Céline is an amazing graphic artist and she uses her amazing skills to sort through the absolutely insane clutter of mis/dis/un-informed takes that litter social media and RL conversations alike, among friends/family and among folks one bumps into on the street (trust me: as a seemingly benevolent extrovert with a dog I talk to everybody in the park and as of yesterday I now know that Angela Merkel “letting in the flood of migrants” in 2015 was a LEFT-WING COMMUNIST PLOT, according to an ANGRY German woman of affluence and approx 65 y/o … go figure)

I digress: let us welcome Céline Keller (who is very new to Second Life but seems to very much like her avatar which was created by Arietu Kiyori) and her upcoming work on the topic of degrowth, which is, unbeknowenst for the longest time to yours truly (maybe living in a virtual world made me so ignorant of REALITY?), a very controversial topic on the Left?

What?

Why?

Spoiler alert: I am firmly in the camp of folks who think the capitalist mode of production is not only harmful to the lives of every wage worker but also is destroying the only planet we have. Hence I am totally for degrowth concepts and I don’t find it har to walk and chew gum at the same time: degrowth does NOT mean we need to keep developing countries under the “boot” and restrict their growth in terms of achieving equitable living conditions for everyone, prosperity for everyone if you will.

I can think of (and so can Céline and many other smart peeps) any number of strategies how to restrict harmful ways of production, put laws into place to regulate the profiteering from goods that are destroying the environment, and all this while at the same time putting global justice right up front.

Maybe colonial attitudes by former and current “superpowers” and their very toxic corporate (unofficial in terms of being unelected, yet nonetheless leading, since neoliberalism rules us all) spokespeople - sorry, spell that “mouthpieces” (can you spell “Elon” and or “the Zuck” too?) - prevent the global north from abandoning their hypocrisy and LISTEN to folks in the global south who are disproportionately harmed by the climate crises?

Anyways: come to the show, chime in, we want to hear your opinion, let’s make this a lively discussion and hopefully we are exiting the virtual realm with new found context that can be spread around in the physical world as well?

Change minds and all that? Be an antidote to the deliberate deployment of confusion?

Not holding my breath that I’d ever be able to convince that lady from the park I referenced above, too late for that I reckon, but there are plenty of folks who still have retained their empathy and can be “rescued” from bad bad BAD actors from all sides of the political spectrum! Let’s do it with COMIC BOOKS !!!!

And until showtime: visit the Book Club archipelago and watch past shows via the playlist below:

If you'd like to suggest an author, please email slbookclub@draxtor.com.