Abstract
As the title suggests, in this book, Oli Mould sets out seven separate ethics to resist capitalism. Mould is clear that capitalism isn’t working and cannot be fixed. The solution lies in replacing it with a ‘planetary commons’, which he characterises as a mode of socio-economic organisation that recognises our intimacy with the planet and the potentials it offers. He sees the commons and resistance through the practice of ‘commoning’ as a historical constant to which we can recur when looking for a system alternative.
Commons and ‘commoning’ are somewhat ‘nebulous concepts’ (p. 11), but towards the end of the book, Mould gives a definition and his intention becomes clearer: ‘Commoning is the act of resisting capitalist accumulation and replacing it with a democratic management and equitable allocation of shared resources’ (p. 175). Moulds imbues the ‘planetary’ in ‘planetary commons’ with a multitude of subtle meanings but, it is fair to summarise it as the recognition of the multiple interdependences of human and non-human life across the planet when creating the commons. The ethics that Moulds highlights in the book are supposed to be ‘infectious’ and allow ‘for the continuation of commoning’ (p. 22) – they provide purpose and motivation to persist and guide action in the right direction.
The first ethic, which Moulds also identifies as the core one is mutualism. This ethic rejects self-interest and individualism, which underpin (neo)liberalism as the ideology of capitalism, in favour of mutual aid and empathy (at a planetary scale).
The second ethic is transmaterialism which aims to combat commodity fetishism and instead build positive, non-exploitative relationships with each other and the planet and its resources rather than submit to the hidden social relationships that impose themselves through commodity exchange in capitalism.
Minoritarianism is the third ethic Mould discusses. The starting point is that the oppression and marginalisation of minorities pinpoint the fault lines of contemporary society and by ‘becoming minor(itarian)’ (p. 81), the status quo is destabilised and alternative ways of being are opened up and legitimised.
Decodification resists societal control through numerical measures. Codification promotes marketisation and erases qualitative difference.
The fifth ethic, slowness, counters instant gratification and ephemeral consumerism in favour of creating space – ‘the abundance of the present’ (p. 135f) – to ‘inculcate a radically different reading of the world around us’ (p. 137).
Embracing failure, as the sixth ethic, is to refuse the system-conformant definitions of success, to question narratives of failure and seek the opportunities for alternative living in failure.
The final ethic is love, and in particular, love defined as agapē. Etymologically, agapē refers to the mutual love between god and humankind. This love is unconditional, escapes the logic of means–ends relationships in capitalism and thus opens up fundamentally different ways of relating to each other and the natural world.
In the conclusion, Mould develops a playful version of the world of 2030 that turned the tide. He expresses hope that the Covid pandemic, which he perceives to have ruptured capitalism and revealed ‘commoning and anticapitalist truths’ (p. 189), will turn into a radicalising ‘event’ that triggers long-term systemic change.
With this book, Mould offers us a roadmap for breaking with capitalism. A systemic break with capitalism requires anti-capitalist practice in its ‘cracks’ – both to experiment and to demonstrate that alternatives are not only possible but that they are desirable and superior. With the concept of a ‘planetary commons’, Mould provides a positive destination – to be further defined through actual ‘commoning’. With the ethics, he provides some guidelines to where to look for ‘cracks’ and how to exemplify (and sustain) anti-capitalist practice.
As much as the approach is exemplary, the execution is flawed in a number of ways. For a book that is presumably aimed at a more popular audience, its language is academic and in places downright obscure. In too many instances, academic jargon covers vagueness and a lack of logic. Some concepts in the book are subtle and rich but that cannot be an excuse to avoid pinning them down more clearly – if only to expose the gap between what sounds plausible in principle and how that could be made to work in practice.
The selection of the seven ethics seems to be more informed by Mould’s intellectual interests (Deleuze and Guattari feature prominently) than a systematic choice. As Mould points out, ‘there may be more, there may be less. They are not a framework for a future world [. . .]’ (p. 189f). Nonetheless, they could have been presented in a more coherent way. The material on minoritarianism and failure is the most thought-provoking and interesting – in particular the anti-systemic strategies of becoming minor and queering. The chapter on decodification focuses on measurement when the question of target-setting and management practice could have provided the basis for a rich discussion of the definition of success and normality (including, for example, the codification of psychological disease/normality in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013)). An ethic on anti-hierarchy/equality of power would have been highly relevant to address the governance of the commons.
The seven pages presenting the world of 2030 (178ff) are a tremendous let-down. We are invited to imagine a number of heroic individuals (like future US President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) putting the world to rights. Ultimately, Mould does not seem to trust the power of his ethics to achieve bottom-up change through ‘commoning’. A future European de-growth law mandates ‘putting worker well-being and ecological sustainability above profit making as corporate goals, and [eradicates] the incentives for corporate corruption almost overnight’ (p. 181) and conveniently puts an end to capitalism by legislative writ rather than hard struggle.
This book gives a rich perspective on creating system change through establishing radical ‘commoning’ alternatives within capitalism and an ethical commitment to the objective of a planetary commons. Unfortunately, its execution is stuck in academic discourse and seemingly also in a naïve idealism. Nonetheless, the approach is an important contribution that others can hopefully modify and build on.