MEMORIES OF THE FUTURE - The Charnel-House

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Of course, the “post-futuristic” world heralded by Berardi is only the latest in a longline of “posts” that have accumulated the last few decades. These typically assume theform of prefixes appended to various nouns and adjectives. 15 Most of the time, though,the “transcendental signifier” undergirding all these terms (to use the parlance favored bythis discourse) is “postmodernism.” Unsurprisingly, it is Berardi himself who draws theconnection between postmodernism and the present age of post-futurism. He notes that1977, the date he associates with the death of the future, was also “the year that Jean-François Lyotard wrote The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, in which heanalyzed the new organization of knowledge and the disappearance of the grand narrativeof progressive modernity.” 16 Despite the earnest efforts of those who, like Slavoj Žižek 17and Jason Schulman, 18 have recently come out “in defense of grand narratives” (even as“lost causes”), Bifo upholds Lyotard’s dictum of “incredulity toward metanarratives.” 19He thus rejects out of hand every attempt to construe history as the progressive unfoldingof human emancipation.Regrettably, the theoretical and practical framework that Berardi adopts in After theFuture proves far less interesting than his overarching claim that the future has ended.His theoretical exposition of the problem of post-futurist society is extravagant, jargonladen,and dense. 20 Berardi’s vague (if not outright baffling) gestures toward a practical15 To list just a few: post-ideology (Bell’s End of Ideology, 1962), “postindustrial” society (Bell’s Comingof Postindustrial Society, 1976), post-aesthetics (Danto’s “End of Art,” 1978), postmodernism (Lyotard’sPostmodern Condition, 1979), “post-political” politics (the Post-Political Politics of Negri, Guattari, Bifo,and Tronti, 1980), post-Marxism (“Post-Marxism without Apologies” by Laclau and Mouffe, 1987), posthistory/posthistoire(Fukuyama’s End of History, 1989), etc.16 Ibid., pgs. 47-48.17“‘Postmodernity’ as the ‘end of grand narratives’ is one of the names for [the] predicament [of a lost]universality.” Žižek, Slavoj. In Defense of Lost Causes. (Verso Books. New York, NY: 2008). Pg. 33.18 Schulman, Jason. “In Defense of Grand Narratives.” Jacobin. Spring 2011.19 Lyotard, Jean-François. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Translated by GeoffBennington and Brian Massumi. (Manchester University Press. Manchester, England: 1984). Pg. xxiv.20 Berardi enthusiastically participates in the production and reproduction of concepts extolled by Deleuzeand Guattari — i.e., the creation and perpetuation of the outlandish neologisms so common in postmoderntheoretical discourse. Deleuze, Gilles and Guattari, Félix. What is Philosophy? Translated by GrahamBurchell and Hugh Tomlinson. (Columbia University Press. New York, NY: 1994). Pg. 159.7
solution — which recommend, e.g., a secularized “translation” of “the Christian conceptof ‘resignation’,” “poetry and therapy (thera-poetry),” “radical passivity” through “activewithdrawal,” even “suicide” — are likewise disappointing. 21 Ben Lear has quite aptlydubbed Berardi’s political outlook “lifeboat communism.” 22 These deficiencies may bebracketed for the time being, however. Leaving aside these unfortunate ventures into therealm of theory and exasperated appeals at the level of practice, the first thing that mustbe acknowledged about his thesis is its basic accuracy. On this score there is little roomfor doubt. The radiant future envisioned by past generations has today all but vanishedfrom sight, disappearing into the neverending gray on gray of the existing state of affairs.In its place looms the disturbing image of a futureless present, which swallows up everypossible alternative to conditions as they currently obtain. As Adorno once remarked ofHuxley’s dystopia, here “the future bows before the omnipotence of the present.” 23Bifo relies heavily on categories borrowed from other philosophers, which appear at once underspecifiedand conceptually overwrought. For instance, the hazy concept of “semiocapital,” introduced by Baudrillardseveral decades back, shows up frequently side-by-side with thought-figures of Deleuzoguattarian origin(“schizoanalysis,” “the baroque,” “deterritorialization,” “rhizomes,” “chaosmosis”) that are no less opaque.On “semiocapital,” see Berardi, After the Future. Pgs. 35, 55, 90, 93-94, 99, 106-107, 114-115, 132-133,139, 143-144, 150, 156. On “schizoanalysis” and “schizoid” tendencies: ibid., pg. 48, 130, 159, 179; on“the baroque”: ibid., pgs. 99-101, 115; on “deterritorialization”: ibid., pgs. 50, 53; on “rhizomes”: ibid.,pgs. 40, 48-49, 128; on “chaosmosis”: ibid., pgs. 78, 159-162, 175-176.Berardi also freely indulges in the coinage of new terms and concepts. He proposes the “cognitariat” of“infolabor” as a “virtual class” that might replace the industrial proletariat as the post-futuristic subject ofhistory. On “cognitive labor,” “cognitive workers,” “infolabor,” “neuromobilization,” and “cognitariat” (or“cognitive proletariat”), see ibid., pgs. 36, 55, 80, 82, 83-87, 89, 92, 102, 129-131, 144, 163, 170.21 On resignation: ibid., pgs. 156-157. On “thera-poetry”: ibid., pg. 163. On radical passivity: ibid., pg.177. On suicide: ibid., pg. 148.22 “Bifo’s politics could be described as a kind of ‘lifeboat communism.’ As the crisis ripples, mutates, anddeepens, Bifo sees the role of communism as the creation of spaces of solidarity to blunt [its] worst effects.Gone is the demand for a better world for all, the liberation of our collective social wealth, or the unlockingof the social potentials of technology. Rather, Bifo’s politics are based around insulating a necessarilysmall portion of society from the dictates of capital.” Lear, Ben. “Lifeboat Communism: A Review ofFranco ‘Bifo’ Berardi’s After the Future.” Viewpoint Magazine. May 18 th , 2012.23 Adorno, Theodor. “Aldous Huxley and Utopia.” Translated by Samuel Weber and Shierry Weber.Prisms. (The MIT Press. Cambridge, MA: 1997). Pg. 117.8
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