Sublime

Capitalism has a number of useful features. Yet none of its shortcomings match its inability to accept natural abundance. Facing such conditions for resources – as with information, energy and labour – production for profit begins to malfunction. All of this can be explained by the fact capitalism emerged in a world fundamentally different to the

centred upon extracting and using a particular kind of raw material: data.

Perhaps leaning so hard as I have on democracy will only cause it to snap. Perhaps we need another word; perhaps the word can be refurbished and put to better use. Either way, technology is sure to be drafted in the cause. A further fruit of Langdon Winner’s reflections on artifacts and politics is an observation about the amnesia that surrounds

This explains the idea of promoting a Greater Safety Net for networked individuals rather than for corporations—a hedge designed to cover us against all critical risks and empower us in our many interactions with other economic agents, all without the intermediation of the proxies (large corporations, the state) on which the Great Safety Net 1.0

A key realization for me, which came in a flash, was the idea that neoliberalism is not a total worldview. Many people believe it is, but in fact it is a political-economic project that can articulate with several different and even competing projects of recognition—including progressive ones.