Why “abundance” is extra left-wing than it appears | EUROtoday

Book. In the United States, the phrase “abundance” is trendy. Over the summer season, a heated debate initially divided Democrats over the best-selling ebook Abundance (Simon & Schuster, untranslated), through which Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson remorse that American progress is hampered by the regulatory framework established by many left-wing native authorities. Then the victorious candidate for mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, named his program “green abundance for all”.

In each circumstances, it was a query of taking the other view from the historic left, whose fame is for shaming the enjoyment of fabric items and advocating frugality for all. Well-founded fame or stereotype? History may also help reply. In Attacking abundance (PUF, 272 pages, 22 euros), historian Alexia Blin presents the – advanced – story of the left’s relationship to consumption for the reason that nineteenth century.^e century.

In the political creativeness, it isn’t a contented relationship. And for good purpose: the Marxist left, targeted on work and manufacturing, sees no emancipatory horizon in consumption. And the criticism will culminate with the rejection of the patron society within the twentieth^e century. But this image will not be full, argues the creator. From the British socialist pioneer Robert Owen (1771-1858) and his utopian communities to the French thinker André Gorz (1923-2007) and his idea of satisfaction, many thinkers, whereas opposing sure types of consumption (conspicuous spending, consumption that destroys nature, and so forth.) think about others.

Collective challenge

It generally is a collective abundance throughout the framework of the socialist society of the longer term, or concrete programs to be applied in capitalism (cooperatives, public shops, majestic canteens or public swimming swimming pools, group experiences, consumerist actions, and so forth.). Consumption continues to be thought and rethought by the left, with the purpose of escaping the purely quantitative imaginative and prescient of well-being that capitalism provides: accumulation.

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