The
view of Marxist philosopher Joseph
Dietzgen
in the 19th century expounded under the name of "dialectical
materialism" (not to be confused with the ideology of Stalinism) that
the things we perceive don't exist as separate, independent things
but are only parts of an interrelated and interacting universe which
alone has an independent existence ("holism", as it is now
called) and that everything in the universe is composed of the same
"stuff’ or material ("monism”). It is because ecology
is all about interrelationships that socialists have always
understood its significance. The importance of the way living things
get their means to survive it is the application to the world of
nature of the same approach that the “materialist conception of
history” takes to human society. It is a materialist conception of
the world of living things. In this sense, members of the Socialist
Party can legitimately call ourselves ecologists, with actually more
justification since the social changes we advocate are the only
lasting and effective way of restoring a proper balance between
humanity and nature. Whatever we might like to think, we are not the
species that has “conquered” nature and freed itself from its
laws; we are a part of nature and cannot, without serious
consequences, permanently infringe on our relationship to the rest of
nature. can only survive over time if a certain equilibrium is
established and maintained –what has been called “the balance of
nature”. If this balance is not respected, then the ecosystem
begins to break down with serious consequences for all involved.
Working
people have little or no control over carbon emissions , locally or
globally, while the State exists only to further the interests of its
capitalist class, taking action only when their general or particular
interests warrant it. Present-day capitalist society is incapable of
regarding nature as anything other than a resource to be looted for
short-term, sectional economic gain. It is true that from time to
time the state does step in to prevent excesses but this does not
alter the basic mechanism of capitalism. Laws against the rape of the
environment are only necessary where the tendency to do this is
built-in to the economic system. It also means that such laws,
besides being frequently broken, can only be palliatives, attempts to
deal with effects while leaving the cause intact. Too many of those
involved in the Extinction Rebellion protests show little
understanding of the economics of capitalism. Instead, they offer
environmental reforms which they trustingly believe capitalists can
incorporate into their production processes in the interests of the
whole of society without endangering rates of profit. It is this
poverty of thought which is the most lamentable aspect of otherwise
laudable concern about our planet's well-being and welfare.
Capitalism
is precisely a society geared to “growth” or. more accurately, to
the accumulation of capital. This is its logic, its dynamic, even if
this growth is not in a straight line but in ups and downs.
Capitalism isn't really geared to meeting human needs; it likes to
create, and then satisfy human wants. The top end of the market
lavishly caters for the wants of people with plenty of money to
spend. The bottom end of the market sells cheap (and often shoddy or
unhealthy) goods and services to people with little money but who
need them. The market doesn't cater at all for people with no money -
they have to rely on stealing, charity or handouts. The nature of the
only social framework within which human beings could live in harmony
with, not at the expense of, the rest of nature is easy enough to
discern: it would have to be a society based on common ownership not
property and a society in which the aim of production was to satisfy
human needs, not to make and accumulate profits. What respecting
ecological principles involves is, first of all, a recognition that
there is a balance of nature which can be upset by the choice of
techniques of food, energy and industrial production. It involves
choosing techniques in the light of this knowledge, including
developed industrial techniques since nothing prevents these from
being in principle integrated into a sustainable ecosystem. Change,
involving upsetting a particular balance, is not at all ruled out nor
is it necessarily undesirable in itself but, once again, it must be
realised that change can upset the existing balance of nature and
that steps must therefore be consciously taken to help a new,
different balance to be found. It is likely
that, after an initial increase in food, energy and industrial
production to help overcome the problems of world hunger, destitution
and disease which socialism is bound to inherit from capitalism,
production levels will become stabilised in socialism and be tied to
population levels (which will also be stabilised). In other words,
socialism will eventually become a society with a stable level of
production, integrated into a stable relationship with the rest of
nature; a particular balance with nature will be achieved and
sustained.
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