
Wasteocene
22min
The economic history of the 20th century clearly highlights the effects of capitalism: intensely polluting factories, contaminated environments, people and animals whose health is endangered by spills, toxic clouds, and the impossibility of escaping from the system. What many people may not know is that, as capitalism turns into the Wasteocene (the age of waste), this no longer only concerns material waste and polluting chemicals, but also people and communities, which are often victims of their disadvantaged status, of being the ‘them’ as opposed to the ‘us’ of the system and powers-that-be. It is extremely hard to describe these disadvantages and disparities, because the Wasteocene effectively imposes a dominant narrative that is impossible to undermine. It is therefore crucial that we remember the stories and the voices of the outcasts, of the discarded.
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