Critical Hedonism(s): Radical Abundance: Understanding the Liberal Abundance Agenda and the Radical Alternatives to it

​In order to bypass politically-fraught questions of redistribution (namely, of scarce assets), some liberal writers and political commentators have recently articulated a version of post-scarcity politics oriented around increasing the supply of housing, infrastructure and other scarce/in-demand resources by cutting red tape, overcoming entrenched interests, and generally removing barriers to production/manufacturing/construction. More radical writers/theorists have pushed this “abundance agenda” further—arguing that, in addition to increasing the supply of artificially-scarce resources like housing and infrastructure, we must also redistribute land, resources and assets, create new ownership and stewardship models, and reduce the wasteful forms of what they call “bullsh*t abundance” that needlessly waste resources and pollute the biosphere. In this discussion we will debate the pros and cons of the liberal and radical versions of the abundance agenda and come up with ways that their visions can become reality.

​CFITICAL HEDONISM(S) is a free and open-to-the-public discussion space for exploring and interrogating topics, prompts, and questions pertaining to the politics of desire. The starting point of Critical Hedonism(s) is the realization that an essential part of changing the world is changing what we want, aspire for, and take pleasure in. Monthly discussions like this one offer a crucial method for understanding how desire is organized in our culture, and how it might be organized differently. We explore the injustices of desire, the ways in which it is used to manipulate, motivate and stratify, and how it is shaped by institutions. We also explore the inherent challenges of hedonism, and consider what kinds of frameworks could be used to mediate our relationship with it. For more about Critical Hedonism(s), see https://www.criticalhedonisms.com