Accelerationism is almost scientific at this point. The "Thielverse" or "PayPal Mafia" figures mentioned in this article are akin to when the mold on bread begins to turn black. Before the mold turns black, the average onlooker may eat the bread before realizing that it's moldy. Now that it's visible, most people won't eat it. Now the upper crust of the bourgeoisie still cannot see the mold on the bread, or they can see it, but they're hopeful some outside force will save them from the mold growing. The upper bourgeoisie are too caught up in their own daily struggle within the capitalist system they've embraced to remember what it was to be oppressed. That's the paradox. How do make someone see that nothing is going to change if they keep feeding the flames and rebaking the moldy bread?
The upper-bourgeoisie choose to survive and maintain their current status within the capitalist system (as all of us do to some degree or another save the homeless). They've fully embraced the collapse really. When scolded for their materialism and what they put value on, they will point out how you still use Walmart or Amazon in order to get by and survive. They disengenuously equate their desire to join the capitalist/ruling class with the lower class's need to seek the lowest price for goods (i.e., seeking the least disempowerment possible upon adding comidified goods and services to one's life and the lives of their family.)
Everyone is addicted to playing a shuffling game with commodities, but no one, no news outlet even, calls out the material addiction suffered by everyone. The focus is on the other drugs being abused. Alcohol turns people into raving assholes or helpless people with medical problems. Gamblers live in a illusory world where they're one correct number away from living a life like a Hollywood actor. Opiate addicts embrace a sort of nihilistic numbness away from this world. Materialists are unique in their addiction, however, because their addiction is fully based on a perception of themselves that is both internal and external. At first, materialism begins with a genuine appreciation for a particular type of thing one has an affinity for, but over time this degrades into something else. Materialists feel a need to gather things so that they might impress their peers. It's more than that though. They gather things not just to impress, but to be accepted by peers. You see, the addiction is fueled by seeking the validation of others. What people are really seeking is a genuine and loving connection to others, but imstead they are replacing that loving connection with the acquisition of inert objects. Since nearly everyone around you is also a materialist, if you were to try to stop participating you'll be ridiculed or otherwise ostracized for simply not participating (in the same manner that a person who refuses to become intoxicated at a raucous party might be ridiculed).
What the capitalist class is experiencing is the most extreme version of the materialist addiction. They are akin to the heroin addict that can't be bothered with removing the first two needles from their arm to inject the third while rolling over from sleeping in a coma-esq, drug-addled state. Those of the capitalist class are hopeless addicts who can only be saved by the intervention of outside forces. Unlike the heroin addict, members of the capitalist class never awaken in a hospital bed as a catalyst for self-reflection. So, instead they forge ahead in their addiction and have no intervening collapse. In fact their addiction only really ruins the lives of others, sometimes millions of the lives of others.
This is all why you (the writer) have internalized that the capitalist class will never stop plunging into the abyss of their own materialism. That's why the notion of accelerationism becomes popular in the Zeitgeist. Everyone awoken to their existence is internalizing that the capitalists will not stop, in fact they cannot stop. No intervention will help. Who would intervene exactly? There are no people remaining in the lives of those in the capitalist class. All that remains is inert objects. The people around them are inert objects for their use. The accelerationist's take is quite simply a nihilistic awaiting of someone or something to intervene upon those of the addiction of those of the ruling capitalist class, and hoping that somehow, someday those people will all awaken in hospital beds sober and ready to try overcoming their addiction.
Hi and thanks for the detailed response. About this, “almost scientific at this point…” When a particular theory, gets mixed up with philosophy, messianism, amphetamines, occult, prophecy and nihilism, it cannot be deemed ‘scientific’. Even if one sees Accelerationism as some quasi-science, it still serves all the principle interests of capital viz-a-viz capitalism. Yet Nick Land’s theory is very far from any dialectic — objectively useless for the working-class population.
And this: “ the capitalist class will never stop plunging into the abyss of their own materialism…” Not so much about a ‘class’ or specific to a group of people, but about the world-system, called Capitalism that is the single biggest driver, that is destroying the biosphere, diversity of life, as well as the vast working-class population.
Your essays are always thought provoking, Counter, although not always comfortable to contemplate. People's self-image, even when evolving, rarely include these labels of various belief groups. It seems to me the tyranny of the majority wants to take away "real" democracy which is commonly understood as one-person-one vote. Perhaps all this is made moot in a world where the acceleration (there's that word again!) of AI and it's use in tailoring messaging can essentially "brainwash" an entire population tainted by ever-higher atmospheric CO2 and that plastic spoon's worth of microplastic that is now ensconced in each of our brains. America becomes a rogue state and no one in America seems to notice or even care. Isn't it time for the 96% of humanity that is not American to figure out a path that is "not that" whatever labels are used to describe it?
Many thanks for reading. Indeed the sun is setting on the American empire. From the disintegration and entanglement, might as well appear the form of a new state or states.
"a new state or states" suggests there is a choice in the short run, Counter. The evidence I feel living here is that authoritarianism under the guise of "patriotism" has the upper hand for the near future. Hopefully it's a cycle and when the pendulum starts swinging the other way new experiments in ending extreme wealth disparity will be possible.
"new states" would necessitate their own time and evolution. I doubt the "new" would happen in the "short term". After all, concepts like democracy, voting and liberalism did not come about just because a select group of people were convinced or wanted overnight revolutionary change. In any case, these past systems (and global concepts) have failed a vast number of human beings - worse made their lives miserable... hence, deserving of a better life, regardless of a world with "states" or one that is stateless.
More entangled than a group of contorsionists playing twister. This has an academic level of reference that truly blows me away man.
Top!
Many thanks for reading friend. It screwed my mind as well, while trying to make sense of this madness.
Accelerationism is almost scientific at this point. The "Thielverse" or "PayPal Mafia" figures mentioned in this article are akin to when the mold on bread begins to turn black. Before the mold turns black, the average onlooker may eat the bread before realizing that it's moldy. Now that it's visible, most people won't eat it. Now the upper crust of the bourgeoisie still cannot see the mold on the bread, or they can see it, but they're hopeful some outside force will save them from the mold growing. The upper bourgeoisie are too caught up in their own daily struggle within the capitalist system they've embraced to remember what it was to be oppressed. That's the paradox. How do make someone see that nothing is going to change if they keep feeding the flames and rebaking the moldy bread?
The upper-bourgeoisie choose to survive and maintain their current status within the capitalist system (as all of us do to some degree or another save the homeless). They've fully embraced the collapse really. When scolded for their materialism and what they put value on, they will point out how you still use Walmart or Amazon in order to get by and survive. They disengenuously equate their desire to join the capitalist/ruling class with the lower class's need to seek the lowest price for goods (i.e., seeking the least disempowerment possible upon adding comidified goods and services to one's life and the lives of their family.)
Everyone is addicted to playing a shuffling game with commodities, but no one, no news outlet even, calls out the material addiction suffered by everyone. The focus is on the other drugs being abused. Alcohol turns people into raving assholes or helpless people with medical problems. Gamblers live in a illusory world where they're one correct number away from living a life like a Hollywood actor. Opiate addicts embrace a sort of nihilistic numbness away from this world. Materialists are unique in their addiction, however, because their addiction is fully based on a perception of themselves that is both internal and external. At first, materialism begins with a genuine appreciation for a particular type of thing one has an affinity for, but over time this degrades into something else. Materialists feel a need to gather things so that they might impress their peers. It's more than that though. They gather things not just to impress, but to be accepted by peers. You see, the addiction is fueled by seeking the validation of others. What people are really seeking is a genuine and loving connection to others, but imstead they are replacing that loving connection with the acquisition of inert objects. Since nearly everyone around you is also a materialist, if you were to try to stop participating you'll be ridiculed or otherwise ostracized for simply not participating (in the same manner that a person who refuses to become intoxicated at a raucous party might be ridiculed).
What the capitalist class is experiencing is the most extreme version of the materialist addiction. They are akin to the heroin addict that can't be bothered with removing the first two needles from their arm to inject the third while rolling over from sleeping in a coma-esq, drug-addled state. Those of the capitalist class are hopeless addicts who can only be saved by the intervention of outside forces. Unlike the heroin addict, members of the capitalist class never awaken in a hospital bed as a catalyst for self-reflection. So, instead they forge ahead in their addiction and have no intervening collapse. In fact their addiction only really ruins the lives of others, sometimes millions of the lives of others.
This is all why you (the writer) have internalized that the capitalist class will never stop plunging into the abyss of their own materialism. That's why the notion of accelerationism becomes popular in the Zeitgeist. Everyone awoken to their existence is internalizing that the capitalists will not stop, in fact they cannot stop. No intervention will help. Who would intervene exactly? There are no people remaining in the lives of those in the capitalist class. All that remains is inert objects. The people around them are inert objects for their use. The accelerationist's take is quite simply a nihilistic awaiting of someone or something to intervene upon those of the addiction of those of the ruling capitalist class, and hoping that somehow, someday those people will all awaken in hospital beds sober and ready to try overcoming their addiction.
Hi and thanks for the detailed response. About this, “almost scientific at this point…” When a particular theory, gets mixed up with philosophy, messianism, amphetamines, occult, prophecy and nihilism, it cannot be deemed ‘scientific’. Even if one sees Accelerationism as some quasi-science, it still serves all the principle interests of capital viz-a-viz capitalism. Yet Nick Land’s theory is very far from any dialectic — objectively useless for the working-class population.
And this: “ the capitalist class will never stop plunging into the abyss of their own materialism…” Not so much about a ‘class’ or specific to a group of people, but about the world-system, called Capitalism that is the single biggest driver, that is destroying the biosphere, diversity of life, as well as the vast working-class population.
Note to editor: It's "Alex Karp" not "Alex Carp."
Your essays are always thought provoking, Counter, although not always comfortable to contemplate. People's self-image, even when evolving, rarely include these labels of various belief groups. It seems to me the tyranny of the majority wants to take away "real" democracy which is commonly understood as one-person-one vote. Perhaps all this is made moot in a world where the acceleration (there's that word again!) of AI and it's use in tailoring messaging can essentially "brainwash" an entire population tainted by ever-higher atmospheric CO2 and that plastic spoon's worth of microplastic that is now ensconced in each of our brains. America becomes a rogue state and no one in America seems to notice or even care. Isn't it time for the 96% of humanity that is not American to figure out a path that is "not that" whatever labels are used to describe it?
Many thanks for reading. Indeed the sun is setting on the American empire. From the disintegration and entanglement, might as well appear the form of a new state or states.
"a new state or states" suggests there is a choice in the short run, Counter. The evidence I feel living here is that authoritarianism under the guise of "patriotism" has the upper hand for the near future. Hopefully it's a cycle and when the pendulum starts swinging the other way new experiments in ending extreme wealth disparity will be possible.
"new states" would necessitate their own time and evolution. I doubt the "new" would happen in the "short term". After all, concepts like democracy, voting and liberalism did not come about just because a select group of people were convinced or wanted overnight revolutionary change. In any case, these past systems (and global concepts) have failed a vast number of human beings - worse made their lives miserable... hence, deserving of a better life, regardless of a world with "states" or one that is stateless.