Re: <nettime> The ends of democracy

[Louis Rawlins via nettime-l <nettime-l@lists.nettime.org>]

Uf. Feelin this, Brian.


> On my way to Argentina a couple weeks ago I started listening to the book
> by Martin Wolff, The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism. I was drawn by the
> use of the central concept, which has been deployed by Wolfgang Streek for
> many years. The basic idea, as old as Marx, is that capitalism has been
> historically associated with democracy, not by accident but because free
> labor is much more productive (that's Marx) and because free entrepreneurs
> can process information and invent new business combinations more
> efficiently than any centralized government (that's Hayek and Schumpeter).
> However, democratic government delivers not only a legitimation but also a
> contradiction of capitalism, because it is not just about the individual
> freedom to labor and invent. It's also about collective decisions
> concerning resource use, the regulation of production and the distribution
> of the results.
>

It's possible I've mentioned on the list, but there is a bit in
*Psychopolitics:
Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power* <http://v> by Byung-Chul Han
(trans. by Erik Butler), where Byung-Chul starts the text by outlining and
comparing modes of extraction:


   - allo-extraction – taking away from something else, like mining and
   harvesting
   - auto-extraction – taking away from one's self, like up-all-night
   computer programming, poverty wage work on agricultural lands


Similar to what you mention, I never finished the book, but the thought has
stuck with me. (I've been struggling to read more than an essay in NLR
lately since every book I read feels like just another story that I've
already read in Borges's infinite library.)

More to your provocation though, I've been thinking more into what it looks
like to have a new politics, and I admit, it's difficult with the
surrounding influences. Writing poetry, chatting with folks (like this!
hooray), and drawing have been helping quite a bit in that regard.
Bypassing the expected forms of coming to conclusions
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDEL4Ty950Q>, as it were.

Totally with you on making good use of our remaining years on this earth.

Peace,  Louis
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