Book Review: Free Gifts - Capitalism and the Politics of Nature

Image: the cover of the book is a painting with a bright blue background and a dining table with a rust colored tablecloth in the foreground. On top of the table are the heads and bodies of several species of animals including a hod's head, a basket with a rabbit, pheasant, and other birds are strewn about. There is also a fruint bowl and a pile of vegetables. In the upper left corner is "free gifts" in white. In the center in yellow is "capitalism and the politics of nature." And in the right corner in white is the author's name Alyssa Battistoni.

It can be difficult to review an academic book like Alyssa Battistoni's Free Gifts - Capitalism and the Politics of Nature as a non-academic- or at least as someone who never specialized in this particular field. I feel the need to make the caveat that as a result I may have missed or misunderstood something. I would say that this book is fairly dense and somewhat jargony, but still readable if one is able to take the time and focus denser texts require. The amount of literature that the author reviews throughout the text is impressive. She introduces several new terms. At times I had to go back to bookmarks or to reread things to figure out what was the author's argument and what was an assessment of another writer. That is less a criticism of the writing style and more and acknowledgment of my own stressed out attention span while reading this. 

Battistoni's assessment and summation of capitalism and its history taught me some things that I don't often see in discussions about the topic. The author frames the ability to refuse pollution or to impose pollution on others is a form of class rule. She also discusses past feminist movements' attempts to argue against the idea that labor associated with women (child rearing, housework, etc) being "natural" or nature oriented is inaccurate, and thus said work should be paid. (The author also acknowledges the BIPOC women doing said labor for white women.) Battistoni turns this argument on it's head by acknowledging that something being natural should not mean that it's exploitable.

There is also much discussion about the struggle to categorize nature. Some neoliberal solutions (sometimes seen as a necessary evil) to convince capitalists to believe that respecting nature is in their favor can backfire when they run into a part of nature that resists exploitation, or where the "profit" being discussed is not solely monetary and immediate. There are pieces of the natural world that are capitalized upon and exploited to extinction and others that resist commodification. There will always come a point we're nature is not seen as profitable by capitalists even if it IS infinitely more "profitable" to the human race and the more than human world to protect. It is too costly to capitalism to exploit everything, therefore the socialization of nature as a public source (the public here includes other species,) is a better alternative even for neoliberal and further conservation proponents. Another argument I appreciated is the author's discussion of how many across the political spectrum argue that to protect or respect the natural world would mean destroying our own lives and luxuries. There is a sort of black and white thinking that we are either in this high waste capitalist dystopia or complete primitivism. The author offers ideas that show how one can reduce destruction and exploitation without necessarily taking away quality of life and in fact can often improve quality of life.

Battistoni's language is often on point, such as saying things like "more than human world" or "other than human animals." Yet, at times it's still feels like the author is looking at other animals through a lens of product and capitalism alone. I found that the author focused a bit more on nature as a homogeneous whole for the sake of argument which is advantageous in some ways and disadvantageous in others. There are sections where I felt very engaged by her discussion about how capitalism affects other than human animals, ecosystems, etc. However, more than once, said discussions focusing on those victims were often cut short to return to centering the effects on humans. Perhaps this is an unfair criticism given the broader topic of the book, but it seems like a missed opportunity to treat other animals as an important category of beings with a variety of conscious experiences who are very much active members of systems of exploitation. I also felt that the book missed the opportunity throughout multiple sections to engage with the idea that animals are part of the working class. Battistoni occasionally references thinkers who are more in line with animal liberation but in my opinion doesn't engage enough with their ideas. She also discusses power imbalances between humans and other animals deftly, but still needs to push a little further in my opinion.

This lack of inclusion can cause other problems when one is making an argument about whether or not certain actions would be effective and combating capitalism. There's is occasionally a worn dichotomy made between individual change (portrayed as useless or capitalistic) and systematic change (confronting those at the top) which tires me to no end on the left. Harm to ecosystems and other animals have occurred since long before capitalism ever existed. The death of the ocean and ecosystems worldwide are not solely capitalist issues. Extinctions, exploitation, cruelty, etc have all occurred throughout human existence even back to the most primitive of times. So, one can claim that organizing workers in these industries would be combating capitalism, but by conveniently leaving out the animals victimized by said industries, it makes it seem that combating capitalism would solve the problem whereas avoiding harm to animals when possible would not. I do not think there is a fair dichotomy that actually exists in the world between individual change and systemic change. Furthermore, many systemic changes are a bunch of individuals making changes together.

The author does acknowledge that we can never return to a planet of the past, which is an important distinction often missing from some leftists assessments of the world. The author does not see through rose colored glasses nor does she make the argument that an anti-capitalist framework would suddenly solve all of the problems with society. She makes the far more grounded argument that a more socialized system offers more options to confront problems head on. Many collective liberation, (animal inclusive) anarchist, and indigenous authors' texts support this author's thesis that we must move forward from where we are and incorporate decolonial knowledge without assuming that we can undo everything that has been done and return to a mythical pristine nature harmony that never existed. We must envision and create something new.

The author also encourages the reader not to fall into despair. While things are very bad and they have continued to get worse, that is not a reason to give up entirely. This is another test where I have encountered the "hope without hope" idea that basically fuels me daily- even if only due to the reality that things can and will get even worse than they are now without intervention. The author holds on to some hope that there are still some things that can be healed, some things that can be prevented, and some things that can be overcome.

Overall this was a heavy book with a lot of information that took me a long time to read. I have my criticisms but also believe that it adds a lot of important points of discussion and examples of what a better and more cooperative world could look like.

This was also posted to my goodreads and storygraph.

Book Review: Read This When Things Fall Apart

 

Image: The cover of the book is an illustration of a person standing in waist deep water staring out towards a dark blue night sky. The person is drawn in black with long hair and surrounded by lily pads. The water is surrounded by tree silhouettes and flowers. The sky has constellations drawn connecting the stars. The moon in the center has "read this" in black letters. Below that in soft yellow is "when things fall apart" Below that in green "letters to activists in crisis." And on the bottom in yellow is "edited by Kelly Hayes."

I read the anthology Read This When Things Fall Apart at a time when my life had fallen apart within a country falling apart within a world falling apart. This book brought up a lot of feelings. I believe that things like burnout, loneliness, relationship conflicts, and lack of support systems for disability, illness, and aging are some of the biggest threats to activist movements. We can never run long on fumes, vibes, adrenaline, excitement nor despair, urgent anxiety, immediate crisis, and so on. I was never one to find balance in any of these and it is part of what resulted in my own stepping back from most organizing years ago. On top of inevitable things like illness and massive life stress, hyper focusing on activism without building relationships outside of it is a common issue (and is even encouraged by some movements and cultures.) This sort of isolation means that many people do not have anyone to hold their hand and ease the pain of experiencing and/or witnessing the many horrors of the world. Or if they do, they are sometimes too close to offer what someone may need. Enter Kelly Hayes who put together a collection of letters from organizers/activists to others.

The collection follows a similar format with each entry: "Read this when X," followed by words from organizers who then sign off with, "Sincerely, X." The actual content of each entry was a bit variable. Some letters feel very intimate, like the author is sitting there with you and connecting on a personal level. Other entries read a bit more like essays, discussing changes we need to implement and sharing experiences to learn from. 

While all entries had their strengths, I had a few favorites. "If You're Witnessing the Unthinkable," by Eman Abdelhadi about genocide in Gaza (and beyond) was immensely heart wrenching yet hopeful and supportive. It brought tears to my eyes while also leaving me a little more open minded about the future. Aaron Goggans' "If You Are Struggling with Your Mental Health" was a refreshing follow up to the more flawed entry preceding it (more below on that.) He does well to discuss the intertwined relationship between the sensitivity and drive that can both make one good at organizing and also make one vulnerable to trauma. It also introduced me to The Wildseed Society. "If You Are Fighting Deportations and You're Afraid or Discouraged" by Aly Wane brings clarity to the fight against the destructive system of organized terror being waged by ICE and other oppressive institutions. He encourages us to look at the bigger picture and not let details or individual flaws hide the reality of where things could be if we kept going. I also appreciated Shane Burley's entry on fascism. Even though it was one of the entries that felt a bit more like an essay than a letter, it confronts some important truths and conflicts within leftist movements that we need to overcome. Reading this book also pointed me in the direction of other books to add to my endless to-read list such as such as No Cop City, No Cop World edited by Micah Herskind who contributed "If You're Losing and discouraged." I was familiar with many of the authors therein, but this was my first interaction with others.

I found the entry on suicide to be frustrating. It is the longest in the book yet the most flawed. It has strong moments, discussing how mental health causes people to act imperfectly or downright abusive and how this isolates and breaks people apart. However, her entry is less of a supportive letter and more borderline trauma dumping in ways I did not find helpful for such a critical topic that so many of us deal with. Other authors balanced the sharing of personal experiences with the supportiveness of the books format much better. The author also frustratingly diagnoses herself with TWO new illnesses (including DID and a subgroup of PTSD.)* This author was also given a second entry collaboration with another person about disability which is better, but I would have preferred a second entry from one of the other authors instead. I loved this author's work for years, so it is frustrating for that reason as well. Fortunately, the following entry about mental health by Aaron Goggans makes up for the flaws of the suicide entry. 

Read This When Things Fall Apart is another one of those books that I wish would have existed when I was younger. There is so much here that I benefited from even now that could have changed my entire trajectory back then. I hope that it offers support to the organizers of today, especially as I watch my country further expand and strengthen its fascist regime. This is one of the most heinous times in our history- and that is saying something. I fear things will get worse, but hold onto a glimmer of hope. History has taught us how bad things can get and how these things are repeated when we do not learn important lessons. It has also taught me that organized and passionate people can fight those things and win.

This was also posted to my goodreads and storygraph.

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*I didn't want to make too much of this review about this one entry, so I have added this elaboration as an optional end. This entry caused me to put the book down for a bit and had the opposite of the effect the book is seeking out. I know some will bristle at these criticisms, so here is more info on what I mean: I am not against people looking into their struggles and figuring out what they suspect may be going on before seeking higher care- that is good. I am aware of the atrocious healthcare systems both in the USA and elsewhere that complicate access. Pathologizing every single human experience, fixating on or shopping for diagnoses that are most popular in media or social circles, and publicly misrepresenting illnesses- that can take a long time to properly diagnose even by trained people- in an endless telephone game has become a big issue in some communities. It's Schrödinger's diagnosis- wherein seeking professional diagnosis is avoided because doctors are (oppressive/inept/stupid/inaccessible) yet the diagnoses themselves created by doctors are concrete, real, and require no medical training to assess. This is not just simply an annoying phenomenon- it can result in people NOT receiving the correct treatment or help they need (as many diagnoses share features) which can result in worsening illness that becomes harder to treat or even suicide that this essay is meant to prevent. I have severe OCD for instance which shares traits with other disorders whose therapy worsens OCD. Some self-dxers have even advocated removing diagnoses from definitions of disability- which means removing accommodation funding. Doctors are human which means they can absolutely be shitty, but years of intensive education and observed clinical practice is not the same as googling things, chatting with friends, online tests, and highly biased self assessment. Doctors don't self diagnose either- especially not with psychiatric illnesses- because they understand priming, confirmation bias, and the importance of an external observer. 

The right has their anti-science aspects (ivermectin, mask refusal outside of ICE gestapo, racist "research," etc) and we on the left have our own (self dx, treating covid and cancer with homeopathic "medicine," etc.) The author also mentions being against Medical Assistance in Dying which I know is a stance among some disability justice folks due to valid fears of coercion. However, I am tired of MAiD being organized against at every turn as I know what it is like to watch people die slowly in agony or be resuscitated even with a DNR after attempting to end life on their terms. Is the option of choosing to die of starvation and dehydration (which can still sometimes legally be interrupted) kinder to disabled people facing terminal illness? How can we discuss suicide and what can lead to it without engaging with this topic properly? I have faced some things myself and a 4th cancer could come at any moment. I disagree that the only options are genocide or die in agony. I think we can pair medically assisted dying with better support for disability accommodations.