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Politics for Joy & Species-Being
Beyond Equality by Jonny Thakkar for The Point "There is something naturally joyous and fulfilling about cooperating with other people... capitalism leaves us intellectually, aesthetically and creatively stunted. ...The point of making things affordable, in other words, is not primarily to rectify injustice but rather to bring about a better life for all. ...If the left is to pull people toward it, it needs to orient itself around a worldview that provides positive, erōs-inducing energy. And the only way to do that, I want to suggest, is to offer a vision of the good life that goes beyond the pursuit of equality."
posted by Isingthebodyelectric on Apr 15, 2026 at 10:49 AM
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This ought to be right up my alley, and very much in line with things I've been thinking about, but it's too philosophy-speak for me.
posted by DebetEsse at 5:20 PM
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suppose we had magically achieved a "just distribution of the benefits and burdens of social cooperation," to use the Rawlsian jargon. Would we necessarily have a good society, or might something still be missing?
existentialcomics has a funny take on rawls. seriously though, 'capacities' as mentioned in the article misses capabilities. the capability approach is founded in rawls, yet is more well-explored within martha nussbaum: The Capability Approach, as I have developed it, is a species of a human rights approach. It makes clear, however, that the pertinent goal is to make people able to function in a variety of areas of central importance. Some who use the approach use it simply comparatively; I myself have attempted to defend the use, for political purposes, and as a basis for constitutional thought, of a list of ten "Central Human Capabilities," including Life, Bodily Health, Bodily Integrity, the Development and Expression of Senses, Imagination and Thought, Emotional Health, Practical Reason, Affiliation (both personal and political), Relationships with Other Species and the World of Nature, Play, and Control over One's Environment (both material and social) [harvard (4-page pdf)]
posted by HearHere at 5:18 AM
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yet is more well-explored within martha nussbaum
Ooh that led me to the Human Development & Capability Association which I'd never heard of!
posted by Isingthebodyelectric at 5:34 AM
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