Christian Swertz via nettime-l on Fri, 4 Apr 2025 15:35:45 +0200 (CEST)


[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: <nettime> the destruction is the point. 

Hello,
and thank's for the relevant question. I wouldn't say that the description has a potential for describing change. A description is something in a language, and languages do not act and therfore do not change anything. Languages do not speak. People speak, and people might use languages to change something. In this context, it is people who entwine description and action. An  epistemology might be used to argue this (while it's not necassary to develop an empistemology before taking action). In that case, the epistemology is used to entwine the description and the change. For this I prefer a dualist epistemology. With a monist empistemology it's not possible as far as I can see. 


Am 03.04.25 um 17:42 schrieb Dylan O:


Hello!

apologies if my formatting is poor, it's my first response here.
This is the first time I've seen the critique of the inability to "gesture" towards forms of action on here. In my short time on this list, I haven't seen much in the way of silhouetting  forms of action on here. How would you posit that the description of a circumstance is entwined with it's potential for describing change? 

Thanks!
Dylan
On Thu, Apr 3, 2025, 10:31 AM Christian Swertz via nettime-l <nettime-l@lists.nettime.org> wrote: 

    I seem to have missed something. I could not find the proclamation of
    the dead end. I see the explicit reference to theories of the genre
    "capitalism", which seems to imply some implicit reference to
    theories
    of the genre "communism" or "anarchism". This obviously points in the
    direction of possible forms of action, as long as you accept
    revolution
    as a form of action.

    The show that Trump and Musk are putting on is probably meant to be a
    distraction. And usually distraction shows in the public sphere are
    meant to distract from an ideology, in this case probably
    something like
    Christianity, Dataism and Capitalism. Christianity and Dataism have
    already been discussed in the last days on the list - thank's for
    that,
    by the way. And Capitalism is probably not irrelevant here as far
    as I
    see. I would thus just add "capitalism" to the bouquet of
    ideologies we
    are facing. So the usual bouquet, it seems. Leaving out capitalism
    might
    thus indeed lead to confusion, don't you think?

    Am 03.04.25 um 16:32 schrieb Ted Byfield via nettime-l:
    > The only function of this kind of all-encompassing dead-end
    proclamation is to be right. It explicitly dismisses all actual
    details and dynamics as “theatrics,” so it can’t even gesture in
    the direction of possible forms of action or theory. Worse, from
    the first words — “for those that may be confused” — its dismissal
    denies any alternative understanding with some grand
    platonic-proscenium metaphor. It doesn’t even make the best the
    enemy of the good, it just installs the worst as its sole
    organizing principle.
    >
    > On Apr 3, 2025 at 4:43 AM -0400, Dmytri Kleiner via nettime-l
    <nettime-l@lists.nettime.org>, wrote:
    >
    >> For those that may be confused, to reinflate the rate of profit
    for billionaires you need to destroy capital, attack labour, and
    stifle competition.
    >>
    >> Trump's tariff tantrum, Musk's mayhem, the resulting
    spectacular stock swoon, make capital and labour cheaper to
    acquire and clears space for new concentrations of profit.
    >>
    >> This orchestrated chaos isn't about bolstering the economy for
    non billionaries. Higher prices, job insecurity, and economic
    instability are needed to confront profitability crises,
    especially as the West re-orientates towards Cold War II, the
    pacific pivot.
    >>
    >> Trump and Musk may deliver the spectacle with extra chaos and
    cruelty, but the underlying logic is bipartisan and systemic and
    done with strong consensus of the bourgeois elite, who imagine
    this as Schumpeterian "Creative Destruction."
    >>
    >> When profitability falters, capitalism demands sacrifice:
    capital must be devalued, labor disciplined, and markets cleared
    of excess players. This isn’t policy error or personal failing,
    it’s how the system sustains itself.
    >>
    >> Ignore the theatrics, the destruction is the point.
    >> --
    >> # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
    >> # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
    >> # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
    >> # more info: https://www.nettime.org
    >> # contact: nettime-l-owner@lists.nettime.org
    >>
-- Liebe Grüße, 

    Christian Swertz
    http://www.swertz.at
-- # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission 
    # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
    # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
    # more info: https://www.nettime.org
    # contact: nettime-l-owner@lists.nettime.org




--
Liebe Grüße,

Christian Swertz
http://www.swertz.at
--
# distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
# <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
# collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
# more info: https://www.nettime.org
# contact: nettime-l-owner@lists.nettime.org