slowness

[luka]

see the 'kantbot nexus' vfor further discussion.

 

[luka]

View attachment 18355
Looks alot like luke

my face isnt fat

 

[versh]

I think the lockdowns only increasing the wealth gap says slowness is just fine for capitalism

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.

 

[luka]

is increasing the wealth gap really the same as capitalism functioning optimally anyway?

 

[versh]

Something of Virilio's that's stuck with me is when he describes people losing the battle in space (the street) and being forced to take the fight to time (strikes).

 

[versh]

is increasing the wealth gap really the same as capitalism functioning optimally anyway?

Depends who you ask.

 

[versh]

Just occured to me that the increasing wealth gap is partially due to speculation and finance becoming more of an art/rig that can be mastered, especially insofar as certain financial markets are detached from the real economy. If you're liquid (i.e. rich and patient) enough, you can endure market cycles and benefit in ways that less financially enfranchised folks cannot. Whereas the financial prosperity of most of the working class is not only more constrained by the real economy, it is also subject to socialized losses from meltdowns in financial markets. Mildly intoxicated at the moment.

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.

 

[line b]

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.

Well ofc capitalism will stop working if people stop buying things

 

[line b]

is increasing the wealth gap really the same as capitalism functioning optimally anyway?

Ya

 

[versh]

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.

 

[line b]

Fair but tories aims aint perfectly alligned with capitalism. Also arent the tories very stupid? Strikes for sure but I dont see how working from home and the 4 day week are disruptive to capital

 

[line b]

Im more taking aim at that excerpt I guess. I dont find it compelling in isolation like that. I think its very hard to do that post-virrillo, logistics critical theory thing. Like how marxism doesnt really work for art criticism

 

[versh]

Fair but tories aims aint perfectly alligned with capitalism. Also arent the tories very stupid? Strikes for sure but I dont see how working from home and the 4 day week are disruptive to capital

If you think increasing the wealth gap is capitalism functioning optimally then the Tories are perfectly aligned with capitalism.

 

[versh]

Fair but tories aims aint perfectly alligned with capitalism. Also arent the tories very stupid? Strikes for sure but I dont see how working from home and the 4 day week are disruptive to capital

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.

 

[line b]

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.

 

[versh]

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.

 

[line b]

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

 

[germaphobian]

The quote is from The Cybernetic Hypothesis but these films by Lutz Dammbeck do a much better job than Tiqqun at exploring the same themes. The first one (2003) is about the history of cybernetics and includes correspondences between Ted Kaczynski and the filmmaker, and the latter (2015) picks up the thread in a different way, examining the origins of television game shows in early 20th c psychiatric practices which were incorporated in denazification efforts after WWII. They are not exactly straightforward documentaries and have an essayistic quality. He is an unequivocally better version of Adam Curtis: an artist pretending to be a documentary filmmaker, instead of a documentary filmmaker pretending to be an artist. He is somewhat prolific and has more films that are also interesting, always with a political or ideological backdrop, besides his animation and more experimental work. Everyone on dissensus has to watch these two






It’s unfortunate Tiqqun mask their shoddy and confused speculations with post-structuralist sophistry. Dammbeck, on the other hand, lays his absolutely bare, like a man:

View attachment 18360

Yeah, these were amazing movies, especially the Unabomber one - puts a lot of things in perspective.

 

[versh]

Im more taking aim at that excerpt I guess. I dont find it compelling in isolation like that. I think its very hard to do that post-virrillo, logistics critical theory thing. Like how marxism doesnt really work for art criticism

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.

 

[other_life]

Something of Virilio's that's stuck with me is when he describes people losing the battle in space (the street) and being forced to take the fight to time (strikes).