I recently readed more about it, and the association with anarchy was immediate.
I really like it for two things first It could be another radicalization vector for people inside not that radical movement’s like some parts of the climate movement. And second it gives me and my comrades a vision and a world to fight for. There is a reason that optimism stands in the two first lines inside the Solarpunk manifesto.
We are solarpunks because optimism has been taken away from us and we are trying to take it back.
We are solarpunks because the only other options are denial or despair.
Also you are completely right with it being Anarchist:
At its core, Solarpunk is a vision of a future that embodies the best of what humanity can achieve: a post-scarcity, post-hierarchy, post-capitalistic world where humanity sees itself as part of nature and clean energy replaces fossil fuels.
Solarpunk could’ve been an update to stale sub-ideologies of Anarchism.
In online communities Solarpunk unfortunately is associated with greenwashing soil sealing, motorised individual transport and nuclear industry and others. This status makes it a product of climate delay propaganda currently and thus unusable.
a desirable vision is needed.
I’m not an anarchist personally but I do like solarpunk and the optimistic view of the future. A solarpunk world looks like one worth building towards and living in. I think the left could use more optimistic visions of the future.
I love the aesthetic and ideas, but personally I couldn’t get into it that much. It seems feels too unrealistic and a little like greenwashing (renewable energy and other high-tech is core to the ideology).
A book featuring the style which I really liked was A Psalm for the Wild-Built.
How is it greenwashing? Greenwashing is capitalism pretending to be eco friendly. Solarpunk is explicitly anti capitalist.
Sorry, I used the wrong wording. I meant to write that it feels a little like greenwashing to me, because I don’t have a lot of faith in a “green transition” (not enough materials, exploitation of the global south etc…). But the good thing is that the solarpunk vision can work just as well in a low-tech environment.
Did you also read the second part A Prayer for the Crown-Shy? I like the first one more but both are worth reading.
And l agree that solarpunk is a bit too techno optimistic but still isn’t a good vision and that’s what the left lacks right now.