seventh bullet
sovietwave
It means fuck all to anyone I know.
Fully Automated Luxury Communism by Aaron Bastani – a manifesto for the future
- Thread starter editor
- Start date
Proper Tidy
Arsed
Has anybody checked the index for references to the principle of simultaneity
chilango
Hypothetical Wanker
LDC
On est tous des pangolins
It'll be out as a free e-book very soon anyway I'd have thought, I'll wait for that.
8ball
Check your privet hedge
I'm going to wait til my robot manservant delivers it.
Then reads is to me while I eat grapes.
Smokeandsteam
Working Class First
Does Bastani explain why automation and tech delivers communism and not barbarism? Mason's argument that these types of industries and development can't be monetized in the same way as, say, cars, or turned into capital that is then privately owned has been emphatically debunked. Has Bastani moved the thinking on?
Proper Tidy
Arsed
Disclaimer - not read book.
I do recall though reading something on FALC, I think by Bastani, which made point that advances in tech would only lead to abundance over barbarism if combined with struggle. Paraphrasing here and fuck knows where I read this piece
Smokeandsteam
Working Class First
Thanks. Is this covered in detail by the political economy section of the book Proper Tidy /anyone??
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
It's in the final section, apparently, but is 'deeply disappointing'
From a review:
‘You can only live your best life under FALC and nothing else,’ urges Bastani, ‘so fight for it and refuse the yoke of an economic system which belongs in the past.’ Indeed, in the new society, ‘luxury will pervade everything as society based on waged work becomes as much a relic of history as the feudal peasant and medieval knight.’ So, assuming I’m persuaded, that lots of us are persuaded, how do we get involved? It turns out that, for the most part, we don’t. ‘The majority of people,’ we’re told, ‘are only able to be politically active for brief periods of time… Which is all the more reason why FALC… must engage in mainstream, electoral politics.’
There’s a rather uneasy transition in these pages, as we shift from an end to scarcity – a classless society, more or less – to local government financial strategies as carried out in Preston.
Proper Tidy
Arsed
That's a bit shit. FALC via labourism
LDC
On est tous des pangolins
Novara went Full Corbynism a while back. They all come across as desperate for the ear of the LP. Imagine Bastani is angling for, and would explode with excitement to be, Tsar of Tech or something.
Smokeandsteam
Working Class First
So vote Corbyn, get FALC. At some point in the future. Possibly. Through a parliamentary bill. And through capital just handing over everything. 
sunnysidedown
caput mortuum
what's with Bastani's Davidsonesque pronunciation of the word China around 27mins?
8ball
Check your privet hedge
I just read this (it's v short) - I wonder how many people would agree with this take on things (I don't expect many on Urban)...
A short working week is good for your mental health – but it made me miserable
A short working week is good for your mental health – but it made me miserable
sihhi
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered
He has the softest high-paying middle-class non-working work you can imagine, no surprise he wants more.
8ball
Check your privet hedge
... that's one of many good rebuttals that could be made.
The last sentence would be pretty chilling if said by someone with tiniest amount of political awareness.
Fozzie Bear
Well-Known Member
Just finished the book - crossposted from the reading challenge thread:
30/30 Aaron Bastani - Fully Luxury Automated Communism: A Manifesto
This was always going to be a bit of a hate-read for me but to his credit the author is slightly less annoying in book form than in his media incarnation. Most of the book describes technological developments which are probably going to shake things up in the course of the rest of my time on this shitpit of a planet. I found a lot of this section pretty tedious and it reminded me of the breathless puff pieces you would get in 1990s tech mags like Wired, Boing Boing and Mondo 2000. I don't really give a shit what Bastanti thinks about genetic engineering.
Where those magazines fell down was that their utopianism relied entirely on technology to make our lives better. Which it has in some ways but the fact remains that I now exchange most of my time in a windowless basement frantically answering emails, tinkering with Word documents and trying to understand spreadsheets for the money I need to pay for my mortgage and the Morrisons bill. Oh and for the latest iPhone.
So you'd hope Aaron would get to grips with this what the Communism being in the title and all. As many other reviewers have noted he doesn't do this. The optimism of the book is not tempered with any suggestion that these technological innovations might cause us some problems. For example the prospects for a workless dystopia enforced by robots and genetic engineering. Or even that the technology itself, as developed under the capitalist mode of production might have some horrific knock on effects in the same way that the industrial revolution lead directly to the climate crisis.
He also, weirdly, thinks that, during the twentieth century "Whether you were an employee or an industrialist, it was in your rational interest to protect the system" and "until now, communism was impossible". Which kind of shits on the workers' movement, but whatever. Now that it is possible, how do we get there? Again, as others have pointed out, it's through the ballot box, daddio. Because most people are too knackered by life to get into politics in a sustained way. Which is on the one hand a neat criticism of hyper activists like Extinction Rebellion, but on the other hand flies in the face of the fact that it is "kicking off everywhere" as Bastani's fellow techno-optimist Paul Mason has it. Clearly a lot of people in Hong Kong, Chile, Lebanon etc do have time for this sort of thing. As do the campaigners out to save Latin Village in Seven Sisters just up the road from where I am typing this. (It's also strange that there is no futuristic techno-utopian vision of how political campaigning may change in here but perhaps that is another book).
So in summary - there is a huge change in how we live and work on the horizon. And there is an optimistic vision of how this will make our lives better. But it relies on political specialists in parliament, and technological specialists who are currently developing everything at breakneck speed under the capitalist mode of production. Here comes the new boss.
30/30 Aaron Bastani - Fully Luxury Automated Communism: A Manifesto
This was always going to be a bit of a hate-read for me but to his credit the author is slightly less annoying in book form than in his media incarnation. Most of the book describes technological developments which are probably going to shake things up in the course of the rest of my time on this shitpit of a planet. I found a lot of this section pretty tedious and it reminded me of the breathless puff pieces you would get in 1990s tech mags like Wired, Boing Boing and Mondo 2000. I don't really give a shit what Bastanti thinks about genetic engineering.
Where those magazines fell down was that their utopianism relied entirely on technology to make our lives better. Which it has in some ways but the fact remains that I now exchange most of my time in a windowless basement frantically answering emails, tinkering with Word documents and trying to understand spreadsheets for the money I need to pay for my mortgage and the Morrisons bill. Oh and for the latest iPhone.
So you'd hope Aaron would get to grips with this what the Communism being in the title and all. As many other reviewers have noted he doesn't do this. The optimism of the book is not tempered with any suggestion that these technological innovations might cause us some problems. For example the prospects for a workless dystopia enforced by robots and genetic engineering. Or even that the technology itself, as developed under the capitalist mode of production might have some horrific knock on effects in the same way that the industrial revolution lead directly to the climate crisis.
He also, weirdly, thinks that, during the twentieth century "Whether you were an employee or an industrialist, it was in your rational interest to protect the system" and "until now, communism was impossible". Which kind of shits on the workers' movement, but whatever. Now that it is possible, how do we get there? Again, as others have pointed out, it's through the ballot box, daddio. Because most people are too knackered by life to get into politics in a sustained way. Which is on the one hand a neat criticism of hyper activists like Extinction Rebellion, but on the other hand flies in the face of the fact that it is "kicking off everywhere" as Bastani's fellow techno-optimist Paul Mason has it. Clearly a lot of people in Hong Kong, Chile, Lebanon etc do have time for this sort of thing. As do the campaigners out to save Latin Village in Seven Sisters just up the road from where I am typing this. (It's also strange that there is no futuristic techno-utopian vision of how political campaigning may change in here but perhaps that is another book).
So in summary - there is a huge change in how we live and work on the horizon. And there is an optimistic vision of how this will make our lives better. But it relies on political specialists in parliament, and technological specialists who are currently developing everything at breakneck speed under the capitalist mode of production. Here comes the new boss.
Last edited:
magneze
🎧
I also just finished it. As others have already said, an optimistic view of technological progress is refreshing. He points out that things might not go in this positive way and it could still all go to shit but the point is that there is a choice in the direction of travel. Perhaps this book makes people think of what they could do to push things in the right direction. It has for me and so gets a double thumbs up. 
Smokeandsteam
Working Class First
Thanks Fozzie Bear , you've saved me the job of reading this blob of nothingness.
I have one question, which I may regret asking in respect of blood pressure, but does Bastani explain how the value and capital created by new technology will be shared and equitable rather than captured by those who own it? Does he like Mason believe that this technology can't be monetised in the same way as old technology?
I have one question, which I may regret asking in respect of blood pressure, but does Bastani explain how the value and capital created by new technology will be shared and equitable rather than captured by those who own it? Does he like Mason believe that this technology can't be monetised in the same way as old technology?
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
I don't think you appreciate just how lightweight the book is. It doesn't even begin to approach anything like that.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
i always get aaron bastani confused with aaron barschak 
Fozzie Bear
Well-Known Member
Well by voting obviously. Duh.
Fozzie Bear
Well-Known Member
In all seriousness the nearest you get is The Preston Model and the nationalisation of the east coast line.
tech + the state + ????????? = communism
tech + the state + ????????? = communism
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country. — Vladimir Lenin
Smokeandsteam
Working Class First
Fozzie Bear
Well-Known Member
Odd how this oncoming techno-utopia leaves us all with more time but we're all too exhausted to do much more than stick a ballot in a box.
I think there is more scope for human flourishing etc when we get there.
bastani does inadvertently raise some interesting questions about how we create a movement which is inclusive and allows knackered and alienated people to get involved. Maybe even one where getting involved could circumvent some of that twitchy compulsive social media Netflix individualised existence.
19sixtysix
Bring me sunshine
Idiot whop can't find useful things to do at home. It's workaholic idiots that do too much work that cause the rest of us work clearing up their messes. They should reopen the assylums for them.
Similar threads
