Book Review: Slow Down by Kohei Saito

We are facing an imminent calamity that places enormous existential repercussions on the entire planet that we live on. Climate change is an unprecedented challenge that we, as the human race, have to tackle, and we cannot deny that it is brought about by ourselves. We pumped an enormous amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere continuously for around two centuries, from the emergence of the industrial revolution, with its quantity increasing progressively every next moment. Today, the proportion is so high in the atmosphere that the climate of our earth, which emerged from the balance of several variables through activities that spanned millions of years, is changing for the worst and threatening even our existence. 

It is not that the world is unaware of this threat or is complacent in its actions. Most nations in the world have formulated policies and targets to reduce their respective carbon footprints in a timely manner to prevent any disastrous outcomes. The United Nations has created the Sustainable Development Goals, a collection of seventeen objectives that emphasise climate action. It is identified that even when climate change is a global issue, its effects are not evenly distributed and will be affecting those nations that are already impoverished, especially the Global South. Thus arose the concept of climate justice, which tries to protect the rights of these vulnerable populations. But on the implementation side, there are numerous geopolitical barriers that prevent prompt and regular addressing of most of these issues, like wars, mistrust between nations, political shortsightedness, plain selfishness, and greed for profit. 

Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto is a book written by famous Japanese philosopher Kohei Saito that tries to propose a solution to the immediate redressal of climate change challenges. The book, which was originally written in Japanese, is translated into English by Brian Bergstrom. I received an advance review copy from its publisher, Astra Publishing House, through Netgalley in exchange for my feedback. 

The basic premise of the book is that climate change is the direct result of the impact of capitalistic policies on the world economy, and the only path forward is a Communist degrowth of the economy. The writer puts the total blame for climate change on the capitalist philosophy of unchecked and never-ending ambition for growth and argues that the measures now proposed for containing this menace cannot be implemented successfully by systems that are biassed towards growth and its measurement by the GDP. He criticises the 'green' proposals, like shifting to electric cars, when the production of electric cars according to the demands of the global population will need more reliance on fossil fuels, which will in turn accelerate the dangers of climate change.

 His solution to degrowth is based on Marxist principles. But these aren't the ones that Marx and Engels arrived at while they wrote The Communist Manifesto. During that period, his theory was productivistic and described that the efficiency of production will grow in a capitalist system along with the exploitation of the proletariat, resulting in commodities being overproduced and a majority of the working class being unable to purchase them. The capitalist system will face a crisis causing unemployment among the masses, and finally, the working class will rise to bring about the socialist revolution. 

But in later years, Marx studied in depth about the pre-capitalist agricultural societies where small communities controlled production and the distribution of wealth among themselves and did not much bother about economic growth while giving more priority to sustenance. It is this idea of commons that Saito tries to develop into a working model of Communist degrowth that can, as per him, prove to be the only solution that can save humanity from immediate climatic challenges. 

This is distinctly different from the Soviet or Maoist style of centralised and state-controlled governance, which, as per the author, was a wrongful interpretation of the philosophy of Marx, which he arrived at only at the tail end of his life and which even his collaborator Engel failed to comprehend while completing the volumes of Das Capital following Marx's demise. This change in the philosophy of Marx, as per Saito, is evident in his studies about how the pre-capitalist communities handled the commons and the handwritten notes that he prepared during it, which incidentally are being collected in multiple volumes. 

Saito's proposal for the world to combat climate change is the total demolition of capitalism and the obsession with economic growth, which is an inherent part of it. He argues that governments all over the world are incapable, as they cannot opt for anything that could potentially hamper economic growth. Saito proposes the restoration of commons—provisions like air, food, water, education, power, medical care, etc.—that are essential for human sustenance, of which the operation and distribution have to be undertaken by the common people in a democratic way without any interference from the government or experts. The pathway is to be through non-violent civil disobedient movements like the People Power Revolution of 1984 in the Philippines or the 2003 Revolution of Roses in Georgia. 

Slow Down is a passionate cry for the knocking down of capitalism, to stop the obsession for continuous growth, and to restore the Marxist idea of the commons. The book is very verbose in its criticism of capitalism, though I cannot find any serious data that backs up several claims that the author makes. I am not denying that the obsession with growth is dangerous for our survival, and the incontinent technological advances that are unsustainable are the reason for the situation we find ourselves in. But the writer seldom goes beyond his claims and declarations and certain quotations from fellow thinkers to push his points. 

Most of his solutions can be implemented and may work locally, but I have serious doubt if they can be put to use for defending ourselves against a forthcoming global catastrophe. The concept of several independent mass protests erupting around the world simultaneously doesn't sound that right either. There are so many variables that can go wrong to provide a consistent result. Throwing the spanner on a functioning economy can also be a disastrous attempt. 

For example, Bangladesh is an emerging textile superpower. Just suppose that the developed nations are reducing textile imports considerably. The entire nation will crumble down in days before any kind of alternate 'degrowth' strategy can be employed. Rampant and sudden poverty will demolish social and systemic structures. An entire generation may go towards crime and extremism. 

The concept of degrowth is a necessity in today's world. The pathway that Saito has laid out is intelligent and workable. But to use it as your only weapon against a calamity of such gigantic proportions will be suicidal, a kind of existential hara-kiri.