slowness
- Thread starter luka
- Start date
luka
Well-known member
my face isnt fat
What they're talking about would have been if people also slowed their consumption whilst locked down, which they didn't. They just bought everything online, ordered things in. If consumption had been as restricted as movement then we may have seen a higher level of disruption.
Depends who you ask.
This is one of the core observations of DeLillo's Cosmopolis. The one where he has a character say money's become self-aware the way art did. Money is talking to itself.
linebaugh
Well-known member
Well ofc capitalism will stop working if people stop buying things
linebaugh
Well-known member
Ya
You only need to see how rattled the Tories are by people going on strike, working from home, and the four-day week to realise certain kinds of inactivity are some of the strongest weapons.
There's a line of Deleuze's about repressive forces not stopping people from expressing themselves but forcing them to express themselves that comes to mind re: social media, consumption, etc. too. And Baudrillard floated the idea of the masses retaliating through indifference.
There's a line of Deleuze's about repressive forces not stopping people from expressing themselves but forcing them to express themselves that comes to mind re: social media, consumption, etc. too. And Baudrillard floated the idea of the masses retaliating through indifference.
If you think increasing the wealth gap is capitalism functioning optimally then the Tories are perfectly aligned with capitalism.
The latter two aren't necessarily, I just chucked them in as examples of inactivity causing issues for the people at the top, i.e. commercial landlords and their friends in government demanding people get back to the office because they're losing money.
linebaugh
Well-known member
Sure but lm not saying capitalism means every single rich person gets richer. As much as inactivity can be generally disruptive it can just as easily be used to make the more pliant, 'beehive' society that excerpt is talking about where wealth is generally transferred up.
That's why I specified certain kinds of inactivity. People sitting around at home ordering takeout and streaming stuff on Netflix is obviously no disruption at all as they're both docile and economically active.
linebaugh
Well-known member
This gets back to my original point though. Inactivity really only works if it means 'people not participating in the economy' which I dont think you need a whole discussion to arrive at.
Theres something to be said for a decrease in excess consumerism but when all of our essential needs are still on the market i dont see that as a particuarly tough obstacke for capital either
Theres something to be said for a decrease in excess consumerism but when all of our essential needs are still on the market i dont see that as a particuarly tough obstacke for capital either
germaphobian
Well-known member
Yeah, these were amazing movies, especially the Unabomber one - puts a lot of things in perspective.
I'm in a similar boat to Dilbert in finding Tiqqun's style more engaging than their ideas, partly because I don't understand some of their ideas, partly because some of them are just lifted from Deleuze, Foucault, etc. anyway, and partly because they're pretty arrogant and obnoxious and can come off like posturing cultists and students.
That being said, I think "Slowdown tactics thus have a supplementary potential in struggles against cybernetic capitalism because they don’t just attack it in its being but in its process itself," is a fairly uncontroversial statement. If you go on strike or sabotage your workplace machinery or block a road then it does have an effect. It obviously won't bring the whole thing down, but it does do something.
Personally, I can't see anything short of global climate catastrophe or an asteroid or whatever bringing about the level of change people like them are after, but then I'm not a member of an insurrectionist or revolutionary group.
