Accelerationism ~ a discussion this Sunday at 4pm EST

We'll be hosting a Town Hall discussion on Accelerationism this Sunday. This will be the link:

https://brown.zoom.us/j/99426654898

Accelerationism was first articulated as a social philosophy in the 2010s, where leftist academics attempted to reappropriate Marxism, French critical theory, cybernetic theory, and other mental illnesses into a reconceptualization of what After Capitalism might be. They were despised because they had the gall to take Marx's claims about capitalism seriously. Like Marx, they understood that even as exploitation is inherent to capitalism, capitalism is the most advanced form of social organization that has ever existed.

The bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarce one hundred years, has created more massive and more colossal productive forces than have all preceding generations together. Subjection of Nature’s forces to man, machinery, application of chemistry to industry and agriculture, steam-navigation, railways, electric telegraphs, clearing of whole continents for cultivation, canalisation of rivers, whole populations conjured out of the ground — what earlier century had even a presentiment that such productive forces slumbered in the lap of social labour?

(Manifesto of the Communist Party)

Accelerationist philosophers sought to understand these emancipatory tendencies. After all, what characteristic(s) of capitalism enabled the emancipation from feudalism? Why is capitalism so effective at hijacking our interests and desires? Which parts of capitalism might be re-oriented towards a post-capitalist future? Can we not marvel at its abundance, its destabilization of social norms? It's not a question of "What if capitalism were Good actually?" At the same time that capitalism is the most advanced form of social organization, it is also the most destructive. In light of this, we must do the most difficult thing there is to do: simultaneously think good and evil together, emancipation and exploitation, creation and destruction, liberation and repression... is this too much to ask in an algorithmic environment that dreads such simultaneity?

Since the 2010s, Accelerationism has been double reappropriated by right-wing extremists, neoreactionary ideologues, terrorists and tech billionaires, to the point where left-wing strains of accelerationism have lost all cultural purchase. In popular imagination, Accelerationism is now synonymous with a reckless intensification of capitalist crisis that pushes the status quo towards destruction (and annihilation?!). But as accelerationism is pushed to the shadows, what utility does it hold as a term?

On the left, we spend a lot of time reading about how exploitation and oppression is an inherent and irreparable feature of the modern world. This leaves us stuck and apathetic. Those who still hope conjure images of utopian pastoral fantasies, alluding to some communal past that might be reached again through mutual aid and radical book clubs. But as hope becomes devoid of cultural capital, our disaffection leads us to become tempted by Evil Accelerationisms. Does the world not command this type of crisis? But Evil Accelerationism is, too, a fantasy.

Are the evils of modernity inescapable? Even one of the harshest critics of modernity, Michel Foucault, the guy who many (mistakenly) associate with declaring the inescapability of Evil Modernity, once said the following:

"My point is not that everything is bad, but that everything is dangerous, which is not exactly the same as bad. If everything is dangerous, then we always have something to do. So my position leads not to apathy but to a hyper- and pessimistic activism. I think that the ethico-political choice we have to make every day is to determine which is the main danger."

In a moment where our current crisis tempts us to be Evil, I dare you instead to be dangerous. Will you be dangerous?

Let's cook.

https://brown.zoom.us/j/99426654898

Readings

Readings are not required to observe the discussion but one very short (7 pages) reading will be necessary if you want to meaningfully participate in the discussion. Like, I'm not testing you or anything, but we should all just know what it is we mean by "Accelerationism."

Reference Text:

#Accelerate: Manifesto for an Accelerationist Politics by Alex Williams and Nick Srnicek (pg 1-7)

Core Texts:

Terminator v. Avatar by Mark Fisher (pg. 1-12)

Utopia as Replication by. Fredric Jameson (in Valences of the Dialectic, pg. 410-435)

Machinic Desire by Nick Land (pg. 1-13) - (obligatory disclaimer that Land is now a right-wing figure, but his early work like this isn't right-wing and is important to the history of accelerationism)

Suggested Text (especially if you're interested in trans and gender studies :))

The Xenofeminist Manifesto by Laboria Cuboniks