Alexander Bard, Jan Söderqvist: The Futurica Trilogy (2012)

30 December 2012, dusan

“In the late 1990’s, Swedish social theorists Alexander Bard and Jan Söderqvist started working on a radical new theory, since referred to as The Netocracy Hypothesis. At this early stage Bard & Söderqvist foresaw that the control of the internet would be the subject of the main power struggle for the next century; an outright war between a brand new rising elite (the netocrats) and an established but rapidly declining elite (the bourgeoisie). They made predictions against the tide in the early years of the new millennium (and cleverly foresaw both the dot com crash and September 11), and have since then been proven right in virtually every aspect and even in the most minute of details. Not only did Bard & Söderqvist foresee revolutionary innovations such as Google, Facebook, Al-Qaida and Wikileaks, they also went deeper and looked beyond where any other observer has been or managed to go, into the very power struggle of the on-going revolution. Now, for the first time, all three of Bard & Söderqvist’s groundbreaking works have been collected and released as one compact set, under the title The Futurica Trilogy. The first book is The Netocrats (explaining how the internet creates a new global upper class which fights and destroys the old stuggling power structure); the second book is The Global Empire (dealing with the worldview of the netocrats and how it radically differs from any previous ideology in history); and the third book is The Body Machines (discussing how the idea of what it means to be human in an interactive world radically differs from any previous concept of human existence).”

Originally published in Swedish in 3 volumes: Nätokraterna (2000), Det globala imperiet (2002), and Kroppsmaskinerna (2009).
Translated by Neil Smith
Publisher Stockholm Text, 2012
ISBN 9789187173035
740 pages

video interview with the authors (2008)

Wikipedia

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Alain Joxe: Empire of Disorder (2002)

16 July 2011, dusan

“Globalization is quickly turning the world into a chaos, leading to an increasing disparity between rich and poor, the rise of an international, rootless ‘noble class,’ and an escalating number of endless cruel little wars. Yet the United States refuses to conquer the world and assume the protective imperial role for the societies it subjugates. Instead, it operates on a case-by-case basis, regulating disorder, repressing the symptoms of despair instead of attacking its cause. For the first time perhaps, humanity has embarked on an ocean of disorder with no final order in sight.”

Translated by Ames Hodges
Edited by Sylvère Lotringer
Publisher Semiotext(e), 2002
Active Agents series
ISBN 1584350164, 9781584350163
221 pages

publisher

PDF (updated on 2012-7-26)

John Holloway, Fernando Matamoros, Sergio Tischler (eds.): Negativity and Revolution: Adorno and Political Activism (2009)

19 August 2009, dusan

How can activists combat the political paralysis that characterizes the anti-dialectical theories of Foucault, Derrida, and Deleuze, without reverting to a dogmatic orthodoxy? This book explores solutions in the “negative dialectics” of Theodor Adorno.

The poststructuralist shift from dialectics to “difference” has been so popular that it becomes difficult to create meaningful revolutionary responses to neoliberalism. The contributors to this volume come from within the anti-capitalist movement, and close to the concerns expressed in Negri and Hardt’s Empire and Multitude. However, they argue forcefully and persuasively for a return to dialectics so a real-world, radical challenge to the current order can be constructed. This is a passionate call to arms for the anti-capitalist movement. It should be read by all engaged activists and students of political and critical theory.

Publisher Pluto Press, 2009
ISBN 0745328369, 9780745328362
Length 252 pages

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