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Theory Redux (Polity)
The Second Coming
We have entered the gateway to the apocalypse. This theological concept is the best metaphor to describe the world in which we are already living. Chaos is all around us: political folly, economical delirium, ecological catastrophe, intellectual cynicism, technological simulation of life. This is what Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi suggests in this wry, dark, disconcerting but also brilliant and invigorating journey through the main events that we have witnessed in recent years. One century after the Communist revolution, the very idea that the world could be changed for the better seems dead once and for all. Every time that a new change occurs nowadays, it seems to be a change for the worse. But the fact that nothing can save us any more shouldn’t be seen as a form of fatality or a reason for surrender. On the contrary, if our world is dead, then the space is open for another to appear – a world where apocalypse can shake us out of our zombie-like contemporary existence. The second coming of Communism will have nothing to do with 1917. Apocalypse has to be conceived of as a metaphor, and Communism is a metaphor too: the metaphor of the possible deployment of the potentials of the mind.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2019
About the author
Franco "Bifo" Berardi
123 books396 followersFranco "Bifo" Berardi (born 2 November 1948 in Bologna, Italy) is an Italian Marxist theorist and activist in the autonomist tradition, whose work mainly focuses on the role of the media and information technology within post-industrial capitalism. Berardi has written over two dozen published books, as well as a more extensive number of essays and speeches.
Unlike orthodox Marxists, Berardi's autonomist theories draw on psychoanalysis, schizoanalysis and communication theory to show how subjectivity and desire are bound up with the functioning of the capitalism system, rather than portraying events such as the financial crisis of 2008 merely as an example of the inherently contradictory logic of capitalist accumulation. Thus, he argues against privileging labour in critique and says that "the solution to the economic difficulty of the situation cannot be solved with economic means: the solution is not economic." Human emotions and embodied communication becomes increasingly central to the production and consumption patterns that sustain capital flows in post-industrial society, and as such Berardi uses the concepts of "cognitariat" and "info labour" to analyze this psycho-social process. Among Berardi's other concerns are cultural representations and expectations about the future — from proto-Fascist Futurism to post-modern cyberpunk (1993). This represents a greater concern with ideas and cultural expectations than the determinist-materialist expression of a Marxism which is often confined to purely economic or systemic analysis.
(via Wikipedia)
Unlike orthodox Marxists, Berardi's autonomist theories draw on psychoanalysis, schizoanalysis and communication theory to show how subjectivity and desire are bound up with the functioning of the capitalism system, rather than portraying events such as the financial crisis of 2008 merely as an example of the inherently contradictory logic of capitalist accumulation. Thus, he argues against privileging labour in critique and says that "the solution to the economic difficulty of the situation cannot be solved with economic means: the solution is not economic." Human emotions and embodied communication becomes increasingly central to the production and consumption patterns that sustain capital flows in post-industrial society, and as such Berardi uses the concepts of "cognitariat" and "info labour" to analyze this psycho-social process. Among Berardi's other concerns are cultural representations and expectations about the future — from proto-Fascist Futurism to post-modern cyberpunk (1993). This represents a greater concern with ideas and cultural expectations than the determinist-materialist expression of a Marxism which is often confined to purely economic or systemic analysis.
(via Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
May 27, 2020
Italian egghead Berardi claims the current *apocalypse* (rebirth of nationalism, ecological disaster, wealth inequality, information overload, etc.) will lead to the second coming of. . .communism! OK, he doesn’t mean 1917 era Soviet communism, he means a new communism. What is this new communism? Berardi’s vision is pretty vague and clouded with philosophical mumbo-jumbo, but basically he forecasts a neurological reshuffling of the general intellect which will lead to a new system of semio-production according to social needs. OK. Good luck with that! This isn’t nearly as thought-provoking as his earlier And: Phenomenology of the End. This one seems pretty superficial in comparison. The egghead does make a couple valid points. First, on the decline of critical thinking: The sphere of objectified knowledge has been enormously enhanced, while available time for conscious elaboration has inversely decreased. This double dynamic has provoked an explosion of unawareness. Second, on the fact that most people couldn’t care less about data mining: The problem is most people don’t give a damn about the protection of their privacy because they have nothing to hide and to protect. The rest of it is just a fairly standard critique of neoliberalism stuffed with hyper-philosophical cant and bombast.
April 29, 2021
Bifo Berardi dice que la regresión cultural se da por un "efecto de inhabilidad de la mente social para elaborar distinciones críticas". En otras palabras, el mundo acelerado nos volvió más estúpidos. Me pregunto cuántos leyeron este ensayo creyéndose que no les toca.
February 16, 2022
Está bien. Básicamente para sentar un poco el precedente de cara a leer su siguiente libro, pero tampoco dice nada que no haya leído ya.
February 18, 2022
Lucid reflection on our current political mediasphere, all phrased in Bifo's inimitably aphoristic style that combines poetry with crystal clarity.
November 14, 2019
Some parts not altogether convincing, but the closing chapter more than makes up for it.
October 23, 2020
Strangely hopeful and excellently cutting in his usual ways. This quote from his more recent article in e-flux where he goes further:
"Thanks to his ignorance and moral abjection, Donald Trump represents the true soul of America, the unmovable soul of a population formed by a never-ending sequence of exploitation, oppression, bullying, invasions, and abominable crimes. Nothing but this. There isn’t an alternative America, as many thought in the 1960s and ’70s. There are millions of women and men, mostly nonwhite, who have suffered from American violence, and especially at a certain point in the ’60s and ’70s, fought to reform America to become more human. They failed, because there is no way to reform a nation of bigots and killers."
"Thanks to his ignorance and moral abjection, Donald Trump represents the true soul of America, the unmovable soul of a population formed by a never-ending sequence of exploitation, oppression, bullying, invasions, and abominable crimes. Nothing but this. There isn’t an alternative America, as many thought in the 1960s and ’70s. There are millions of women and men, mostly nonwhite, who have suffered from American violence, and especially at a certain point in the ’60s and ’70s, fought to reform America to become more human. They failed, because there is no way to reform a nation of bigots and killers."
March 27, 2024
This is a good contribution to Berardi's oeuvre, but I find he tends to go on tangents frequently that don't have an obvious connection to the points he is making. Furthermore, I think he is often repeating the same concepts that he deals with better and more in depth in Futurability. This is still a good read, but not as essential.
August 27, 2020
“Don’t stop thinking, because the unpredictable may soon need some thought and this is our job: thinking in times of apocalyptic trauma.”
According to Berardi, we have entered the apocalypse. We live in a chaotic world, overloaded with information, and mental suffering. Our ability to assess information critically has dwindled as we rely more and more on automation (ie Google). This flawed development has ushered North America into the Trump age; an age marked by racism, nationalism and stupidity. Corporations have built their empires, and capitalism remains a trap. Communism, (not the Communism of 1917, but a metaphor Berardi uses to describe the emancipation from an exchange between oppressed and oppressor, between worker and employer), presents a liberation from the Nazi like grip of an age where everything is automated from cognition (Google) to friendship (Facebook) and opens up broader possibilities for the potential of society.
Berardi claims that 1968 was the peak of human evolution, meaning, the moment which technology, knowledge and social consciousness reached their maximum point of convergence. Since then, technology has continued to expand while social consciousness has decreased. Technology increasingly gains power over social life and society loses it’s power over technology. The increasing technological landscape has resulted in the expansion of the ‘infosphere.’ All this information, flowing out of every corner, creates a state of info-nervous saturation within ourselves. The critical mind is unable to function in this state. The deterioration of people’s ability to think critically and the deterioration of education have resulted in the crumbling of the collective social mind, along with overall, depression, despair, and aggressiveness. Chaos abounds, but with chaos, hidden possibilities often reveal themselves…
Berardi explains that the expansion of the infosphere, the acceleration of info-nervous stimulation and the increasing inability to emotionally or critically process information has created an ‘ignorance boom’ and the deterioration of daily life for the majority worldwide.
“…humankind is officially entering the age of dementia- massive support for racism, nationalism and religious war.”
Berardi acknowledges that Trump openly supports racism, nationalism and religious war and links ‘Trumpism’ with the old fascism/Nazism: the racist cult of supremacy. When Trump uttered the words “Make America great again’, it actually means, ‘make the white race superior again in the spirit of the Ku Klux Klan.’ Thus, creating a divide among the Western working class and the oppressed populations from colonized countries and threatening the very roots of peace.
“Western workers are following nationalist agendas in order to avert the effects of globalization and resorting to nationalist and racist forms of identification.’
Berardi further discusses the permanent transfer of our social resources to the banking system. This transfer has allowed financial corporations to establish the ‘rules of the game’ while networked governance inscribes those rules, forcing workers to work more and be paid less ‘in favour of capital accumulation’. Berardi continuously uses the Nazi metaphor. According to Gunther Anders, the main feature to Nazism is ‘automated inhumanity’. He explains that Auschwitz did not exterminate individuals or people with relationships, families and futures, rather, it was simply an industrialized machine for extermination. He compares this with the financial machine- one that automatically does its job despite the lives it may destroy.
The impoverishment of daily life through the exploitation of deterritorialized, underpaid labour has lead to the saturation of mental suffering in America.
“Mental suffering is more American than Coca-Cola, more American than stars and stripes. Mental suffering- depression, anxiety, fear, paranoia, impotent rage and drug addiction- is saturating Amerca’s life.”
Today, the political exit from capitalism seems unthinkable. We are bombarded by information, images, ideas and fears. We are living in chaos, however, Berardi is here to remind us that capitalism is only made insurmountable by our inability to imagine. Berardi’s Communism is a potential escape from our world of financial domination and potential global war.
According to Berardi, we have entered the apocalypse. We live in a chaotic world, overloaded with information, and mental suffering. Our ability to assess information critically has dwindled as we rely more and more on automation (ie Google). This flawed development has ushered North America into the Trump age; an age marked by racism, nationalism and stupidity. Corporations have built their empires, and capitalism remains a trap. Communism, (not the Communism of 1917, but a metaphor Berardi uses to describe the emancipation from an exchange between oppressed and oppressor, between worker and employer), presents a liberation from the Nazi like grip of an age where everything is automated from cognition (Google) to friendship (Facebook) and opens up broader possibilities for the potential of society.
Berardi claims that 1968 was the peak of human evolution, meaning, the moment which technology, knowledge and social consciousness reached their maximum point of convergence. Since then, technology has continued to expand while social consciousness has decreased. Technology increasingly gains power over social life and society loses it’s power over technology. The increasing technological landscape has resulted in the expansion of the ‘infosphere.’ All this information, flowing out of every corner, creates a state of info-nervous saturation within ourselves. The critical mind is unable to function in this state. The deterioration of people’s ability to think critically and the deterioration of education have resulted in the crumbling of the collective social mind, along with overall, depression, despair, and aggressiveness. Chaos abounds, but with chaos, hidden possibilities often reveal themselves…
Berardi explains that the expansion of the infosphere, the acceleration of info-nervous stimulation and the increasing inability to emotionally or critically process information has created an ‘ignorance boom’ and the deterioration of daily life for the majority worldwide.
“…humankind is officially entering the age of dementia- massive support for racism, nationalism and religious war.”
Berardi acknowledges that Trump openly supports racism, nationalism and religious war and links ‘Trumpism’ with the old fascism/Nazism: the racist cult of supremacy. When Trump uttered the words “Make America great again’, it actually means, ‘make the white race superior again in the spirit of the Ku Klux Klan.’ Thus, creating a divide among the Western working class and the oppressed populations from colonized countries and threatening the very roots of peace.
“Western workers are following nationalist agendas in order to avert the effects of globalization and resorting to nationalist and racist forms of identification.’
Berardi further discusses the permanent transfer of our social resources to the banking system. This transfer has allowed financial corporations to establish the ‘rules of the game’ while networked governance inscribes those rules, forcing workers to work more and be paid less ‘in favour of capital accumulation’. Berardi continuously uses the Nazi metaphor. According to Gunther Anders, the main feature to Nazism is ‘automated inhumanity’. He explains that Auschwitz did not exterminate individuals or people with relationships, families and futures, rather, it was simply an industrialized machine for extermination. He compares this with the financial machine- one that automatically does its job despite the lives it may destroy.
The impoverishment of daily life through the exploitation of deterritorialized, underpaid labour has lead to the saturation of mental suffering in America.
“Mental suffering is more American than Coca-Cola, more American than stars and stripes. Mental suffering- depression, anxiety, fear, paranoia, impotent rage and drug addiction- is saturating Amerca’s life.”
Today, the political exit from capitalism seems unthinkable. We are bombarded by information, images, ideas and fears. We are living in chaos, however, Berardi is here to remind us that capitalism is only made insurmountable by our inability to imagine. Berardi’s Communism is a potential escape from our world of financial domination and potential global war.
May 20, 2019
'Caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar.' There is no path; the only path is our walking together.
Bifo asks that we follow the signs of the second coming of communism that emerge from the apocalyptical moraine of cynicism.
Bifo asks that we follow the signs of the second coming of communism that emerge from the apocalyptical moraine of cynicism.
May 31, 2021
Interesante libro aunque no comparta el pensamiento ideológico del autor.
Invita con algunos de sus planteos a una reflexión sobre la sociedad actual y el consumo de medios y redes sociales.
Invita con algunos de sus planteos a una reflexión sobre la sociedad actual y el consumo de medios y redes sociales.
August 3, 2021
The parts I found most interesting were other theorists Berardi used to explain his understanding of Fascism. This is the first text I have read by Berardi, I have been inspired by him with his work in Radio Alice, Autonomia, and Anti-work politics for years, following him in conversations available in podcasts and video streaming platforms but I wasn't impressed with many of the blanket moralistic and liberal arguements somewhat poetically saying 'Trump is bad, he's a jerk, he is rude to people and we need to stand up and work together to fight fascism and capitalism.'
His case to define Trump as a fascist was more interesting than most similar arguements. He makes a case that people aren't good critical thinkers anymore and he tries to think through why that is but kind of points to government, corporations, capitalism without really digging in too deep.
I don't know, it just didn't grab me. The argument seemed so similar to so many pundits on tv news or on Facebook/twitter/internet message board. I also felt his age and generational difference really showed. We get it Commie granddad Trump bad. I did pick it up to read with some friends who were intrigued by the description(i was hesitant but not opposed) ...I am the only one who actually finished the book.
His case to define Trump as a fascist was more interesting than most similar arguements. He makes a case that people aren't good critical thinkers anymore and he tries to think through why that is but kind of points to government, corporations, capitalism without really digging in too deep.
I don't know, it just didn't grab me. The argument seemed so similar to so many pundits on tv news or on Facebook/twitter/internet message board. I also felt his age and generational difference really showed. We get it Commie granddad Trump bad. I did pick it up to read with some friends who were intrigued by the description(i was hesitant but not opposed) ...I am the only one who actually finished the book.
January 8, 2024
Excelente revisión y análisis del surgimiento de las nuevas derechas en el mundo. Me sirvió especialmente para tener otra perspectiva sobre la actualidad argentina del 2024. Además, las alternativas de acción que propone: de unión, cooperativismo y nuevas búsquedas; que desarmen los discursos de odio e individualismo, me parecen indispensables para pensar en el mundo que queremos, desde el presente que nos toca.
August 26, 2023
kinda interesting but also sometimes went totally off the rails and just started spouting overly weird philosophical crap that just doesn't make sense to anyone except members of this group of philosophy cranks
December 17, 2024
Mi último libro del año, un poco de todo, quizás estaba cansado y no le presté tanta atención como se lo merecía. Ahora a andar en bicicleta y comer papas duquesas que por fin se acabó el año chavales.
April 10, 2022
Otro ensayo de Berardi, con el que que, al terminar de leerlo me causa una gran intriga el futuro.
September 6, 2023
love the guy but this is berardi's worst book
July 9, 2024
Sad but hopeful.
August 28, 2024
Un libro para repensar el capitalismo, su incidencia en la vida y en cómo enfrentar el apocalipsis en el que nos encontramos inmersos.
August 18, 2021
No se si es que necesitaba leer algo de filosofía pero este libro me estimuló bastante las meninges. Un libro muy actual.
August 15, 2022
"El caos es la incapacidad de procesar la velocidad de los acontecimientos que ocurren alrededor de la infoesfera".
Franco reflexiona entorno al caos, el resurgir del fascismo y cómo el sistema neo liberal se consume así mismo, quitándome las ganas de dormir tranquilo, pero a la vez dando pequeñas respuestas o guías de cómo asumir este apocalipsis y esperar "la segunda venida", de una vida post apocalipsis cuando toda la sociedad neo liberal globalizada se venga abajo.
Franco reflexiona entorno al caos, el resurgir del fascismo y cómo el sistema neo liberal se consume así mismo, quitándome las ganas de dormir tranquilo, pero a la vez dando pequeñas respuestas o guías de cómo asumir este apocalipsis y esperar "la segunda venida", de una vida post apocalipsis cuando toda la sociedad neo liberal globalizada se venga abajo.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews