It's yet another word for libertarian communism / anarcho-communism / anarchism / communalism in the tradition of Bakunin, Kropotkin, Bookchin and Graeber. Obviously it has a long and interesting intellectual tradition. The basic principles are rejection of all forms of social hierarchy and inequality (nobody can give orders, and all work is voluntary), and rejection of private property (you get access to what you currently need from the shared resources of the community). Perhaps the only law needed would be to prohibit doing harm, or risking harm, to others, at least without their consent. The few practical implementations (in a Western, developed context) have generally succumbed to outside forces, such as Catalonia in the 1930s, and perhaps Rojava today.
Beyond Cyberpunk: Towards a Solarpunk Future
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Re: Beyond Cyberpunk: Towards a Solarpunk Future
#42Regardless of the ideas the word and 'movement' will just become another brand ... I love William Gibson (Neuromancer), Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell. Do I love cyberpunk? Ehhh ....
Re: Beyond Cyberpunk: Towards a Solarpunk Future
#43It's yet another word for libertarian communism / anarcho-communism / anarchism / communalism in the tradition of Bakunin, Kropotkin, Bookchin and Graeber. Obviously it has a long and interesting intellectual tradition. The basic principles are rejection of all forms of social hierarchy and inequality (nobody can give orders, and all work is voluntary), and rejection of private property (you get access to what you cu…
Punk and the anarchy movements are orthogonal to Libertarianism. They require you to get over yourself enough to both talk to, and care about, your neighbors.
Re: Beyond Cyberpunk: Towards a Solarpunk Future
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
In 2020, being wholesome - not addicted, not acquisitive, not narcissistic, not "dark and edgy", not alienated - is the ultimate narrative taboo.
> not addicted, not acquisitive, not narcissistic, not "dark and edgy", not alienated is the ultimate narrative taboo. And the curious thing is that being "wholesome" - at least in the 1950s kind of way - is just the narrative that the addicted acquisitive narcissists of today appeal to. Topsy turvy times indeed.
Yeah, my workin theory is we are twenty years away from a New Victorianism.
Re: Beyond Cyberpunk: Towards a Solarpunk Future
#45It's yet another word for libertarian communism / anarcho-communism / anarchism / communalism in the tradition of Bakunin, Kropotkin, Bookchin and Graeber. Obviously it has a long and interesting intellectual tradition. The basic principles are rejection of all forms of social hierarchy and inequality (nobody can give orders, and all work is voluntary), and rejection of private property (you get access to what you cu…
Punk and the anarchy movements are orthogonal to Libertarianism. They require you to get over yourself enough to both talk to, and care about, your neighbors.
The word libertarianism was originally used in the communist context, and was also called anarchism, and was opposed to authoritarian communism. It was later hijacked (in the US context) by property-worshipping followers of John Locke and the like.
Re: Beyond Cyberpunk: Towards a Solarpunk Future
#46Solarpunk is to solar technology as steampunk is to the industrial revolution. I mean that pejoratively. These x-punks are generally an aesthetic set-dressed with anachronistic and impossible developments that don't mesh together. (Though I suppose I would also say that of most cyberpunk written this century.) I would like more SF authors working mostly within the constraints of known physics and considering how ecos…
You can always do better than now locally. And that’s all there is to it. Perfect is the enemy of done; who needs a factory or a megastructure?
Re: Beyond Cyberpunk: Towards a Solarpunk Future
#47The problem with solarpunk is right there in its name: Nearly everything that gets labeled solarpunk is simply not punk. Punk music was born as an expression of the cultural and economic alienation of youth in Thatcher's UK. Cyberpunk was the extrapolation of this into a world defined by the trends of the 1980s: accelerating technology that dehumanizes, unchecked globalization, runaway capitalism that leaves a perman…
> alienation of youth in Thatcher's UK.
For you, growing up there and then. For us in the US in the 80s, it was similar. But both showed other cultures it was ok to say No to growing up to be part of the machine your parents accepted. And it is just as much punk to now give you the finger as it was when we did too. No one owns it and trying to do so is very much gatekeeping and Not Punk.
Do I want to puke when some teenager wears a Dead Kennedys shirt they bought at Hot Topic? Sure. But it may be they’re a better person than me, kinder or nicer or harder or whatever. Let them be punks too. Because god knows we need them.
Re: Beyond Cyberpunk: Towards a Solarpunk Future
#48The one problem I have with solarpunk is that much of the fiction is simply not that good. I think most emblematic of that is maybe Cory Doctorow's book "Walkaway". I have lately come to accept that the book had a huge influence on me; it just keeps coming up in conversation. Well... I bring it up, because it struck a chord, and because it fits well with the conversations I have. But the writing is so.... aaaargh, so…
Another solarpunk influence is Ursula Le Guin. The issue is that Le Guin is a one-of-a-kind, amazingly good writer and most solarpunk writers...aren't that.
Re: Beyond Cyberpunk: Towards a Solarpunk Future
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Punk and the anarchy movements are orthogonal to Libertarianism. They require you to get over yourself enough to both talk to, and care about, your neighbors.
The word libertarianism was originally used in the communist context, and was also called anarchism, and was opposed to authoritarian communism. It was later hijacked (in the US context) by property-worshipping followers of John Locke and the like.
Which is wonderful, but less than likely the context your typical HN galaxy brain means when he mentions it.
Re: Beyond Cyberpunk: Towards a Solarpunk Future
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
>"Solarpunk," to me, sounds pretty wholesome and very much in line with the direction that society wants to go. I'm not sure if you're paying attention, but current society wants capitalism and consumption until the earth has been pillaged. For instance, Joe Biden said no fracking after 2050. That's 30 years from now.
Biden would be what 107 years old by that time.
He’s Biden his time.