Review of “Reinventing the future”

Review of “Inventing the Future.  Postcapitalism and a World Without Work” by Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams

This book is brilliant.  While it is aimed at the left, it contains messages relevant for people all over the political spectrum, or for people active in society but not considering themselves to be political.  This is one of the books that made me The Utopian Trainer.  I cannot overestimate how valuable this book is for anyone who wishes to transform societies progressively.

Here’s a summary of the arguments contained within:

(1)    “folk politics” – horizontal organising, local campaigns, protests, community building, bringing things down to the “human” level, have their place.  Certainly a lot of NGO and pedagogical work makes a key difference.  However, any small victory loses against the big power of neoliberalism, a complex system.  Therefore, we need the competences of abstraction (not just the biographical), complex (as opposed to single-issue) thinking, large-scale (not just local) to provide a more powerful base.

(2)    Contemporary political and civic action’s focus on the local (such as in Occupy) isn’t enough.  Neoliberalism owes its success to the establishment of a counter-hegemonic strategy around Friedrich Hayek which opposed the post-WWII Fordist settlement.  Through a network of think-tanks and  the placing of people with neoliberal ideas in the media and governmental positions, they were ready with answers following the 1973 oil crisis and collapse of Bretton Woods.  Neoliberalism became the hegemony, with that a private approach to the public good through the privatisation of public utilities and lowering of regulations – which affects the environment, state income and equality. 

(3)    Instead of being defensive about automation of work, we should use it to define a new modernity.  Capitalism is increasingly being faced with a crisis of not being able to provide income for most people.  Welfare states are being weakened.  There is scope for appealing to the self-interest of the masses through considering how we can all have income.

They therefore support full automation, a big reduction in the working week, universal basic income, and a weakening of the work ethic to one more based on individual freedom and fulfilment.

(4)    For this a new common sense needs to be formed in order to “engineer consent”.  To achieve this, “Our efforts must be organised strategically along broad lines, rather than dissipating into a series of partial and disconnected achievements”.  This programme of redefining common sense, involves social alliances, strategic thinking, ideological work and institutions, such as think tanks.

I myself am not totally convinced about universal basic income, or even full automation.  These aspects aside, I totally agree with the broad message of the book that in order to create more progressive and equal societies, we need to think in the long-term and use strategic thinking.  This massively informs my work as The Utopian Trainer.

I’ll end this with a question (which connects to a utopian hegemonic project other influencers and myself are currently working on): what would it mean for you to take a long-term and universal approach to achieving progressive ends?

Only by considering this together can we create the planet and societies we dream of.