalb sind sie für die Würde des menschlichen Zustandes unabdingbar. Sie zeugen von ihrem in jeder Generation erneuerten Rätsel... In aller Bescheidenheit den Dialog mit den leblosen, bewunderungswürdigen Gegenständen als Träger der vergessenen Präsenz derer, die sie schufen wiederfinden... In amouröse Komplizenschaft mit den Naturelementen und alle Lebensformen treten. Kurzum, selbst vollkommen an der Welt sein, um mit den Anderen auf der Welt zu sein... Dann, nach und nach, ist es vielleicht möglich, sich die Einführung von gegenüber der Kunst und der Kultur gleichzeitig wahreren und tieferen Verhaltensweisen vorzustellen.
Dies sind einige der zu erforschenden Wege und aufzuwendenden Einstellungen, um den Sinn der Kunst als das Teilen des menschlichen Zustandes und als Notwendigkeit eines fröhlichen Aufstandes wiederzufinden.
¬

What Does Degrowth Mean ?

2009-10-21T15:59:10Z

Welcome to the beta version of DegrowthPedia !

For now, DegrowthPedia has been released only in a beta version which means that the website is still under development. But, at least, we have now a basis to work on. So, if you have any comments or suggestions, it would be a pleasure to have your feedback. To do so, contact us at contact@degrowthpedia.org

Links Degrowth

2009-08-27T08:22:31Z

New :
– Attac links degrowth-transition

– the Economics of Happiness

– European Activists Against Economic Growth
– Degrowth Reseach

– ejournal

– Transition Towns

– Transition culture

– Essential sharings

Today, nef (the new economics foundation) publishes a new report – The Great Transition. It marks the launch a of 40 year long initiative to make the transition to an economy that is both climate friendly and solves, simultaneously, a broad swathe of connected social problems related to inequality. Crucially, the plan is based on the assumption that it is not possible for an advanced, industrialised nation like the UK to achieve those goals if its resource-hungry economy continues to grow in conventional GDP terms.

The second link will take you to an article that summarises the report. The third link is an independent assessment by the economics editor of the UK-based Guardian newspaper.

– A tale of how it turned out right

– The Guardian - From the Great Depression to the Great Transition
– Our new book The New Economics : A Bigger Picture is now available from Amazon. Read it to get a picture of a new economy as if people and the planet mattered. Have your questions about the bizarre contradictions of conventional economics answered. For example : Why is an Apparently Poor Pacific Island is at the Top of the Happy Planet Index ? Why did China Pay for the Iraq War ? Why has London Traffic Always Travelled at 12mph ? Why do Modern Britons Work Harder than Medieval Peasants ? Why are Cuban Mechanics the Best in the World ? Why Does Britain Import the Same Number of Chocolate Waffles as it Exports ? Why do Fewer People Vote when there is a Wal-Mart Nearby ?And, Why are Malawi Villagers Paying the Mortgages of Surbiton Stockbrokers ?

Andrew Simms
Policy Director and
Head of the Climate Change Programme

– Why less should be so much more

– Is degrowth compatible with a market economy ?

– Degrowth : against sustainable development

– Conferences Degrowth

– Micro macro world

– Slow movement

We Must Abandon the Religion of Growth

Serge LATOUCHE — 2009-08-26T19:13:15Z

In the place of the current dominant system, Latouche argues for « a society of assumed sobriety ; to work less in order to live better lives, to consume less products but of better quality, to produce less waste and recycle more. ». The new society would mean « recuperating a sense of measure and a sustainable ecological footprint, » Latouche says, « and finding happiness in living together with the others rather than in the frantic accumulation of gadgets. »

Author of many books and articles on Western rationality, the myth of progress, colonialism and post-development, Serge Latouche described the main principles of the degrowth society in his books “Le pari de la décroissance” (2006) and “Petit traité de la décroissance sereine” (2007). In the latter book, he presented what could be considered a “political programme” for degrowth : humanity working its way back to an ecological footprint that is sustainable by the planet ; including the damages caused by transportation in the calculation of transportation costs ; relocating industrial and agricultural activities ; reviving peasant agriculture ; transforming productivity increases into reduction of working time and job creation ; stimulating the creation of “relational commodities” such as friendship and knowledge ; reducing energy waste ; penalizing advertising expenses ; orienting technical and scientific research towards the goals of the new society, e.g. a focus on ecology and improving quality of life quality rather on stimulating massive production.

Serge Latouche spoke to IPS correspondent Claudia Ciobanu about what a degrowth society means and how it can be brought about.

IPS : What are the features of the society of degrowth and are any practices in the world today compatible with this vision ?

Serge Latouche : Degrowth does not mean negative growth. Negative growth is a self-contradictory expression, which just proves the domination of the collective imaginary by the idea of growth. A better term to use is a-growth, in the same way that we say atheism, because it means precisely that, giving up a faith — in the economy, in growth, in progress and in development. On the other hand, degrowth is not the alternative to growth, but rather, a matrix of alternatives which would open up the space for human creativity again, once the cast of economist totalitarianism is removed. The degrowth society would not be the same in Texas and in the Chiapas, in Senegal and in Portugal. Degrowth would open up anew the human adventure to the plurality of its possible destinies.

Principles of degrowth can already be found in theoretical thought and in practical efforts in both the global North and the South. For example, the attempt to create an autonomous region by the neo-Zapatistas in Chiapas ; and many South American experiences, indigenous or others, such as in Ecuador, which has just introduced in its constitution the objective of Sumak Kausai (“harmonious life” in Quechua, which encompasses the rights of nature). All sorts of initiatives promoting degrowth and solidarity are starting to spread in the global North too : AMAP (The Association for the Preservation of Peasant Agriculture — France), allotments, the self-rehabilitation of housing, self-production according to the example of PADES (the Programme for Self-Production and Social Development). The movement of Transition Towns started in Ireland and spreading in England could be a form of production from below which closest resembles a society of degrowth. These towns are seeking firstly energetic self-sufficiency in the face of depleting resources and, more generally, promote the principle of community resilience.

IPS : What would be the role of markets in the degrowth society ?

SL : The capitalist system is a market economy, but markets are not an institution which belongs exclusively to capitalism. Escaping development, the economy and growth does not mean giving up markets. It means to inscribe markets in a new logic. It is important to distinguish between “the Market” and markets. The latter do not obey the law of perfect competition, and that is for the best. They always incorporate elements of the culture of the gift, which the degrowth society is trying to rediscover. They involve living in communion with the others, developing a human relationship between the buyer and the seller.

IPS : What types of strategies could the global South countries pursue in order to eliminate poverty in a different way than the North has (at the expense of the environment and producing poverty in the South) ?

SL : For African countries, decreasing the ecological footprint and the GDP are neither neccesary nor desirable. But from this we must not conclude that a society of growth must be built there. Firstly, it is clear that degrowth in the North is a precondition for opening up of alternatives for the South. As long as Ethiopia and Somalia are forced, during the worst food shortage, to export feed for our domestic animals, as long as we fatten our cattle with soya obtained after destroying the Amazonian forest, we are asphixiating any attempt at real autonomy in the South. To dare degrowth in the South means to launch a virtuous cycle made up of : breaking economic and cultural dependency of the North ; reconnecting with a historical line interrupted by colonization ; reintroducing specific products which have been abandoned or forgotten as well as „antieconomic” values linked to the past of those countries ; recuperating traditional techniques and know-how. These are to be combined with other principles, valid worldwide : reconceptualizing (what we understand by poverty, scarcity and development for instance) ; restructuring society and economy ; restoring non-industrial practices, especially in agriculture ; redistributing ; relocating ; reusing ; recycling ; reducing the footprint.

IPS : The degrowth society involves a radical change in human consciousness. How is this radical change going to come about ? Can it happen on time ?

SL : It is difficult to break out of this addiction (to growth) especially because it is in the interest of the “dealers” (multinational corporations and the political powers serving them) to keep us enslaved. Alternative experiences and dissident groups – such as cooperatives, syndicates, the associations for the preservation of peasant agriculture, certain NGOs, local exchange systems, networks for knowledge exchange – represent pedagogical laboratories for the creation of “the new human being” demanded by the new society. They represent popular universities which can create resistance and help decolonize the imaginary. Certainly, we do not have much time, but the turn of events can help accelerate the transformation. The ecological crisis together with the financial and economic crisis we are experiencing can constitute a salutary shock.

IPS : Can conventional political actors play a role in this transformation ?

SL : All governments are, whether they want it or not, functionaries of capitalism. In the best of cases, the governments can at most slow down or soften processes over which they do not have control any more. We consider the process of self-transformation of society and of citizens more important than electoral politics. Even so, the recent relative electoral success of French and Belgian ecologists, who have adopted some of the degrowth agenda, seems like a positive sign.

Links :
Transition Towns
AMAP
Via Campesina