I absolutely agree that our current wealth disparities are negative and toxic, but I think it's interesting that Rothfeld doesn't go into any positive applications of maximalism in political and economic life. I don't hear people use the term maximalism, but I see similar discussions in organizing circles about abundance and getting out …
I absolutely agree that our current wealth disparities are negative and toxic, but I think it's interesting that Rothfeld doesn't go into any positive applications of maximalism in political and economic life. I don't hear people use the term maximalism, but I see similar discussions in organizing circles about abundance and getting out of a scarcity mindset -- not in the christian-self-help way but as in, like, "actually it's possible for all people to have housing." I think it's a related concept and one that similarly depends on people wanting to be in community with each other.
I think this is interesting and related also to ecology. In many ecosystems, what may look like "nothing" to the untrained eye is in fact more than plenty to sustain life. And there's a difference between a landscape that's just getting by, versus one that's thriving, but it's really a spectrum; not unlike your example of everyone having housing. I haven't seen a great equivalent of this for ecological work, but there is pleasure activism, and movements such as Tricia Hersey's Nap Ministry, which I would argue is a form of maximalist activism, in that the framework reconceptualizes time and pace (rather than physical items) as abundant.
I absolutely agree that our current wealth disparities are negative and toxic, but I think it's interesting that Rothfeld doesn't go into any positive applications of maximalism in political and economic life. I don't hear people use the term maximalism, but I see similar discussions in organizing circles about abundance and getting out of a scarcity mindset -- not in the christian-self-help way but as in, like, "actually it's possible for all people to have housing." I think it's a related concept and one that similarly depends on people wanting to be in community with each other.
I think this is interesting and related also to ecology. In many ecosystems, what may look like "nothing" to the untrained eye is in fact more than plenty to sustain life. And there's a difference between a landscape that's just getting by, versus one that's thriving, but it's really a spectrum; not unlike your example of everyone having housing. I haven't seen a great equivalent of this for ecological work, but there is pleasure activism, and movements such as Tricia Hersey's Nap Ministry, which I would argue is a form of maximalist activism, in that the framework reconceptualizes time and pace (rather than physical items) as abundant.