Comments on: Haiti | To Hell With Altruistic Capitalism

By: Clare

Clare — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:19:25 +0000

Trawling through some of the older posts on here (interesting and enriching – thanks) I now realise you’d already come to the conclusion that gifts need a more prominent role in our relationships. So apologies for my useless comment.

By: Nic

Nic — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 06:44:06 +0000

I agree. Marx and Deleuze+Guattari have the best analysis of capital— but both are from other moments. They’re a great start however.

David Harvey (Marxist, I know !-)) has written this recently:
http://firgoa.usc.es/drupal/node/45017

The question: “what is to be done?” is a good one. I still like Hardt and Negri take from ‘Empire’:

‘And no such effective blueprint will ever arise from a theoretical articulation such as ours. It will arise only in practice. At a certain point in his thinking Marx needed the Paris Commune in order to make the leap and conceive communism in concrete terms as an effective alternative to capitalist society. Some such experiment or series of experiments advanced through the genius of collective practice will certainly be necessary today to take that next concrete step and create a new social body beyond empire.’

Multiple experiments and attempts in: collaboration, theory and practice— Apple could be just one example.

By: Alistair Duncan

Alistair Duncan — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 23:36:06 +0000

Hey Kester …. If your last post was a serious one about where Apple goes – it gets my vote and would definitely be up for engaging from down South. Though your tweet about Das Capital is interesting …. I am not convinced the answer lies there! The real, the local, the particular is where my vote for the foundations lie not a replacement ideology or even critique. Out with all isms!

By: Nic

Nic — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:32:22 +0000

I’m with you comrade, at the barricades — burn Britain burn !-)

By: KB

KB — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:07:01 +0000

Nic, this is it. This is Apple. We’ve found the core: the ‘how’ of the above.
This is where the energy is.
We need to get to work.
Let’s do it.

By: Nic

Nic — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 09:59:09 +0000

Apologize for typo’s and missing words! You get the idea. Written on the hoof.

By: Nic

Nic — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 09:54:13 +0000

There is only “o-n-e” project now. Capitalism has to go. We either destroy it or it takes out most of the species on this planet. Our niche has exceeded its ‘carrying capacity’, we are at the limit, there are too many people operating a cradle-to-grave system (production-consumption-destruction)— taking natural resources, making and selling stuff that then is burying in landfill. Consumption legitimises and powers the whole process.
Arguing the merits of Bill gates is futile. There is a multi-level crisis, on all scales. Not just the “incessant violence” at the heart of embodiment, but also at a grand structural level. As Kester argues, Gate’s wealth (and ours) is essentially ill-gotten, giving out of a capitalist system is like punching your mate in the face and then taking them to hospital (same with recycling for that matter!).
The hard part of the project is how to ‘uncouple’ or exorcise capitalism. As Nick Land argues, it’s an “artificial intelligent space that must assemble itself entirely from its enemy’s resources”. An emergent phenomenon that pervades us all and is out of control; the neo-liberal elites only manipulate and curate the system. Equally, if a human ‘remnant’ does survive, eking out an existence on the Northern Rim, then don’t be surprised if capital re-emerges and wreaks its havoc all over again.
The Big project has to be, how can capital be banished from the face of the planet? I think there is a growing consensus that this has to happen. The antagonisms and the politics are accumulating around ‘the how’. How is this to done?

By: KB

KB — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:35:09 +0000

I’m interested in the potential contribution of other forms of enterprise, such as mutuals and co-ops, which are more redistributive in nature.

I think these are going to be the key, whether it be getting rid of fat-cat banker pay, or helping countries lift themselves out of poverty. In fact, this is part of the long section of practical conclusions in ‘The Spirit Level’ mentioned above.

By: Clare

Clare — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:45:39 +0000

And I wish I could scrape together sufficient courage to join this: http://www.justfortheloveofit.org/home

By: Clare

Clare — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:34:31 +0000

How about just gifting things? Apparently that’s the future, according to the author of this book http://www.ascentofhumanity.com/text.php (An acquaintance who’s read the entire text informed me of the conclusion.) Bit radical perhaps? Sorta reminds me of someone though…