Futilitarianism: Neoliberalism and the Production of Uselessness (Bonus Interview)
Added 2022-02-01 13:00:06 +0000 UTCNeil Vallelly (@NeilVallelly) joins Matt (@mattpolprof) for a cheery discussion of neoliberalism and futility, the central themes of Neil's new book, which can be found at https://amzn.to/32LjkLO or https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/futilitarianism.
Matt's full review is here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/12/neoliberalism-powerless-review-neil-vallelly-futilitarianism
Some perhaps unfamiliar namedropping occurs in this episode, and a non-exhaustive list includes the utilitarians Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Henry Sidgwick and critics such as Herbert Marcuse, Wendy Brown, Mark Fisher, Byung Chul Han, Jessica Whyte, and Jodi Dean.
Comments
The description of us as self interested creatures is correct. Every self is, even the non human selves. The problem lies in the assumed boundaries of where the self ends. And our western society's incorrect view on this leads to cancerous outgrowths like neoliberalism. If I breathe in what the trees breathe out then the trees are myself also, and it is in my self interest to preserve the trees. And in actual fact, relationship is primary to nouns, everything that can affect you is yourself. The greater affect it can have on you, the more you it is. The entire problem of societal degradation comes down to this quiet incorrect assumption, a shriveled contracted view of self. Every right wing belief can be logically derived from this start point. But psychedelics breaks this down, eastern spirituality breaks this down, art breaks this down. We are more haecceity than body. If we did embrace self interest, but understood the truth that self includes things outside our skin boundary, that would take us towards human flourishing. Iain McGilchrist is doing pioneering work to pass this knowledge through our truth god, empirical science. Everybody go look up his work. 'Ways of Attending' is under 40 pages and free online.
Myles Jeffers
2022-04-26 10:14:23 +0000 UTCWhen did he say that? He brought up the underlying social systems that get disguised via commodity fetishism and how that's problematic. He mentions that having many choices (ice cream) is a type of freedom offered via neoliberalism, but the production processes and creation that are hidden in our "choices" are more essential choices we cannot make.
Brandon Held
2022-02-08 00:29:15 +0000 UTCMatt envisions a liberal socialist future as one were he'd still be able to choose between 50 flavours of ice cream, just that more people have more disposable income to spend on them. But this insinuates that nothing is to actually be done about the unsustainability of current rates of commodity production, relations of production aside. Modern consumerism and the vast mountains of commodities it rests on cannot coexist with a socioeconomic system that does not contribute to the climate crisis and unsustainable resource extraction.
anacidcommie
2022-02-03 18:38:45 +0000 UTC
