“Technofeudalism”: Capitalism – and then?
Michael Bröning
from Vörwarts, November 30, 2023
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| Yanis Varoufakis |
Honest hero or nuisance? In his sixth book “Technofeudalism,” former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis warns against Big Tech. His analysis is frightening. Some of his proposed solutions are too.
Depending on your perspective, Yanis Varoufakis is either an intrepid hero who stood up to the EU's austerity policy as Greek finance minister - or "the biggest pain in the ass in the room," as the Financial Times once declared. A minister without a tie? With a motorcycle? Unheard of, said former Federal Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble at the height of the crisis.
Varoufakis was unexpectedly swept from the university ivory tower to the top of Greek politics in the wake of the euro crisis. There he played the role of his life alongside Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in the summer of 2015: here Tsipras, who ultimately bowed to European guidelines, there the tirelessly fighting Yanis - Don Quixote - Varoufakis. He was celebrated, not least in the German media, as the “ Greek Minister of Awesome ”.
A fictional dialogue with the deceased father
His sixth book is now also being celebrated: “Technofeudalism.
“What killed capitalism.” In it, Varoufakis, who describes himself as a libertarian Marxist, describes the catastrophic effects of the digital economy. Conceived as a follow-up to his bestseller “Time for Change: How I Explain the Economy to My Daughter,” the work is a fictional dialogue between Varoufakis and his late father: a lovingly drawn dissident, communist activist and – long live the contradiction! – senior employees of a steel company.
The book begins with a memory: At the evening fireplace, Varoufakis senior explains to his young son not only the adaptability of metals, but also that of the capitalist system using metallurgical experiments. Years later, the young Varoufakis installed his father's first internet-enabled computer. Impressed by the technology, he asks: “Now that computers are talking to each other, is capitalism about to be overcome or ruled forever?” The book is a belated answer to this “killer question”.
Greek mythology and pop culture counterpoints
Varoufakis is concerned with moral integration into the larger humanistic whole. The book repeatedly references Greek mythology and pop culture counterpoints. This creates an arc of tension between Prometheus and Minotaur on the one hand and the cynical manipulations of the New York “Mad Men” on the other.
The initial analytical thesis is: Capitalism is not dying, it has been dead for a long time. The perpetrator? Capitalism itself. Or rather a viral mutation that caused the pillars of the system to collapse. Markets and profit are history. “Capital still exists,” says Varoufakis, “but capitalism does not.”
Small-scale digital cloud principalities
At first glance, what Varoufakis himself admits seems unconvincing. Isn't capitalism everywhere? But what looks like capitalism and free markets is now something fundamentally different, argues Varoufakis. The titans of the digital economy and Big Tech have now transformed the already perverted hyper-capitalism into a far more sinister system. “The good old, bad days” became “techno-feudalism” through cheap money and huge amounts of state financial flows.
The world is disintegrating into digital cloud principalities, which resemble hierarchical fiefdom pyramids, analogous to the feudal order of the Middle Ages. In this new constellation, even the largest traditional capitalist individual companies only play the role of vassals in the middle ranks, serving the manipulations emanating from the top through conventional production.
The majority of people in this system populate the basement floors. The “Prols” lead a desolate existence in the engine rooms like in HG Wells’ “Time Machine”. Supervised by algorithms, they are trapped in the limbo of the Amazon warehouses. They perform the modern equivalent of feudal forced labor.
Users held hostage
And the rest? Precariously dependent people who fuel the system by providing their own digital identities. Like a maelstrom, every click travels free of charge to the all-knowing cloud. “The real revolution is the transformation of billions of people into willing slaves,” says Varoufakis.
People become the raw material of an exploitation scheme that simultaneously devours and despises them. Refusal is impossible. Because we have all been hopelessly digitally entangled for a long time. “The companies know that they can treat us users however they please. “When was the last time someone rejected the terms of a software update?” asks Varoufakis. Ultimately, the users are held hostage: “Our contacts, friends, chat histories, pictures… We lose everything if we turn away,” says Varoufakis.
Memories of Orwell's "1984"
At the top, however, there is a distant class of neo-feudal paladins with untold wealth. According to Varoufakis, this class can no longer be reached through conventional attempts at political containment. Because unlike the captains of industry at the beginning of the 20th century, the rulers of the cloud today are becoming fabulously rich “without organizing the production of any specific product”. Their power is no longer based on tangible things, on monopolies or on unfair production conditions. In seemingly free markets, they orchestrate not only the production, presentation and transaction but also the all-encompassing management of consciousness.
The development is global: split into power blocs of American and Chinese provenance – with all the associated risks of military escalation. The feudal blocs remind Varoufakis of the “continental superstates in George Orwell’s 1984.”
Vision of a post-post-capitalist Bullerbüs
But what can be done about the undesirable development described so vividly? Here Varoufakis remains vague and that is the weakness of the otherwise worthwhile book. In fact, his argument falls into two parts. The first two-thirds provide an excellent analysis of the faults. The last third, however, outlines a counterproposal. And this vision – and the path to it – if actually implemented, would hardly be less frightening than the disastrous initial situation described itself.
A utopia is designed that is reminiscent of Marx's “German ideology”. Hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon and criticize after dinner? Fast: In Varoufakis' vision, life oscillates between morning coffee, a jointly curated community newsletter and working in an anarcho-syndical company. So far, so idyllic.
In a kind of post-post-capitalist Bullerbü, decisions are made by unelected councils. “The tyranny of land ownership” has been overcome. Private property was largely abolished. A global unit of account (“the cosmos”) equalizes development differences between the global north and south, companies are handed over to the general public and decisions in the workplace are made by digital tribunals.
“Cloud slaves of all countries, unite!”
The path into this world remains vague. The only thing that is clear to Varoufakis is that social democratic attempts at regulation are impossible. The center left is “morally effeminate and complicit” in the existential threat. All that remains is networking, rebellion and revolution. However, Varoufakis lacks any proof that the path to his utopia would be different from the previous bloody Marxist attempts at redemption. He repeatedly praises the achievements of the Soviet Union - without, of course, sweeping the authoritarian excesses under the table.
The work ends pathetically with the call of the Communist Manifesto: “Cloud slaves of all countries, unite!” But this is either a purely aesthetic revolutionary pose or a very adventurous agitation. Honest hero or nuisance? In his latest book, Varoufakis remains both at the same time. But you should definitely read it.
Yanis Varoufakis: Technofeudalism. What killed Capitalism, Vintage, 2023, 281 pages
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Michael Bröning is a writer for Vörwarts. The article is roughly translated from its German original.
