Morning Comrades and welcome back to that last part of this story. Thank you for all the positive feedback so far, it is warmly welcome. For housekeeping’s sake: The patreons of this newsletter will have an additional part after this story ends below. In there you will find your weekly free piece of art as well as a preview of some new work for the merch department of Black Lodges that I am excited about.
Post-Capitalist Accelerationism
Since the origins of this theory go back to Marx it should come as no surprise that there is a current school of thought within the Marxist tradition ( in the broadest of senses ) that advocates accelerationism. Similar to several ideas that originate from the various Marxist schools, especially those of the cultural hegemony and cultural critiques of Gramsci and Adorno, respectively, who have also been “hijacked” by the ultra Capitalists and their fascist goons, the case here is that just because it was “hijacked” shouldn’t mean that the theories do not have value for a global, communist and humanist project. I agree with that sentiment entirely, ideas are ideas and merits of all of them need to be examined. However, some ideas are simply wrong or as in this case, have been wildly misunderstood and “hijacked” into a sinister praxis.
The main proponents of the Post-Capitalist Accelerationist theory are Alex Williams and Nick Srnicek whose work I have often cited and recommended in here. Without a shadow of a doubt, their 2015 book: “Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work” was a massive inspiration behind my own PhD at the time. Prior to said book they both released a manifesto that laid the groundwork for the book called: “#ACCELERATE MANIFESTO for an Accelerationist Politics” that specifically calls for a post-capitalist embrace of the theory.
The majority of their analysis in both works rest on the very accurate observation that the majority of work done by the entire spectrum of the “left” in the Global North West is mostly reactionary and defensive without a clear goal post any confrontation with power. In other words, the forces described in this week simply allow any and all “leftist” projects to exist as a valve so to say as they do not perceive the actions at play since the mid 90s as a genuine threat to their power. Again, I’d agree with that analysis, and if you have ever been on an anti-fascist / capitalist protest you will probably recognize this reality. For example, even during the most violent clashes I have experienced over the last 25 years, at points where “we” were definitely beating back the police and other agents of power, claimed space and established “rule” for however brief/long, the moment imploded almost immediately. There have been times where “we” stood in front of burning police stations and paused, because no one knew what to do next - how do you actually seize power past any violent outburst of energy?
Based on this reality, their theory then builds towards an utopian reality, heavily focused on globalist tech futures that can only be achieved by “going through” - rather than “around”. Now, both works of theirs make incredibly good points in regards to the futility of the currently existing “leftist” program but it fails on several fronts.
Quintessentially, their view of the current world is that its complexity and globalist reality is so far advanced that any rejection of the current path is a waste of energy and thus, alternative realities need to be build for a time after the logical crash of capitalism. So for so good, unfortunately, they missed or purposely disregarded several key points in regards to scientific utopianism that not only warrant this critique but also the dismissal of their ideas.
Critique and Alternatives
The first critique is that Inventing the Future / Post-Capitalist Accelerationism disregards the concept of humanism entirely, when humanism is absolutely at the core of any genuine global Marxist approach and should be central to a left-wing project. Humanism needs to be defended; or, as Orwell wrote, “the job of the thinking person is not to reject socialism but to make up his mind to humanise it.” - I don’t often come back to Orwell but in this case he nailed it. Then entirety of their ideas resonate deeply with an alienated and highly “technozised” people - both results of a neo-liberal capitalist order that at its core has dehumanize everything and everyone in order to be accepted.
Secondly, and this a bit larger of a critique, whilst their accelerationism continuously speaks of having to embrace, take and make all of the achievements of capitalism our own it speaks little if any at all about how to do actually do this. It is similar to the thousands of pointless “lefty” IG meme pages that circle jerk each other off about “seizing the means” with zero actual strategic, let alone tactical plans for that to happen. In itself odd beyond belief as established revolutionaries from the entirety of the Global South have not only shown how to do this but have written extensive manuals about this. Additionally, and this one irks me equally as much, their understanding of our reality being more than on-point whilst they fail then, again, at providing a blueprint and merely offering ideas that, once you peak behind all the self-affirming and cultural relevant buzzwords echo nothing but a support of the neoliberal order.
As Deleuze and Guattari recognized, from the very beginning what capitalist speed deterritorializes with one hand, it reterritorializes with the other and this applies to their idea- if you piggy back on capitalism itself to achieve a post-capitalist world, the forces at play will incorporate all of your work as history has proven time and time again. Even more importantly, once again, the post-capitalistic accelerationist theory offers no clues as to how to protect any work from the guaranteed engulfment of the main enemy itself which leads to the logical conclusion that it cannot work. #
A further critique of this theory from the “left” is that it wholly rests on a western, patriarchal viewpoint that the post-capitalist future is hegemonic, entirely united in technology. Any serious scientific utopianism rejects global hegemony on the historical premise of power - in other words, it’s a fascist wet dream to have an entire sentient species united in hegemony. It’s one idea to say that an ideology, say, Humanism and the Principles of Care can and should be a global shared vision but quite another to disregard millions of cultural nuances as a cornerstone to a post-capitalist tech-based utopia.
However, and most importantly the biggest failure of this project is that it entirely misses the reality that sudden and drastic destructions of entire systems usually never lead to a popular uprising but, and especially historically speaking, a popular cowering allowing the rule of the mighty to usher in extremely dark times. Even if you were able to construct a hugely popular, alternative network of care structures outside of capitalism reach, it wouldn’t suffice as an alternative to a violent restructuring around power and popular leaders that promise to provide care. Accelerationism, no matter its interpretation, leads to nothing but fascism, irrespective of what variant you can envision, from the 1920s brown shirts to the armani suits of wall street and silicon valley.
A genuine counter-approach to this tech-fan-dystopian eager to watch the world burn theory gone real is ironically, both what Alex Williams and Nick Srnicek criticize themselves and falsely identify as “folk politics”, partly in any case. No, to counteract the every increasing self-destruction of capitalism with all its potentially destructive side effects is building autonomous, self-reliant care structures anchored both in materialist realities and a feminist approach. This is is a subject I am going to deal with next week, as I am quickly running out of time here. In my reality, a few big boxes of t-shirts have just arrived ( your Riot and No Planet B products ) and I am going to try and get these ready before the weekend.
That concludes our little trip into the underlying theory and ideology of the people that make your life a literal living hell. I hope it all made sense and you have taken on a few things from this and enjoyed this, I have. More importantly, this scratches the surface, there is heaps more investigative work to be done in regards to deciphering these bastards intentions, as well as establishing the above mentioned care-networks to get through all this.
Thank you for your time, attention and support. The patreon-only part of the this project will continue below.
Yours, without compromise,
V.
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