In this world, the Great Recession of 2008 did not end. The jobs did not return: what jobs there were paid less, were more unpleasant, were available more erratically, harder to come by and harder to endure. Even people who thought they were well-off enough to have many years of runway found that in time, many years become few years become months; those who were less well-off, which was a lot of them, eventually couldn't make the rent and lost their homes.
This is not to be confused with one of the other parallel worlds, of people who have been poor for generations. These are first-generation poor, people who thought the world was on an upward trend and learned that their world, at least, was not.
When one learns that one has entered this new world, the big question one has is, of course, "How do we get back?". After enough years, one tends to stop asking this question, and instead the big question becomes:
"How do we adapt--physically, intellectually, emotionally--to our world as it actually is? How do we come to an acceptance of the circumstances in which we find ourselves?"
Today, we look at degrowth as an attempt to answer this question.
Readings
I don't know of any solid overviews of degrowth as seen through this lens, so here is a kaleidoscopic view.
1. What do these posts get right? What do they get wrong? What cruxes do you think could push you closer to their position(s), and what do you think might push them away from their positions?
2. What parts of your sense of How the World Fundamentally Is do you suspect are contingent on the exact particulars of your life history?
3. How robust would your way of life be against downward mobility? Of you personally; of your social circle; of your civilisation?
4. What are some hedonic treadmills you would like to try walking backwards on?
This meetup is at a different location!
Meet in front of the Clay and Glass Gallery (east side) at 7 PM. At 7:20, we will head over to Waterloo Park.
Discussion
Climate doomers! Degrowthers! Energy-descent prophets! Our competing apocalypse cult!
But we're not here today to look at them as competition. Everyone has something to teach.
There is a parallel world.
In this world, the Great Recession of 2008 did not end. The jobs did not return: what jobs there were paid less, were more unpleasant, were available more erratically, harder to come by and harder to endure. Even people who thought they were well-off enough to have many years of runway found that in time, many years become few years become months; those who were less well-off, which was a lot of them, eventually couldn't make the rent and lost their homes.
This is not to be confused with one of the other parallel worlds, of people who have been poor for generations. These are first-generation poor, people who thought the world was on an upward trend and learned that their world, at least, was not.
When one learns that one has entered this new world, the big question one has is, of course, "How do we get back?". After enough years, one tends to stop asking this question, and instead the big question becomes:
"How do we adapt--physically, intellectually, emotionally--to our world as it actually is? How do we come to an acceptance of the circumstances in which we find ourselves?"
Today, we look at degrowth as an attempt to answer this question.
Readings
I don't know of any solid overviews of degrowth as seen through this lens, so here is a kaleidoscopic view.
Between Two Worlds - Rachel Donald (2025)
The Way is Shut - Tom Murphy (2012)
The Brittleness Trap - Alex Steffen (2024)
Walking Backwards on the Hedonic Treadmill - Tyler Disney (2023)
About ERE - Jacob Lund Fisker (2016)
Supplemental:
Do the Math blog index (looking at the blog as a whole, with an eye to the character arc the author undergoes over the course of the 2010s)
Nate Soares' outreach to degrowthers [transcript]
Pick any Do the Math post on improving a household's energy efficiency that interests you
Question List
1. What do these posts get right? What do they get wrong? What cruxes do you think could push you closer to their position(s), and what do you think might push them away from their positions?
2. What parts of your sense of How the World Fundamentally Is do you suspect are contingent on the exact particulars of your life history?
3. How robust would your way of life be against downward mobility? Of you personally; of your social circle; of your civilisation?
4. What are some hedonic treadmills you would like to try walking backwards on?
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