Capitalism is reaching its limits: Slavoj Žižek

zizektimes.com/2017/07/capitalism-is-reaching-its-limits.html

The philosopher embarked on a series of lectures in Spain in which he speaks of what he calls the 'Aireapocalipsis', or the set of signs that, for him, indicate that humanity is at a point where it must change the way Which is following.

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Capitalism will soon turn into full blown slavery again if shit doesn't change

Uh, I'm pretty sure he uses a cheek muscle for it, Zizek.

blog.swiftkey.com/swiftkey-reveals-role-professor-stephen-hawkings-communication-system/

you right, the ziz man is wrong

Zizek often talks bullshit so watch out

I think its important he is starting to talk about technology and the human condition, and transhumanism.
I have mentioned before, but the globalism and neoliberlism as we knew it ended with trump. Now we enter a multipolar world, and nationalism will become important in that. I think trump is just a stepping stone to normalize nationalism and authoritarianism in western countries.
I think those kinds of political modes are more suited for the chaotic global warming, cyberpunk future that is coming.
The west actually has a taboo on eugenics and genetic modification, but i think instead the west will embrace body modifications, i expect a more serious trans humanist movement to pop up in the near far future in western countries.

I think this suits the managers that run things will, the managers love surveillance, because they love managing people, they love controlling people. They love data and stats and stupid neolib shit like that. They love knowing what you buy, what you fap to, they love watching you walk down the street on a street cam.

The future could possibly be, one or three corporations controls everything, you live on their land like a serf, they provide you with food and shelter for your slave labor, the heads of the corporation have a private police force in which they use to maintain their power. They are always watching you to make sure there is no rebellion.

First time I've disagreed with Zizek in a long time. He heavily underestimates how far capitalism will demand the amputation of its excesses and its own innovation. Of course a looming world-systemic crisis of capital is nearing on many different levels, but all this means is that a good crisis should never be let to waste.

You know how feudalism started?

The Imperial economy in antiquity broke down in a catastrophic fashion. So, around the 5th century CE, the world as the Europeans have known it for the past millennia is disintegrating. Previously, large scale epidemics cut swathes through the population of Europe, leaving the Roman Empire underpopulated. This situation is further exacerbated by the constant, internecine warfare. The Imperial system never develops a successful strategy for a bloodless succession, and the political shifts that take place between Augustus and Romulus Augustulus decimate both the imperial barracks and the coffers. A significant contributor to the Roman economy was what I call the "plunder economy" (please excuse me if there's a better term).

During the Republican years, Roman expansion was fueled in part by the growth and maintenance of the Ager Publicus. Theoretically, all the land that Rome conquered went into a public trust meant to be administered for the maintenance and enrichment of all Romans. In reality, the Senators sell tremendous tracts of land off to one another that eventually become latifundia. The ensuing mega-farms administered by hundreds of slaves not only put the citizen-soldier independent farmers that made up Rome's army by competition, but the increasingly long wars also took a toll. Since a soldier was required to serve out the entire campaign, which could take several years, their farms began to fail. Naturally, Senators begin buying up their smaller competitors as their inevitably default on their loans. Seneca even bitches about it, how land prices had skyrocketed, and how all these people are washing up in Rome because there just isn't any work for them. That's why, when military eligibility was expanded to any male and not just landowners, the carrot of getting one's own land out in the provinces was dangled out there. Naturally, the same pattern follows them there. Soldiers settle gaul. Property accumulates as either local landowners or wealthy outsiders absorb their neighbors (by marriage or inheritance or purchase or whatever), until so much of the land is monopolized and displaced, that more land must be acquired. From somewhere :^) In another parallel, it's this same exact process that the Confederate States of America wanted to do, conquering Mexico and Cuba and making them "slave states," expanding the available land for their own latifundia.

So the private sector is doing great with its state subsidized plundering and conquest of its neighbors, and the state is doing really well with all this war booty coming in. Gold and silver, sure, but also all kinds of practical material and equipment. Plunder wasn't just gold and silver, after all, but all the good stuff. Expensive glassware. Plowshares. Tools. Food. Booze. How many decades of labor time would stealing the entire GDP of a neighboring tribe save? All the wealth of Mediterranean Europe is being concentrated into a single city. All roads lead to Rome, etc. Caesar and the previous dictators represent the result of the Republican system, which concentrated wealth and political power into gradually fewer families. Caesar concentrates an unprecedented amount of state power and honors more or less perpetually within his person, and the Roman Republic comes to an end.

With Augustus this process reaches more or less its ultimate geographical limits. Now, the main economic driver of the previous five centuries grinds to a halt. Aside from trade with Africa and Asia, all the wealth of Rome is made within its borders. Instead of bringing wealth in to the Empire, the legions just consume it. Rome has no southern neighbor, but they'll squabble with Parthia over Mesopotamia. The Plunder Economy ends and Rome returns to producing for more or less for its consumption. The economic and political situation are relatively stable for the first couple centuries, but in the 3rd and 4th century the wheels start coming off. Those same processes which accumulated enough wealth for a single family to dominate the state eventually produce regional rivals, especially ambitious generals looking to imitate Caesar, and the armies that had a lot to win from backing a successful coup.

So the constant warfare blood Rome dry financially as generals vie for the crown, then successive plagues depopulate it, just when migrations from Asia displace peoples bordering Rome. Some who come and settle peacefully, and who the Romans are only too happy to accept so that there's someone to do all the work that needs doing, but also the fighting that needs fighting. All this fighting naturally wrecks the economies of entire provinces, not only damaging production, but literally killing their markets as well. A negative feedback loop occurs, where increasingly damaged economies spur army recruitment, who go to war to kill other Romans, damaging the economies further, which only increases the incentives to revolt, which damages the economy further as the state pays out tremendous indemnities…

All these and other factors put so much pressure on Rome that it begins to collapse. With international trade either dead or impossible (because of plague or rebellion etc) these regions more or less begin to or have to start fending for themselves. The Empire persists until the 450s or so more or less by inertia. Imbuing so much legal authority into a single individual comes back to bite as the sheer size and scope of the Empire overwhelm the ability of an individual to manage it. The centralization of state power eventually comes to mean that "Rome" is wherever the Emperor was, and anywhere else was up for grabs.

The Germans invade and divvy up Rome. The crumbling Roman economy completely falls apart and international trade more or less comes to a standstill. A semblance of it will continue in the Eastern Roman/Byzantine empire until the Muslims come along. Part of what eases Islam's expansion through ancient mainstays of the Roman empire was the economic order they brought with them as opposed to former Roman bureaucrats or constantly warring Germans.

But what we're ultimately left with at the end of Antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages, everything that made economic sense for the past millennium went up in sometimes quite literal smoke. The only places that weren't on fire belonged to the Church or landowners materially sufficient in supplying the needs of a small army. If you were a cobbler, or smith, or sheep herd, or whatever, you could either try and tough it out in cities overrun with slave labor or make yourself and all of your descendants slaves to a local Count or Jarl or whatever they want to call themselves into perpetuity. Trying anything else resulted in a violation of the NAP and the Duc's private army fucking murdering you. :^)

While distinct, the ancient and modern economy both result in similar patterns of material accumulation, concentrating wealth into hereditary, and in the case of corporations perpetual, ownership. I'd like to think that we we won't see outright slavery, but I wouldn't doubt its Capitalism With A Human Face, corporate equivalent. "How nice of google to build a whole town for its employees. Ha! 'Googlebux,' can you imagine?"