The Modernocene: Progress, Race, Capitalism, and Climate Catastrophe has come to an end. The class I mean. I walk away thinking however that many wish my former statement was true. This class has highlighted that our perceptions of progress, race, and value for capitalism, as Professor Nauman would assert, are the cause of our climate catastrophe. Individualistic and environmentally disconnected growth had led to the disassociation of people and people from their environment – this disconnect is perpetuated by our perceptions of progress, and race and value for capitalism.
As such, it may not be an end to these things that we need, but the need for a significant makeover is glaringly clear. A makeover that glues equal rights of environment and people, equal distribution of resources and bounded growth to these societal and economic structures. We cannot continue to live as though more growth and development is the value of our existence.
This class encouraged a mass reassessment of values I’ve held close of growth, development, and technology. For long I’ve believed in the advantage and merit of green energy and green market forces. Now I look at these things differently by the way that they preserve our notions of growth that stimulate our climate catastrophe.
So much of this class has made me question my context. I urge everyone to take a class like this because questioning the economic and societal structures unique to each student’s interests and context is what will drive paradigmatic change.
