Buen Vivir with Andrew

moving forward, how puts in? It becomes increasingly necessary, very very necessary to interrogate into uproot a lot of the

classical capitalist ideas embedded in our world. An ideology, for example, it just won't die, that idea of development, despite as many critics over the past few decades, despite the colonizing and post clear nations, people of those nations, you know, rallying against such projects development due to the harms they've caused socially, environments and otherwise, this ideology, this idea of development,

just won't die. Um. But here we are, and I think at least here in this podcast, among the audience of this podcast, we can agree that the time has come for some kind of alternate. Maybe some kind of alternative can happen here, you know, a different view, a new path you all recurrently have and stage right when Vivie, are you familiar with the concept, I'm not, Actually no fun to learn about it, all right? Well fantastic, So you could ask anything any questions you have about it

as I go along. So a lot of the early concepts related to this idea of gen Vivie arose in reaction to the classical economic development strategies that have ripped through communities in their environments. I'm talking, of course about acts of inclosure, prioritization, new life, new liberalization, economic imperialisms

and so forth. Capitalism and its element basically government projects that lying the pockets of politicians and bureaucrats, development banks, quote and quote that really never seem to fund the people directly. When Revered draws from this heritage, a heritage of indigenous communities, uh, particularly in South America. In some cultures, they have no concepts analogous to the modern western capitalist

concept of development. Of course, moderness and courts. There's no concept of a linear life, a linear time, even with a form and subsequent state. And so the idea of underdevelopment and development of primitive and advance just does not mesh with that ontology. And all these these concepts of wealth and poverty, no are they are necessarily concepts of wealth and poverty as we understand them based on the accumulation lack of material good. I've said when Revere probably

a dozen times by now. The question is what is when revere? In Latin America, the concept of ween vivere or good life or good living provides new alternatives to development. Um. And it's very honest to you. I feel like I feel like it's something that we should have been working on for a really long time. UM. You know, like me personally, I don't know what you James, but I really care about GDP growth or increase in return on investment. You know, I care about living a good life. I

care about gen vivere. And so I think the name of the philosophy, it's from the name of the concept itself automatically gets you to ask the question what is a good life? And the answer, the beauty of the answer is that you decide that I decide, that we decide that our communities decide that collaboratively. The good life is not some sort of policy for poosal or government project or development initiative for imposition. The good life is

a pluralistic concept. Is when nos confervas. It's a different ways of living well together. It's not a single homogeneous or unrealizable good life. It's not like this single homogeneous pursuit of profit that our entire system is built around. Now now, the good life breen Vere, it's more about people living well together in a community, in different communities, living well together at individuals and communities, living well with nature.

And that these concepts sound familiar, it's because you know, you must have heard it from other places. It's a it's a trend we're starting to see around the world in this twenty one century and even prior to then. Uh, these ideas are sully game one or esteem as time goes on. Um, you know, the ideas present in social ecology, the idea is present in various animals to ontologies, and they're really being or to the forefront in this time

because we need them now more than ever. Despite efforts of Western forces primarily to erase and to redact and to confine these ideas and these concepts of the realm of irrelevance or backwardsness or superstition they endure in sometimes new forms, as with gen Vivere. What view is about quality of life but also also the idea that quality of life will well being as individuals. It's only possible

within a community. The community which as I mentioned includes the floor and floor that surround us and in many ways that can be interpreted, which is the real beauty of it. So as a concept, you can look at gen Vivie. It's a two word phrase and it's also a double barrel of a concept, the two for one package of both criticism of the classical western capitalist notion

of development and an alternative to that. You're a centric tradition put onto indigenous traditions plural, and so that two for one package within that, and you can really unpack that package and see that you know, you see the idea of the same sort of basis that the growth is getting its critique from the same sort of ideas

being shared. And in terms of alternatives, when you look into Interviewer, you sort of see the anarchic bent that has become ever more present in new political imaginations over the past few years. At least it feels that way to me. That's um that sort of community oriented, autonomy oriented, liberatory deculding oriented mindset is becoming more and more prevalent. Of course, I could be you know, my own Internet biases and algorithms present to me what I want to see.

But I would like to think that more and more people exploring these ideas. Yeah, it is hard to say his n because I feel the same way, Like, am I am I seeing whatever? It's like, Oh, there's these new institutes and initiatives and programs and movements. It's so amazing all these things are developing. And then like you talk to somebody who is not like in this fair

and they haven't heard of any of it. Yeah, you know, it's like they don't think anarchism means, like, I don't know, throwing a breakthrough a window like that is the whole ideology. And yeah, I don't know. We can hope, we can hope, we can hope. I would like to think it's getting more prominance, but we can only hope. And so like so like anarkis are too keen on you know, necessarily submitting to earn as some sense that's like Google vote sens or some kind um. But I would like to

think that anarchic ideas. Um. I mean, and all the exploration that I've done of um various parts of the world. However, you know, shallow my expliration has been so far. Um, I just I see it could be my anarchist tinted glasses seeing anarchic principles and everything. But I see it in certain practices, in sign ideologies and sign ideas and you know, ways of living. And I think gen vere is a sort of a recognition of that in one sense, as there is no single gen vivere right, there is

no single good life you know, I might want. For example, my beIN view might look like sailing the Caribbean Sea, um, you know, touching down in various isylins and exploring the ecology therein. Or my good life it look like a more settled sort of homestead existence. Um. What sort of

a fusion of urban and rural living. Uh, sort of a good ending for the suburbs, way able to live in a walkable sort of environment and community that is both not too far from you know, the goings on of human social interaction, but also very much rooted and connected with, um, what's happening in the natural world. But I mean, what might yr good life your bend Revere

look like James. Yeah, that's interesting, isn't it. I think, Uh, you know, I grew up in a countryside, so it's light the idea of living in a rural area and still having community and having like that, being lives to nature, and still also being close to people who I care

about and being able to look after each other. I think it's interesting how often, like at least the sort of set like colonial concept of rural life or the construct of rural life I guess in America is like, oh, rugged individualist, m being on your own one In fact, like living in the countryside, people have look after one another. Yeah, exactly, exactly. We maintain this kind of this this false idea that it's you against see against the elements and crushing nature

and subjecting it to your will and all this stuff. Yeah, And I think that's there's something interesting about. At least people have spoken to um in various circles and stuff. I want to ask them, you know, what is your ideal life? What is your good life? I don't necessarily say when Revie, I just asked them, you know, what do you want? Um? And you dig into it, you

asked him a couple of problem questions and people. Despite ben Revere being a pluralistic concept, people tend to generally want similar things, and so it sort of begs the question, like,

why we in this situation? Please please, you know, because like everyone says, well, you know, I want like an involved community, and I want like I want to be able to like grow my plans, and I also want to be able to do my arts and uh, you know, enjoy my time of people and do a bit of travel and not work my whole life and that kind of thing. People of course phrase it and frame it in certain ways, and so that's why I asked the proving questions. Because I might initially say, oh, well, like

I want to retire early. I want to really dig into that means it's like I don't want to spend my whole life working, you know. Or they might say something like, um, you know, I want to I want to travel a lot. So I want to like start a business. When you ask them what kind of business they want to start, why they want to start a business, it really comes down to I want autonomy. I want

flexibility in my label. I want control of my own labor kind of thing, like, yes, of course they are people who have they couldn't qute entrepreneurial spirit who want to just be at the top of the food chain.

But then I think mostly entrepreneurs, they couldn't qut entrepreneurs that I've met up in people who just like, oh, well, you know, I started selling candles because I really like making candles and I wanted to share them with people, and ALUs need to make a living and I'm just passionate about it or whatever that kind of thing is. Under necessarily wanted to cruw it or whatever. They just want to be able to sustain themselves doing something that

they enjoy. Yeah, it's interesting because we're always sold like every new advancing technology and in production that comes along, like these concepts you're talking about, like like working less, having community, all these things always sold as what that's going to do, right, But instead we end up working more or the same amount and instead just generating more income for a certain group of people, like we don't

get any other good things. But yeah, there's there's always a carrot in whatever this kind of neoliberal capitalism that we have is, but we never get there exactly. That's the tragedy of it. Another aspect of you know, the idea of the good life is that it's not a static concept, right, It's not like we come up with this good life that's when we here where we want

for ourselves. Now we etch it into stone tablets and piously here to them forever like the Ten Commandments, like nah, you know, the good life is supposed to be flexible when reviewers wo responding to your conditions, the conditions of the community or ecology, etcetera, and really redefine and what it means to to live a good life continuously, you know,

in response to change in circumstances, because you know, changes life. Um. Of course, not is this idea to gut life quote unquote backward concept so problematic frame in and of itself, but um, sometimes you have to use problematic shortcuts to

community yates um effectively. But the idea of when reviewer is not like an invitation to return to some idea like past or ide like non past, you know, like non existent world that people are sort of mentally constructed, as in the case of a lot of the romanticization you see on social media UM and video. Is not like some kind of religion with its own rules and functions.

But it's and it's not Also it's not imposing that you must become a home insteader or a forager, you must live in a rural community to live a good life. There's more possibilities yet unrealized. UM. And it should be something that is, it should be considered something that is undergoing a constant construction and reproduction process. And that's I think way of the global potential that when videalize UM. You know, that's why I think there's viral potential for it.

I mean, of course, when you look at a lot of things that end up dominating the social media news cycle, it's a lot of negativity UM dominating current discourse right now, I think is the topic of masculinity and UM, particularly the prevalence of ah Andrew teats and you know, UM, you also have the constantly bubbling under the surface existence of in cells UM and so and then you go on TikTok. I don't know if you go on TikTok, James,

I don't know. That's the point I was good for It's just like anymore, Yeah, I should have made that decision, But I mean I kind of like TikTok because Um, I don't know how other people are curiates in their their fo you pages, but by four you pages UM a place I enjoy being out a bit too much, which is why I have like limits on my phone to prevent me from staying on TikTok for too long. But yeah, it's a place that I enjoy. And you see a lot of trends come and go on TikTok

right now. The big thing is like Niche stock and core core um, which I know is is probably Greek to you, yes, um, but in that general ve and if you were to see what those trends who, I think you get a sense when I'm talking about Niche Shock and Coco and then as well, so it seems to be an attempt to um rebrand the idea of Sigma um and the Sigma meal. It started off as

a very you know, patriarchical thing. And then I've seen a couple of different creators who who didn't a sort of an ironic or a post ironic sense um as a sort of a meme because it became a meme to make fun of people who take it seriously. Um. And then from that that sort of mumification of it,

people said, reclaimed the tomb um. And then it became a sort of you see, um, you see like a video where a guy um does something polite or something, you know, shiver us something kind and then the comments are like, um, typical sigma to you, true sigma, this is what true signal looks. Kind of Um. So I think it's just a national aspect. They fluid it to you the internet, the fickleness of the Internet, because I'm sure they're still they have mi misogynistic Sigma people, they

still exist. But then there's also people who memes themselves into a brand of Sigma. That's a kind of a way pseudo positive masculinity. It's kind of interesting. Um. I'll continue to do my TikTok anthropological research and and you know,

discuss my findings as this situation develops. But in that same vein of in that vein of communification, and those are developments, I think there is a potential of wen Vivere to become a global phenomenon, to have that Google potential, to have a global reach because and then there's something in it for the people. The there's also an anti work current present in a lot of TikTok trends, so you know, it's it's something too and I can again I see there's an anti current in the TikTok trends,

but those are the TikTok trends. I ain't being presented with the post ironic rebrandification or whatever. Sigma is something my for you p has given me. It's not necessarily reflective of the entirety of reality. And that's the scary part of the Internet, right, Like you're not seeing the full reality, you're seeing algorithmically produced version and skewed version

of reality. Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting to me how like like most people I encounter on a daily basis will not know what will where me and marras and like if I look at my Twitter page right now, it's just all like half of it. It's in Burmese, you know, and there's lots of people I follow and that that's like my reality. But yeah, sort of then I get really frustrated when when people don't have a clue what's going on there exactly exactly, it's it's it's it's kind

of tricky. It's kind of tricky because you really in terms that need really get a sense of how you know, in moments like those where you confront that in real life, it's like okay, so like my my possession of reality is like slightly skewed by the Internet, you know, yeah, in ways that I am aware and not aware of, in ways that other people are aware not aware of.

So that's interesting. But back to when review, right when we here, I think is also like a path for decolonization, you know, sort of a way to let go of a lot of the Western norms and impositions and speech and dress and labor and lifestyle and knowledge and social norms and relationships and ceteral and adopting ways of life that account for our cultures and conditions free of those mental by I think that it's the power of when review. So I guess another question arises, who or where or

when did when review come from? And so the radical questioning that birthed when Revere was made possible within several indigenous traditions in South America, which, as I said, culturally

lacked can can steps of developmental progress. And so the contribution of indigenous knowledge brend Revere continues to be the sort of critical threat associated values and experiences and practices and worldviews of interview already existed in some form before the arrival of Um European conquistadors, but they were of the process of qualization, silenced and marginalized, and even openly opposed.

Rendverea is part of a long legacy, long quest along pursuits of alternative lifestyles forged from the passionate battles of indigenous peoples and nations seeking new ways of life, seeking freedom from the Latin America and the quintessential Latin American oli called nation state. Brutish is of course rooted and clunealism and neo liberalism. And so we are seeing through

bend Revere within Renverea side of and review. Adjacent to review um utopias in the making, the imagination, the imagining of utopias of the Andes and of the Amazon that are shaping discourse, are shaping political projects that are shaping social and cultural and economic practice. The good life in review is not something that is unique to Latin America. Of course, it has been practiced many different epochs and regions of this Earth. It's been known by many different names.

The concept has been known by many different names in Ecuador, it's known as suma um, which is a Quechua wording for a fullness of life and community together with the persons in nature and believia the Aymara concept for it is called suma kamana in the Mapuche in Chile, and the Guarani in Paraguay, and the Coda and Panama, the Shua Naqua and Ecuadorian Amazon, the Maya and Guatemala and Chiapas Mexico, and of course the African too Ubuntu and

the Indian concept of sage. There are all these sorts of threads of what a good life for life and community, radical ecological democracy and community. All of these sort of concepts sort of threaded within developing dif front in different forms in different contexts. However, UM the concept has also been adopted in some sense by certain states, most notably Bolivia and Ecuador. Recently, Bolivia, you know, rewrote its constitution um establishing itself as a blury national state, and they've

taken it to what they quality vivid bien um. They're trying to basically propose economic model that accommodates various diverse cultural origins. In Ecuador, UM the conceptual freework is a be different. They take when vere and they use it as a sort of described as a set of rights, rights to shelter, to health, to education, to foods, the environment.

So it's less of an ethical principle, more of a complex set of rights that are also found in Western traditions but also include, uh you know, the the right to freedom, participation, communities, to protection, and to nature. Part of that recognition of the right to nature and the fundamental rights of water has led to the banning of any form of privatization of water um, and also the promotion of leaving crude oil in Ecuadorian Amazon blew the

ground um. However, I feel like I need to point out that I don't believe the state is compatible with the essence of when vie, with the practice of when year um. And so the use of those concepts and state propaganda uh in state rebranding efforts unnecessarily encouraging to me, doesn't necessarily make such dates the power gon. So they would paint themselves to be because to me, when video

can only really be grassroots concepts. So I think we must be careful of fall into that trap of accepting uh you know, state propaganda on the good life um, you know, compromising the concept and allowing it to be

co opted or watered down. As I previously noted, I think there's a major overlap between concept of de growth in the idea of when Revere I both agree that one of the fundmental problems is, you know, this idea, this constant commercialization of societal fabric kind of nature of criticism of capitalism, this criticism of the way that progress

felt an economic growth understood and implemented um. And so they almost they sort of complement each other, right because I think of criticism people have of the growth, is it as this destructive thing, as it's negative thing, as negative freemen. And so in a sense, when Vere and the growth can sort of be coupled, the growth as

the couldn't quote missile wood destructive. Well, when Vivie is you know, presenting a constructive alternative, as you know, we attempt to progress, to move away from capitalism, transitions and new systems. There's a lot to learn with have a lot we can learn from various non capitalist practices around the world. And I think gen vivere Um is a concept that really tries to look at the way is a way of harmoniously co existed as humans in our environment UM, and the way is that you know, a

good life can be combined with the growth efforts. There's also a measure of fluidity present in green vivere Um that seeks balance socially, ecologically, politically, economically. UM encompasses and encompasses within that balance people, plants, and animals. There's not separate nature from society as found in classical Western dualism.

And that sort of perspective is necessary if we were to move beyond the exploitation of nature for the properts of acumulating capitell that has really placed us in this mess and even in that and recognized and that we need to move beyond exploitation of nature. Baked into that because we are part of nature is a recognition that

we need to take stuff exploiting humans. They need to direct and nice human beings as part of a community, that we are not just as my individuals, that we are in communities, that we must be part of community used, that our community is the people within them and the lands we are part of must cooperate in harmony. I think there's a challenge to one review of course what verea is not restricted to the countryside, but it did,

it did originate there. Um. I think the challenge one review is to confront today's urban spaces very much of humanity's population lives UM, to find ways to deal with the environment respectfully and solidarity in an urban setting, to find to conceptualize a good life for and in cities. We can't exactly expect everybody to move to the countryside, nor should everybody, UM, and so we need to find ways that city life, urbanized life UM can be reconstrued structed.

And so one potential sort of way that that has manifested is through the transition towns movement, which you can look more into have something that interests you, where people are basically attempting to taking truth of their communities and not to survive the challenge that is climate change and to create uh, you know, sustainable economies and ecologies. Wherefore they find themselves movements. It can be found in many different countries. You know, you might even find it in

your area and your country. Look it up, um, and it has a lot in common with the concept of Wenevere Like I said, like I feel that there are selling different movements and ideas and philosophies, you know, sort of with the same ideas that seemed to be feel like they're on the rise. Ultimately, I believe wend Revere is highly ah subversive. I believe it looks not to return to the past or to uh, you know, get caught up in any kind of strict rules or positions.

It seeks a good life. It seeks to oppose cleanism and its consequences, to encourage new, more sustainable ways of living drawn from old examples and models, and to really create horizontal society, a cooperative society, so develop self management instead of new forms of top down governance. UM the one that rejects both the market and the state as solutions to our issues and looks to ourselves. One that looks one that rejects the markets and the state has

potential solutions and looks to ourselves. The idea of development is an almost a zombie category, as some writers have described it. It's supposed to be dead and yet it lives. And so gwen Vivere provides an opportunity to move away from developments and look towards When it recognizes that all may never create a perfect life, we can create a good life. That's it. Thanks here and that's really interesting.

I like that. You can find me on YouTube at andrewids m on to dot com slash and his co Seeing Drew, and if you're so inclined, you can support me on picture dot com slash Seeing Drew. This has been Andrew at It could Happen Here, with James signing off. It could Happen here as a production of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website cool zone media dot com, or check us out on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It could Happen Here, updated monthly at cool zone Media dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.