Capitalist Realism & The End of History
What is the "End of History"?
Refers to a term used by Francis Fukuyama at the end of the Cold War to suggest that capitalism had triumphed, marking the end of ideological battles
Explain what Bastani means when he says "‘luxury’ populism must be both red and green."
Red because it places the energies of the third Disuption at the service of humanity – in the process enhancing personal freedom like never before. Green because it knows climate change is inevitable and that going beyond fossil fuels is a matter of critical urgency. What is more, rather than reducing our quality of life, it grasps how the transition to renewable energy offers a bridge to energy abundance…” 188
Bastani advocates for UBS instead of UBI: What does UBS refer to?
Universal Basic Services
the right to particular resources such as housing and healthcare – is better
What is "capitalist realism"?
“it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism”/ "a world where nothing really changes"
“capitalist realism is making us believe the present world is stronger than our capacity to remake it”
Bastani acknowledges that “many see communism as nothing more than a failed experiment of the twentieth century." How/Why does he think FALC will be different?
Given the possibilities arising from the Third Disruption, with the emergence of extreme supply in information, labour, energy, and resources, it should be viewed not only as an idea adequate to our time but impossible before now. FALC does not underpin the trends of the Third Disruption – it is their conclusion” 51
“FALC is not the communism of the early twentieth century… The technologies needed to deliver a post-scarcity, post-work society – centered around renewable enrgy, automation, and information – were absent in the Russian Empire, or indeed anywhere else until the late 1960s” 192
Bastani rejects "the cult of globalism" and argues instead for "prototype politics." Explain what he means.
One of the greatest barriesrs to such change is the cult of globalism, whose default rhetoric is that the changes we face are so profound that they can only be resolved through international coordination. On climate change, migration and sesource scarcity we repeatedly hear the same refaim: no single nation can solve these problems in isolation” 197
“The current approach to climate change ins’t about ‘working together,’ it’s about passivity presented as partnership” 197
Calls for “prototype politics” – do things through example and imitation
“This requires a basic admission that has been heretical for much of the left since Fukuyama declared history was over: quck, effective action can only happen through nation-states” 198
Why does Bastani assert that "history is returning"?
"Almost two decades after Fukuyama’s false prophecy, that almost decisively changed: a banking crisis, a debt crisis, a deficit crisis"
"The Third Disruption"
“What we know for certain is that the status quo can’t hold. There is no consent for a system which, on nearly every measure, is going backwards”
"this all explains the revival of radical politics, on botjh the left and right, in recent years”
"While they might nto share much politically, Trump and Corbyn, along with Brexit and the emergent of Podemos, Bernie Sanders and Syriza, indicate the era of capitalist realism is over"
Explain how Bastani employs Marx and Marxist thinking.
describes Marx as arguing that "the arrival of communism would herald the end of any distinction between labour and leisure. More fundamentally, it would signal humanity’s exit from what he called the ‘realm of necessity’ and entance into the ‘realm of freedom.’” 54
Says for Marx, communism was all about abundance
“Marx viewed this as contingent on technological change: the more developed the forces of production, the greater their capcity to offer a new kind of society where labour and leisure would blend into one” 55
“For Marx, communism was a condition of abundance, a society where labour and leisure dissolved into each other, where out natures were developed in a manner consistent with play. This is a world where scarcity – or as Keynes refers to it, ‘the economic problem’ – would finally be vanquished” 57
Name two institutions that Bastani identifies that can be used to advance FALC.
electoral politics; "this requires participating in electoral politics and even government, but not being constrained by it"
"we must build a workers' party against work"
"prototype politics”
Central banks -- to try to ensure rising wages, high productivity, and affordable homes