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215

The Quiet Earth

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Fleming, P. (2017). The Quiet Earth. In Fleming, P. The Death of Homo Economicus: Work, Debt and the Myth of Endless Accumulation. Pluto Press, pp. 215-255

221

Conventional forms of collective protest have not disappeared regardless of what is currently being said about the rise of this dangerous brand of pan-capitalism that appears to be able to absorb everything – including revolt. And no doubt class is still the central fulcrum for resisting capitalism successfully since it is the only emancipatory category that also seeks to abolish itself when it confronts the source of economic servitude, not just perpetuate its own self-identity, which is why a number of non-class protest movements can happily subsist alongside capitalist hierarchies

kinda obvious in retrospect but worth remembering

—p.221 by Peter Fleming 6 years, 5 months ago

Conventional forms of collective protest have not disappeared regardless of what is currently being said about the rise of this dangerous brand of pan-capitalism that appears to be able to absorb everything – including revolt. And no doubt class is still the central fulcrum for resisting capitalism successfully since it is the only emancipatory category that also seeks to abolish itself when it confronts the source of economic servitude, not just perpetuate its own self-identity, which is why a number of non-class protest movements can happily subsist alongside capitalist hierarchies

kinda obvious in retrospect but worth remembering

—p.221 by Peter Fleming 6 years, 5 months ago
236

[...] The ‘accelerationist’ perspective, for example, is a philosophy of political intervention that has recently gained popularity. Accelerationists suggest that capitalism is now so totalising that it can absorb almost any form of protest or opposition. In fact, it might even thrive on dissent. Thus, being against capitalism has become a futile exercise. Instead we ought to use its own untenable and destructive principles, speed them up, so that it too ‘snaps’ and disintegrates, leaving a clean horizon within which we can rebuild a more democratic polity. As Steven Shaviro, a leading commenter in the movement suggests in his book No Speed Limit,

the only way out is the way through. In order to overcome globalised neoliberal capitalism, we need to drain it to the dregs, push it to its most extreme point, follow it into its furthest and strangest consequences … the hope is that, by exacerbating our current conditions of existence, we will finally be able to make them explode, and thereby move beyond them.

he's fairly critical of accelerationism, noting instead that revolution can't actually occur when the oppressed are at rock bottom

"This is how critical theory can easily slip into a de facto right-wing, pseudo-capitalist position, albeit adorned with Che Guevara tattoos and a left-wing library." (p238)

—p.236 by Peter Fleming 6 years, 5 months ago

[...] The ‘accelerationist’ perspective, for example, is a philosophy of political intervention that has recently gained popularity. Accelerationists suggest that capitalism is now so totalising that it can absorb almost any form of protest or opposition. In fact, it might even thrive on dissent. Thus, being against capitalism has become a futile exercise. Instead we ought to use its own untenable and destructive principles, speed them up, so that it too ‘snaps’ and disintegrates, leaving a clean horizon within which we can rebuild a more democratic polity. As Steven Shaviro, a leading commenter in the movement suggests in his book No Speed Limit,

the only way out is the way through. In order to overcome globalised neoliberal capitalism, we need to drain it to the dregs, push it to its most extreme point, follow it into its furthest and strangest consequences … the hope is that, by exacerbating our current conditions of existence, we will finally be able to make them explode, and thereby move beyond them.

he's fairly critical of accelerationism, noting instead that revolution can't actually occur when the oppressed are at rock bottom

"This is how critical theory can easily slip into a de facto right-wing, pseudo-capitalist position, albeit adorned with Che Guevara tattoos and a left-wing library." (p238)

—p.236 by Peter Fleming 6 years, 5 months ago