THE IMPERIAL MODE OF LIVING
The mode of living and production of most people in the Global North is imperial, because it can only exist by systematically accessing the cheapest labour and the cheapest resources elsewhere. It is exclusive and not infinitely generalizable – for it always needs places and people to whom the costs are outsourced. As it spreads and intensifies, it increasingly pushes boundaries, leading to earth heating, scarcity of resources, conflicts and wars.
The paradox of the imperial way of life is that most people in the Global North are exploiters and exploited at the same time. We are living at the expense of each other.
