This is a great review, mostly because you contribute a real Left perspective to the analysis. I really think the Left needs to theorize and write more about the devolution of politics into conspiracy-mongering groupuscles. I listened a bit to the Conspirituality podcast and found that many questions are unresolveable in their analysis because the authors are liberals who do not have a coherent worldview of the totality - so they can make reference to the huge problem of an apolitical populus that turns to self-help and spirtuality, but they cannot tell us what the alternative is to the apolitical! What is an actually coherent worldview that could situate these diurnal horrors that we face so they are understandable outside of conspiracies? Big Pharma is real, its power is real and hugely destructive, but it is part and parcel of the evolution of monopoly capitalism. Without that critique, you have conspiracies. "There are conspiracies in history, but history is not a conspiracy"
you're right both that we can't leave spirituality and wellness to the right and that liberals are no more help than neo cons. but that leaves me without a party.
and the conspiracies around covid have co oped supposed left. i have no love for the liberal government but they were following main stream medical advice and paid out $2000 a month tho those who lost jobs, but those who rook that money seem to be attacking the liberals now. i see former leftists, or putative leftists, like max bluenthal and jimmy dore joining the trudeau hate largely over the covid response. wtf??? copared to the biden democrats the canadian liberals are hard line socialists.
Greatly appreciate the review as I was left feeling unsatisfied by it, and your wisdom now has explained to me why. The book, to me, felt like going along for a car ride, gawking at unmentionable types of people, with no end in sight while on route to a comfortable dinner at a restaurant afterwards with no further mention of how to clean up what was just witnessed. I wish they would at least have had more courage to speak of structural oppression, but I see now why that was not the case. It did not occur to me to analyze it from an over-liberalized lens. I am enjoying learning about your background as well while combing through your writing. Thank you Justin, you are a great role model for my intellect and worldliness.
Ecofeminist critiques of Vandana Shiva, a patriarchal, pre-capitalist subsistence economy, science, tradition, etc. from union organizer and anti-imperialist, Esperanza!
Is it feminist though? What about Anuradha Ghandy’s critiques of Shiva in ‘Philosophical Trends in the Feminist Movement’? She criticizes Shiva for being reactionary, rejecting agro-science in favour of traditional subsistence agriculture.
I don't know Anuradha Ghandy but I think Shiva's analysis of agriculture is solid. I don't think she irrationally values keeping agriculture at a low tech level but she does value the diversity and a lot of other sound practices of traditional agriculture and she has done a lot to expose the corporate agriculture hype train(s).
I've read a lot of Vandana Shiva and I think while she has a Gandhian aesthetic, her writing is left, anticorporate, and materialist. I've never felt alarm bells going off reading her work.
This is a great review, mostly because you contribute a real Left perspective to the analysis. I really think the Left needs to theorize and write more about the devolution of politics into conspiracy-mongering groupuscles. I listened a bit to the Conspirituality podcast and found that many questions are unresolveable in their analysis because the authors are liberals who do not have a coherent worldview of the totality - so they can make reference to the huge problem of an apolitical populus that turns to self-help and spirtuality, but they cannot tell us what the alternative is to the apolitical! What is an actually coherent worldview that could situate these diurnal horrors that we face so they are understandable outside of conspiracies? Big Pharma is real, its power is real and hugely destructive, but it is part and parcel of the evolution of monopoly capitalism. Without that critique, you have conspiracies. "There are conspiracies in history, but history is not a conspiracy"
Thank you so much Beth - this is exactly what I hoped to do in this review!
you're right both that we can't leave spirituality and wellness to the right and that liberals are no more help than neo cons. but that leaves me without a party.
and the conspiracies around covid have co oped supposed left. i have no love for the liberal government but they were following main stream medical advice and paid out $2000 a month tho those who lost jobs, but those who rook that money seem to be attacking the liberals now. i see former leftists, or putative leftists, like max bluenthal and jimmy dore joining the trudeau hate largely over the covid response. wtf??? copared to the biden democrats the canadian liberals are hard line socialists.
Nice useful piece Justin. Will share.
Greatly appreciate the review as I was left feeling unsatisfied by it, and your wisdom now has explained to me why. The book, to me, felt like going along for a car ride, gawking at unmentionable types of people, with no end in sight while on route to a comfortable dinner at a restaurant afterwards with no further mention of how to clean up what was just witnessed. I wish they would at least have had more courage to speak of structural oppression, but I see now why that was not the case. It did not occur to me to analyze it from an over-liberalized lens. I am enjoying learning about your background as well while combing through your writing. Thank you Justin, you are a great role model for my intellect and worldliness.
That was first published in 2006, so a bit dated now. Maybe the critiques of eco feminist scholars have been resolved...
https://www.instagram.com/p/CwPGfxAu3q7/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Ecofeminist critiques of Vandana Shiva, a patriarchal, pre-capitalist subsistence economy, science, tradition, etc. from union organizer and anti-imperialist, Esperanza!
Is it feminist though? What about Anuradha Ghandy’s critiques of Shiva in ‘Philosophical Trends in the Feminist Movement’? She criticizes Shiva for being reactionary, rejecting agro-science in favour of traditional subsistence agriculture.
I don't know Anuradha Ghandy but I think Shiva's analysis of agriculture is solid. I don't think she irrationally values keeping agriculture at a low tech level but she does value the diversity and a lot of other sound practices of traditional agriculture and she has done a lot to expose the corporate agriculture hype train(s).
I’m so curious about Vandana Shiva, Vedic Ecology and what’s being sold through Navdanya International now ...
I've read a lot of Vandana Shiva and I think while she has a Gandhian aesthetic, her writing is left, anticorporate, and materialist. I've never felt alarm bells going off reading her work.