-
Save Those Who Weep
Sophie Wahnich argues we need to expand the notion of civil war to include the whole set of social and political practices that destroy the social bond. Since market relations destroy sociability, we must unfailingly turn our attention to those who are falling through the cracks. First published in Libération. Translated by David Broder.
Eddie Constantine as Lemmy Caution in Alphaville (1965).
In Alphaville — imagined by Jean-Luc Godard in 1965 — the city’s all-powerful master Professor von Braun has abolished human feelings. A computer, Alpha 60, governs the whole city. The secret agent Lemmy Caution is charged with "destroying Alpha 60...and saving those who weep." -
Keynes 2030
In 1930, the economist John Maynard Keynes published a "letter to our grandchildren," in which he speculated about what kind of future industrial societies would have a hundred years later. Here Pascal Riché of L'obs interviews André Orléan, who has written a preface to this astonishing text. Translated by David Broder.
From an illustration by Edward McKnight Kauffer for The World in 2030 A.D. (1930) by the Earl of Birkenhead.
Les Liens qui libèrent have republished John Maynard Keynes’s odd little essay Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren, under the title Lettre à nos petits-enfants [Letter to Our Grandchildren]. Here Keynes journeyed a hundred years forward in order to imagine the society of the future. According to Keynes, by 2030 growth will have put an end to poverty. We will live in a society of abundance, in which we will work very little; an era in which "we prefer to devote our further energies to non-economic purposes." "The love of money … will be recognised for what it is, a somewhat disgusting morbidity." For André Orléan, the interest of this text lies in the break with capitalism that Keynes foresees therein.
Do you think this little text is a visionary one?
It really is an astonishing text. Here we discover that even at the end of the 1920s Keynes foresaw that economic activity would be "between four and eight times as high as it is today" a century later. And already today, in constant currency, the Western countries’ GDP is over four times higher than it was in 1930. This prediction is all the more remarkable given that he made it during a very troubled period — the crisis of 1929 — at a time when few statistics were available. To get a measure of the boldness of Keynes’s text, imagine the difficulties an economist today would face if she set out out to predict the level of development in a hundred years’ time. -
[VIDEO] David Harvey: Visualizing Capital
In January, David Harvey spoke at the School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford to present "Visualizing Capital": what he "hopes is the end" of the project on Marx he began — inadvertantly — fifteen years ago. -
Red Sale 2017
A special Red Flash-Sale, 50% off these selected books (with free worldwide shipping) until Feb 15, midnight (UTC).
Click here to activate your discount.
-
The Red Party: A Toast
Held annually on the Saturday before Valentine's Day, the Red Party at Verso's Brooklyn office has become a ritual. At the Third Annual Red Party last Saturday, McKenzie Wark presented a tribute to the vision behind the pro-communism, anti-Valentine's Day party.
Check out our special Red Flash-Sale, 50% off selected books (with free worldwide shipping) until Feb 15, midnight (UTC).
So its Valentine’s Day weekend. You can already see the young straight couples. The boy holding the girl’s hand; the girl holding the genetically engineered long-stem rose. I feel like walking up to them and shouting: listen, I’m an old person so I know. This is never going to work! But then whatever does work out? Be monogamous, be polyamorous, be fuckbuddies, be alone with your cat. Being a human mammal is messy no matter what you do. Let’s face it, our species-being has issues. So whew are love, rituals, roses and the color red.