Hand (wringing) jobs to relieve stress/anxiety

I am to be an expert interviewee (I know, I know, I laughed too) in a project about climate change and “getting to net zero” barriers opportunities, blah blah.

And reading over the project info they sent, and the sets of things I am supposed to pick as barriers, it occurs to me that this is all just “Technocratic Handwringing.”

What do I mean?

I mean that there’s a style and framing of questions about human futures (not as long as it thinks, I think) that asks about new technologies and their diffusion, new patterns of consumption, new policy settings, individual psychology etc, as if these were necessary and sufficient for “The Great Change”.

I have yet to see one of these projects that puts in social movements, meaningful as opposed to Potemkin democracy, collective action (besides maybe voting, or at most petitions).

What’s going on is tame academics are able to “tackle” the “big” questions without ever escaping – or even SEEING – the neoliberal and technocratic bars of the cage.

So, it’s hand-wringing. And it’s therefore a hand job.

Yes, the title of the blog is a clickbaiting borderline wrong bait and switch blah blah blah.