Transcript
-
•
-Critique f ;: .f Politi I no my_
-
Bernard Stiegler
For
a
New Critique of
Political Economy BERNARD STIEGLER translllttd by Daniel Ross
polity
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CONTENTS
For a New Critique of Political Economy
1
Heads buried in the sand: a warning
3
Incroduction
8
Pharmacology of the prolt!tariat
14
To work
45
Pharmacology of Capital and Economy of Concriburion
71
Nom
130
IllIux
143
For a New Critique of Political Economy
For An/fluid ck I'Epilu Imd Chris/itlll rlmri
ONE
Heads buried in the sand: a warning lhe [hests put forward in this small volume were hrst set aU( on January 15. 2009 at the Maiso" de I'Ettrope, during a lecture which tvdyne Grossman and the Co/Mgt inrffllat;onal dt ph;[osopbit invited me (0 deliver, and they wert also discussed in my conrribution 10 the catalogue for "Work: Meaning and Care," an ohibi tion held in Dresden from June 2009 to March 20 I 0 at the initiative of the Demsches Hygiene-Museum, the German Fedtral Cultural Foundation and Daniel Tyr.addlis. 1 decided (0 publish these rdlecdons in the midst of economic and political debates taking pla� throughout the world about the necessity of implementing stimu lus plans in order [0 limit (he destructive effects of the first planc:tary economic crisis of the:: capitaliSt indus uial world. Now when, in such debates, "investment stimulus" and "consumption stimulus" arc: spoken of
in opposing [enns,
twO
distinct qucsrions become con
fused, questions that, in fact. do require simultaneous treatment, yet according to
twO
different scales of time, 3
f O R A NEW C R I T IQUE
:l
difficulty which is all the greater. given that
th� pmmt
crisis hmdds tlu /'lid o/Ihi' COlJJllmm'sl modi'l. Those\.'ho advocate srimuladng consumption as Ihe pouh to economic rccovery want ndlher ro hear nor speak about the end of consumerism. But the French government, which lldvocoues stimulating investment. is no more willing Ihan those who advocalc stimular· ing consumprion to C.11l [he consumerist indumial model inw question. The Frcnch version of"stimularing investment" (which seems morc suhtle when it comes from Barack Obama) argues that the best way
(0
5.1Ve
consumption is through invesrmenr, rh:tt is, hy restoring "profitability," which will in
rurn
restore an entrepre·
neurial dynamism itself founded upon consumerism and its counterpart, marker·driven productivism. In other words, this "investment"' proposes no long. term view capable of drawing any lessons from the collapse of an induStrial mood based on the automobile, on oil. and on (he consrruction of highway networks. as well as on the Hemien networks of the culture indus· tries. This ensemble has until recendy formed me basis of consumerism, yet today it is obsolete, a faCt which became clear during the autumn of 2008. In other words, this "invcstment" is not an ilwesrmenr: it ison the contrary a
disillvmmml, an abdication which consistS in doing no more than bllryil1g011�S h�ad hI th� WId. 4
Ht'ads bUTi,.d in II" sand: II wllmillg
This "investment policy," which has no goal other than the reconsotmion of the consumerist modd, is [he translation of a moribund ideology, desperatdy (rying to prolong the life of a model which has b«ome self-destructive, denying and concealing for as long as possible the faCt thar the consumerist model is now mas sivdy toxic (a [oxiciry extending far beyond the question of "toxic assets") because it has re'J.ched its limitS. This denial is a matter of trying, for as long as possible, to maintain [he colossal profits that can be accrued by those capable of exploiting iI. The consumerist modd has rcached its limirs because it has become systemically short-termist. bCC'J.use it has given rise to a tyJUmic Slupidity that Ult
T«omtitution of a
strufturally prtVt'f//S
kmg-tmn horizon. This "invest
ment" is not an investment according [0 any terms other than those of pure accounting: it is a pure and simple reestablishment of me st,Ue of things. trying to rebuild the indusrrial landscape without at all changing itS ncuc rure, still less its axioms, all in the hope of prorecting income levels that had hitherto been achievable. Such may be the hope, but these:: are the false hopes of those with buried heads. The genuine obj�t of debate raised by the crisis, and by the question of how
(Q
escape
this crisis, ought (0 be how to ovcrcome the short termism to which we have been led by
a
consumerism 5
FOR A NEW CRIT1QUE
intrinsically destructive of all genuine investment-that is, of investment in the furure-a short-term ism which has
Jysuhlically, and 1l0t acddmtfllLy, been translated into [he thcomposition ofillvestnltnt into tprculdriol1. Whether we must, in order
(Q
avoid a major eco
nomic catastrophe, and to anenuate the social injustice caused by the crisis, stimulate consumption and the eco nomic ma<;hinc SItch
as il slill is, is a question as urgenr as
it is legitimate-as long as such a policy does not simply aggravate the situation at the COSt of millions and bil lions of euros or dollars while at the same time masking the true question, which is to produce a vision and a political will capable of progressively
moving away from the uOl1omico-politictlL compLex of C01l1llmp'ioll so asJO enter into the complex ofa new type of il1Vf!Jtment, which must be a social and political investment or, in other· words, an investment in a common desire, that is, in what AristOtle called philia, and which would then form the basis of a new type of economic investment. Between the absolute imposes
the
imperative
urgency which obviously of salvaging
the
present
situation-and of avoiding the passage from a global economic crisis to a global political crisis that might yet unleash military conflicts of global dimensions and the absolute necessity that consists in prodUCing a potential future in the form of a political and social will 6
Hmds buried ill tl;r sand: a wamillg
capable: of making a break wirh the: presc=nt situation, there: is dearly a conrmdictioll. Such a contradiction is characte:ristic of what happens to a dynamic system (in this case, the: industrial system and the: global capitalist system) once it has begun to mutate. This question is political as much as it is economic: it is a question of political economy, a matter of knowing in whatprrciJt!/y this 1fIflflU;Oll co nsim. and to what potit. iol, bur also industrial. choices ir leads: it is a matter of Itnowing what nt!tv indus/rial poli/ics is
reqllirtd (on
this
point at least. Samck Obama seems slightly ahead of (he Europeans, who remain expertS at functioning in a stale of denial). Only such a response is capable of simultaneously dealing with the question of what urge:nt and immedi· ate steps are: nc=c�sary in order to salvage: the industrial system. and with the question of (he how such steps must be inscribed within an economic and politi. cal mutation amounting [0 a revolution-if it is true that when a model has run its COlirse [revolu], [hen its transformation, through which alone it can avoid [Oral destruction, consdrutes a revolution.
7
:l.tions, various financial insrruments, raTings agencies, erc, 'Ihis capital. however, rends to become purely specu· Iative when it no longer measures a capital of confidence in the fUllIre of rhe assets of (he production appar.Hus in relation to which it constitutes, as a system of anticipations, capacidcs for invcslmcnt-but instead relies on operations which are eithcr purely self·refercn· tial (such thar rhe anricip;nions created by the lin:l ncial sub·syslern :lIlricip:lte nothing bur itselF :Uld come at the expense of the production system), or else ;lrc oriented toward the producrion apparatus, but arc srrllcrurally shorr-term (that is, based on disinvestment, that is, on me pil/ng� of me production apparatus),
Innovation, short-termism. and spemlation Let us now return to productive capital.
A common
objection
ro
{he thesis of the tendenrial
full i n the profit rate is that the technical innovation lying at the heart of [he production apparatus enables the system ro ceaselessly stimulate its differentiation. with conStant capital [hereby conferring a competitive advantage upon rhe innovative entrepreneur. The quesrion of innovation, however, is nor only 81
POR
A NEW CRITIQUE
a man�r o r conc�ption and production as entrepre· neurs tran�J�r technological invenrions and scientific discoveries OntO their businesses: innovation is also and before anything else the
locinlizntioll of innova
tion-thai is, the transrormation of sodcry. Now, in the tw�micth century this tr:\nsformarion operated through the organization of consumption, that is, through the implementation of appar:\ruses for sociery's adaptation to rcchno·industrial change, bur not as the ndoption of innovation by sodcry. l r would be
:1
rnatrcr of adoprion if techner-indus·
trial change was co·produced by sodery itself. Bur the organizarion of consumption presupposes, on the contrary. dlal the becoming of social IJstnm must Jlme· furally !/Ibmit to the becoming of the (cOllOmie SYJtI!m. something enabled by granring rhe latter full control over technological becoming, that is, over rhe tl!ehnicnl sysrt'm--rhis submission being obtained by capturing and harnessing die anention of consumers, by diverting their libidinal energy toward objects of innovation. and by controlling th�ir behavior via marketing. Now. such harnessing of libidinal energy leads to its destruction: it submits to calculation that which, as object of desire, is only constituted through becoming infiniti7.ed, that is, through surpassing all calculation. This destruction of desire leads to a drive·bascd 82
PIJanna�o/0t:1 olu/pita/ Mfrustration,"
forming
a
system
with
what.
in
rwcmieth-cenrury consumerist socicl)', conditions the social absorption of innovation describc:-d by Schumptter as Meconomic evolmioll," leading to the installation of a systcm (e'nding ro produce' ("'ranir Ilnd sirurfllrn/ obw/n·
unct, a system for which the lIomllll rdation to objeclS becomes disposabi/iry.'J And if financialiZ3tion consti· nne'S
an aspect of that system, then both businesses
(as constant capital) and workers (as variable capit;dl become as structurally disposable as any other obi(.'Ct of consumption. Consumption becomes, therefure, both an expedient and an outler-aplJllmltl,(ooll-aggrav:ning frustration by displacing it on a very shorNerm basis toward the newest object of consumption produced by this "permanent i nnovation." Novdry is thus systematically valorized at
od ttach· the expense of durabilil)'. and this Orglll/;Ulioll f mtm, Ihm s, i of unfoilhfolnN or illfidtlirylO (equally called Rexibiliry),11 conuibures to rhe decomposition of the libidinal economy, to the spread of drive-based behaviors and to the liquidation of social systems. At the' foundation of this systemic organization of infidtNry-which is concretely cxprC'Ssed as much by the liquidation of primary identific3rion12 and the modification of infantile synaptogcncsislJ as by (hose shorl-circuits induced in sociery Ihat I have described 83
FOR A N EW C R I T I Q U E
"dissoci:Hion"'1-the SYSI/!ms o f amicipation o f free
as
capita l and 1111: hyperlabile behavior of consumers act in ha rmony and are " potcn !ized" [polnltialismt), in the �nse that
mbi n ing drugs can pOUlltiu
co
IpormtiabJ"1
!he ir curative bUI also their roxic effects (as when, for insmnce. alcohol is combined wilh psych otropes or an Ii-in Aamma rories). Amicipations of fflOC capi l';!l and consumer behav ior
therefore
become correlatively
and
J)sumira/Iy
siJort-unllist, sprCIIlalille alld d,i"r-bmrd.
Economy ofprottntio1lS Fictitious capiral is a system of annclpacions and
gambles wiJi(iJ (an Dilly makr jtldgmmts
about illmiolJs,
(har is, speculat ions and calculations abour nnure pos sibilities wiJkiJ may /lrver br rraliud. It is this system of projection of prolemions which, as the organization
of risk-raking (more or less limited). gives the capitalist system irs dyna mic: capiralism presupposes the existence of free Clpittl o�n 10 speculation understood in this
sense. The "advance" on real iry mar produces these antici pations, however, such that Ihey arc structurally exposed (0
speculation, mUSI proceed before a nythin g else from
84
Pharmacology ofCapillI!
a
motillmiofl,
itself inscribed within an «onomy ofmoti
tJnliolU. which is also an economy of fantasy: such an economy is what produces protean libidinal energy or, 10
express it in more precisely psychoanalytical terms,
polymorphous libidinal energy. 111is polymorphism must be unified by whar Max Weber called a spirit: it presupposes an investment in a libidinal economy which in some way confers lIpon it irs symbolic calibr:nioll. and irs conStitution wilhin a synem of exchange forming a polymorphous social commerce. Such are the questions pervading 'flJt N�llI Spirit of
Ctlpilll!iJm, in which Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello refcr to both Max Weber and Alben Hirschman in order ro show that: sYSfemic constraints [which
arc'
exercised on all the actors
wilhin the capitalist system) are insufficiem on [heir 10
dicil thcir e.ngagcmcnl. Duress
kOIl"ai1llt)
own
must be
internaliu:d and justified.15
In other words, it presupposes that a libidinal economy keeps in re:scrve an rxchangMblt Iibidil1al tl1l'rgy, which bestows consiStency on rhe "advance:" that the syslem makes upon itself, and
as
irs dynamic, throughoUl the:
various forms of motivation rhat it dicits. 85
FOR
It.
NEW CRITIQUE
In fh� libidinal economy, ,he ":ldvanc�"-th� pro· fentional structure of this economyl6-is constitlL[ed by desir�, and such desire is structurally inflnite. thai is, incalculabl�. to th� extent rha! it tends (0 Kinflnilizc" its objectS: [h� libidinal economy is the economy of this inflniri2.ation and as such constitutes a system of intrin sically long-term care. Conversely. the destruction of this advance founded on desire. thai is. on symbolic capilal-a destruction induced by the "liniIi7..:1tion" of its objects. and as the organization of their ilHrinsic disposabiliry. including workers and businesses--demoys motivation itself in
"II irs forms. It thus becomes an advance based on the drives. But given rhal [he drives are by nature shofHermin. chis leads to disinvestment, thaI is, to the destruction of prolitability understood as
bmtfir.
it leads
fO
the
demuclion of profllability understood as th� consolida· lion of the dynamism and durability of the system, as thac which don the sysrem good fer qlli rail du bien ItII
.lJlthm·J.
86
PlmmulCology O/Cllpitll/ Consumrrist ctlpital andfunny monry {monnaie de singe}: th� math�matizntion ofcartkssntSI The tendemial fall in the rate of profit which haunted the producrivisl system characteristic of the nineteenth cemury and of European indusrriali7.ation (and which provoked severnI crises) was absorbed at the begin. ning of the rwentieth cemury. in North America. by a counter-tendency obtained through the consurnerist organization of rhe libidinal economy: by the estab lishment of a system of pron:mions dircr.:red by capiml from the side of consumptiun in functional ,lI1d direct relation to free cltpital invested and "prorcmionalizc:J" in this sense. The implememation of the consumerist society was [he principal response [hat rhe American economy found
(0
this systemic tendency-and this
form of capitalism therefore cannot be (hought with Marxist conceptS alone. Ir was wirhin this emerging context. as the praduc tivist industrial model became consumerisr. that in 1913 Schumpcler wrote his evolutionary rheory of the capitalist economy. Ford then constilUl'('S the perfect example of this ideal-type that Schumpctcr calls the elHrepreneur (Weber having himself supplied a first version of this idcal·type through rhe figure of the enrre preneur of Pennsylvania).17 Blit Fordist entrepreneurial 87
FOR A NEW CRITIQUE
innovation.
b.U«I on
Taylorism.
pmupposcs the
organization of mass consumption-the harnessing and aploir:nion of libidinal enerro' in the service of constant behavioral control. II is for this reason that this form of capitalism requires the mobilization of Freudian concepts. This consumerist coulHeNendency-invenred as a way of struggling against the rendemial Fall in the ratc of profit. and implemented via a function of the system of which Marx was unaware, rhat is. marketing, and which led to the reorganiz..1tion of ficririous capital and to the F.lCI that the m:lOner of controlling produc tion shifts from entrepreneurial control to shareholder management-this counter-tendency in turn becomes bearish toward the end of the lWemieth cemury, and does so at the very moment that buying power diminishes. everywhere sening up a massive process of pauperizarion. reconstituting the characteristic traits of the nineteenth cemury. Having destroyed the libidinal economy upon which it was founded. the consumerist coumer-tendency then systemically aggravates the roxicity of financial phar macology. that is. rhe tendency. itself drive-based and shorr-rermist, of fictitiolls capilal, accentuating pau peritation in all layers of the population as well as undermining the apparatus of production, which is
88
PhamllU'ology olCnpiral pillaged via
leveraged buyouts and other speculative
t<:chniquc:s directed specificlly against businesses. The Struggle against the tendendal fall in the rate or profit thus induces a tendential fall in libidinal energy. which reinrorca the speculative tendency of capital. that is. its disinvestmCIlI, thereby undermining profil. The enormous accumulation of capital tends there fore to be transformed into funny money
[moll1l1lie dr
sillgel-and rhe pension fund system appears for what it is: one pole or a system, called fictitious capital, sllch
having mtltiJm/(uiud its pham/(tcologiCIII tt'lldruf] 10 cnrelrsS1Im, its other pole is constituu.:d by deceptions (ll"urml dtlibtmttdy organizing the d ilmion of respon that,
sibility, deceptions with names such as "subprime," "sccuriti1.adon," "Bernard Madoff," erc.
7h� Ihort-t�rmilt mllCTo-tmdmcy If me way in which Marx calculated the nne of profit failed to rake rhe specu1ative tendency in which ficti tious capital essentially consistS fully imo aCCQum. this only serves to show, precisely that the capitalist invesr menr system is subject, as a dynamic synem. tithtr to a bearish tendency,
or (0
a speculative funcrioning which
necessarily becomes destructive and false. 89
fOR A N E W C R I T I Q U E
Schumpcter COlllradicu thiS perspcctive by showing how
innovation
fimcHonnl/y arHmbms
prodllcriv�
Clpiral and fictitious capital-as risk capiul oriented to\vard "rl..-chnological values," But Schum peter does not integr.u� th� quesdon of consumption
as
me har
nessing of libidinal energy, nor th� bearish effecu that this hamming induces over rhis �nergy form essential to consumerist capitalism, nor the reinforcement of the t'endeney toward shorHcrmist carelessness ,hat rhese effects inevitably provoke in fictidolls capital. In order to describe, then, the functioning of the apparntus of production-such
as
it is mmored by a
permanent innovation requiring an organization of consumption by me appararus of psychopower that marketing consdtutes. even if one retains from Man Ih� separation of fictitiow from productive capital in his formulation of the calculation of p--we wowd need to: 1 . add to his formula an innovation function and a consumption function. in order
[0
descri�
an
appar:ltliS of producrion which, today. is no longer merely productivisl but consumerist; ,
2. inregratc a rendential faU in libidinal energy. that is, a tendeney for the libido to decompose into its com ponent drives.
90
Phannacology ofCapital If, in addition, one admits: •
that fictidous capital is essential to the syucm as it is the organization of calculable anticipacions;
•
that it is constituted by a structurally short�termist tendency. that is. by a tendency to carelessness which. in the consumerist industrial modd. forms a system with an increasing obsolescence of products and services. produced by a constant acceleration of the processes of innovation and technologi� cal transfer. and by a correlative aggressiveness of marketing;
then it appears evident mat the consumerist modd has reached its limits because it accommodates a short tnmist marro-tm4mty. which in future
can
only lead
to dosing the system off from any future. that is. to a blockage of me processes of anridpation. whether enuepreneurial or financial, and to a generalized degra dation of social and psychk motivations. but equally of «onomie motivations. Given the existence of such a macro-tendency, the question becomes to know what the
mttcro-cOlutur
tendtncy might be.
91
fOR A NEW CRITIQUE
Shartholdtr capitalism as systemic carelessness To quadons of durability and sust:tinability, and of safeguarding the dynamic system that capiralism is as a system of motivations. must � added the problem of negative externalities: the crisis of 2008 coincides with the fulfillment of the predictions of the Meadows report and of Rene Passet. namely. that the consumer· ist industrial model is condemned to overshoot its own limits by destroying geological resources and geographi. cal and meteorological systems, all while provoking a demographic explosion. lhis destruction of physical systems is combined with the destruction of psychic and social systems, which are the conditions of production of all libidinal energy that of producers as well as designers, investors and consumers. The profit
rl1U
then tends very cenainly to
fall, while the "profit" is only mainrained at high levels because it has become inninsically speculative: and care· less.-i---e ther through ruinous instruments of financial pharmacology, or by frankly Mafia·esque operations. indeed ones that arc manifestly criminal and strictly
;)1'1\"1. In this case. what is augmented is a profit that no longer �ars any rclation to the profit rare calculated by p, since c.1phal, in (he face of the eventual obsolescence 92
Phnm/(lCology ofCnpitnl
of innovation iuelf, and taking into account the essen tially drive-based character of consumption. tends
[0
become structurally fictitious. that is. to be ded neither 10
c nor
ro
v in the definition which supportS the cal
culation s/(c+v): it is this tendency which is concretely expressed
in
management
becoming
shareholder
based-of which the Forgean/EADS insider trading scandal revealed calamitous effects-and which installs a genuinely systemic carelessness.
Economy ofexcessivmess [demesureJ lind infinite mponsibility However speculative this fictitious capital might be, it measures anticipations, making them relatively calcula ble. Prorenrions of psychosocial temporality. however. are not absolutely calculable, and always exceed rdative anticipations: they emerge from that in6niciz.cs ir.sclf, [hat ntu
s i ,
a
libidinal economy
an «01lomy of acmiue
that produces a psychosocial will. otherwise called
motivation. that is. thai produces motivn for tx;uillg. otherwise called meaning. and which presupposes what Simondon names the transindividual-foundC'd on
a
process of transindividuation in which prQ[cnrions are elaborated into the formarion of long circuits. I II
93
F O R A NEW CRITIQUE
In other words, the prorenrion mat constitutes psy� chosocial temporality presupposes mat me of an illfi"iu mpo,uibility will come
co
ption
assum
"back up" this
temporality as a kind of (rdit, where credit cannot be reduced to trust but presupposes
[ctuifianul 3
understood as calculadon.'9
desire invested in an infinitizable
object. At the origin of capitalism. it was the God of reformed monotheism who assumed the symbolic func� tion of this infinite responsibllil)'. as we arc informed by Weber. But what could take on the symbolic function of this infinite responsibilil)' when capitalism turns into a process of disenchantment. nihilism and the death of God? In what then will this relation co infinity consist, a relation which speculation tends to dilute. and to liq� uidate (through which, however, it
s i
the system itself
which becomes diluted-me mutualization of losses only allowing social and psychic systems to absorb this dilution by destroying them a little more. that is, by diluting themselves in order to preserve me financial sub�system within me capiraJiS[ economic system, and always to the detriment of the producdon sub-system)?20 This infinite object is that of desire. What both Freud and Nietzsche gave us to think-and what they gave: us
to think as the play of tendencies-in the function�
iog of what the Viennese analyst will call the psychic 94
Phannacology o/Capital apparatus, is that me:: psych�
is
intrinsically constirute::d
by its rdation to infinity. 1his infinity is that objc=ct of infinite:: d�ire:: which, c=ve::n though it does not exist (if is a fantasy), nevermdc=ss consists. Such consiste::nce alone allows a general c=conomy to perpetuate, that is, to c=xcee:d speculative:: finirude-a finitude which is encounte::rc=d when speculation, calcu lating and measuring anticipations, proves incrinsically careless because it has become the incarnation of a short-termist, thar is, drive-basc=d. tendency. These are also the:: stakcs of general economy according to Georges Bataille. From the:: mome::nt thar American capitalism imple menu the "American way of lifc" as a new libidinal economy mrough me psychopower of marketing. it can only make:: this infinity, which is infinite dnir�, funaion by 6nitizing it, that is. by dcsrroying the:: apparatus of production of libidinal ene::rgy and of all sublimatory by-products. It can therefore only cause its dysfunction. The:: imple::me::nt2tion of this psychopower, however, which beiic=ves at the same:: time in the doctrine of soft
po�r, will for a long time:: contain
its finitizing effects
through a public power theorized by Keynes and mate rialized by Rooscvdr. This public power, called the
we/fort state, will: 95
fOR A N E W CRITIQUE
•
on the one hand. maintain. beneath psychopower. social and sublim:nory systems for the production of libidinal energy. in particular as educational systems:
•
on the other hand. limil the specularive: tendencies of fic[jdous capilal thar Ihis psychopower reinforces. through the roles of regulation and adjustment assumed by the public power when faced with the effects ofdis.1djustmems engendered by the incess.1m muradons of the industrial technical system, which destabilizes olher social systems.
To say this another way, the welfare state is not merely an
avatar ofbiopower: added
(0
it is rhe question of psy�
chopower. This is me characler of the stare in the e::poch of what Adorno and Horkheimer wiU caJl the culmre industry-and in the epoch when these indusuies, vectors of the American way of life::. lxgin to fight over the:: katknhip of social change.
7h� "comtrVativ� rtvo/ution" IlS subordination of th� uchnical sysum to tht lCOnomic systroz Three: crucial points must here be e::mphasizc::d :
1. Before marketing and ficritious capital took coorrol of indusrrial becoming and before the mass media 96
Phnnnncology o/Capital became thoroughly drive-based. that is. at rhe begin ning of the 1970s, the profit rate of businesses bonomed out-an economic faCt which meant that at (har rime it
was
difficult to argue that the ten
dential fall i n the me of profit was an absurd proposition. 2. It was in order to reverse this situation. installed throughout the Western world by Keynesi:mism, that the "conservative revolution" was implemented by Margaret Thatcher in England from 1979 and by Ronald Reagan in North America fwm 1 9BO-thc system based
all
the Btetton Woods agreement
having been abandoned in 1 97 1 , the American appa ratus of production having drastically regressed JUSt as had occurred to the former British empire. and the "conservative revolurion" aiming to "financial ize" and ro globalize Western capitalism. in order [0
ensure that it cominued to direct the course of
globalization (a strategy which
was
a lamentable
failure).
3.
This calling into question of the stare-which (Oak the form of denouncing rhe welfare state on the grounds it destroys individual responsihiliry. and hence that government had become "the problem and not the solution" (to paraphrase Reagan)-had the goal of making it possible for capital TO complc£c1y 97
F O R A N E W CRITIQUE
direct (via the intermediary of psychopower imple mented through marketing) the course of what Bertrand Gille called {he disadjustmem berween the technical system and the Q[her human systems, a role which from the beginning of the industrial revolu tion right up until that moment had belonged to government. In other words. after the "conservative revolution," the becoming of the technical system in the course of globali7.ation (leading to a process of economic globalization which after 1989 no longer faced any obstacles)-constitu[cd
by
the
infrastructure
of
production the organization of consumption (via psy .
chotechnologies), and the objects and services of this consumption itself (all of which are themselves n i dus
gbJbal, ttchnical sysum tends to become totally inttgrattd into the uonomic sJIum and submirud to its priorities as UNU as to its contradictions. trializ.ed and technicized)-the becoming of this
In addilion, the economic system is hencefonh almost complelely directed by the financial sub-system, itself globalized, and this financial sub-system, in (urn, is itself structurally de-correlated from the production sub-system.
98
Phllrmacology olGllpiclli Technical system, social systems, and marketing From the Napoleonic state until various forms of Keynesianism, and passing through Gaullism, one func� tion of the state has been
[0
ensure the direction and
regulation of the disadjustment provoked by ever�more rapid evolutions of the technical system, and to imple ment processes ofreadjustment as they become necessary. Bertrand Gille wrote in 1 978-one year before Thatcher came to power-that, failing such regulation, which constitutes a policy of industrial development, social systems could only find themselves annihilated by a chaotic becoming of this development.21 The technical system is a dynamic system in which there takes place what Simondon describes
as
a process
of individuation. Gille shows that in the course of this individuation, the technical system enters regularly into conRict with the "other social systems"-which are themselves processes of collective individuation, and which presuppose processes of psychic individuation. and what Freud called psychic apparatuses. This means that it is possible for the individuation of the technical system to proceed in a way that is con� trary to the individuation of social systems and psychic apparatuses. This contrariness, however,
IlUO constitutes
the dynamic of the technical. social and psychic 99
F O R A I"'EW C R I T I Q U E
individuation processes. (hat is, the: pharmacological
condidoll of their individuation: Simondon shows that individuation, qua process. presupposes the phase differ· ences
[dlpbmagrs) which precisely induce these different
dynamics o£individuation, and vice versa.
On the other hand, processes of psychic
alld social
illdi'Jit/uafioll are nOf in any case IIdaptflfiolls of the social systems and psychic apparatuses to the becoming of Ihe technical sysrem: they are processes of
adoptioll.
that is, of co-illdividllllrio1/, in which social systems and psychic apparatuses produce and individuate {he tcch nical system as much as they parTicipate in their own resp«rive individuadons-and do so i n a way (hat is transductivdy interlinked. Gille: argues that the st3[e muSt assume rhe regulation of (inevitable and necessary) conflicts in order [Q avoid
the. destruction of these systems: the state regulates by determining the parameters of (he technical system and [he corrdative evolution of the social systems through
negotiation, forecasting, and planning, that is, through the long.term organization of technological and indus· trial becoming; it must equally ensure {he possibility of research independent of private invesrmenr, which is Short-u."rmist when compared with intergenerational social time. Such policies arc therapcmics which define regimes
100
Phannacology ofCapital
of individuation based on long circuits of rransindi· viduadon. and which prescribe conditions in which technological and industrial pharmacology produces individuation more than it docs disindividuation. Now, an essential aspect of the ideological war led by the neoliberals of the conservative revollUion w;\s the condemnation of governmenml industrial ;\nd long-term policy and the corresponding accusa· tion that governments inevitably promote inefficielll models of economic adminisnmion-even
though
the United St:w:s military continues to determine the direction of rhe industrial policies of the American stare. "Ibis eventually evolved n i to the accusation that a/l social Structures rh.lt produce long circuits of rransindividuation are guilty of curbing the mod· ernizarion made possible by the development of the technical system. When Thatcher and Reagan initiated deregulation, dismantling and eventually liquidating all srate appara· ruses, their gamble was thar these adjustment processes could be entrusted alone. thar is,
[0
lO
the operation of the market
marketing. which then exploits wirholll
limit the psychotechnologies constituting rhe mcdi:l
infrastructure-and does so at rhe service of a bchav. loral control which is ;'narcotic." that is. which is anaesthetizing and which produces addiction. 101
fOR
A
N E W CRITIQUE
Confounding the technical and economic systems as a principalfoetor ofcarelessness This unlimiud exploitation leads to the slow but inex· orable liquidation of [he apparatus of prOdJlctioll of libidinal magy. an apparanuform(d by conjoiningpsychic apparafusN and socal i syst(1f1S so as to produC( Sflb/i"IIuion sysums (and which concretize individuation insofar as i t is always a t once psychic and collective). In the aurumn of 2008. this unlimited exploitation will turn OUt to have installed a genuinely planunry car(/mnm. The confol/nding of th( t(cJmica/ and economic sysums is a catastrophe which inevitably leads these twO systems. which arc thoroughly pharmacological. to potentize and exacerbate their toxic. emropic and self-destructive tendencies-for four reasons: I . The subordination of the technical to the economic system, itself dominated by the highly speculative and short-termist financial sub-system. reinforces me destructive effects of innovation and of the accd· eration of innovation for the other social systems:
the technical system incessamly disadjusrs from the social syS(ems. And it tends to bury. suppress, and delay the effects of [his disadjustmem by substituting for these social systems technical processes amouoc102
Pharmacology ofCapita! ing (Q services which shorr·circuir rhat process of uansindividuation of which these social systems are the organization-the absence of regulation leading in the end to the desrruction of temporaliries (long circuits) which are nor immediately "monetizable,
�
that is, capable of being absorbed by a consumer market. 2. The extremely rapid and violent penetration of tech· nology in the different social systems (family systems. education systems. political systems, judicial systems. linguistiC systems. etc.) leads
to
generalized prole.
rarianiz.ation: technological innovation is imposed rhrough marketing
as
a process of adaptation of
psychic and social individuals. and nOf appropriated as
a vec(Qr of individuation and process of adoption
defining a thernpeutic regime, that is, 14voir·vivrr (lhrrapruml1 and �imr!rj4
as
techniques of
self and
others). This is why it no longer allows the creation of circuits of transindividuation and on the contrary sers as irs principle the shorc·circuiring of the transin· dividuation process-which amounts fO a principle of !)lumic carrlrsmru. 3. lne shorHl!'rmist pressure exerted by fictitious capital and shareholder managl!'ment over the development of a technical system entirely subordinated to chI!' economy and therefore to the market, and for which 103
FOR " N E W CRITIQUE
the only developmental possibilities that come to be selected are those enabling the IItry mpid comtitll lioll ofsolvmci�s-thcrcby dosing off all possibilities for social invC5tment in the phnrmnkoll, both in the long (erm and as therapeuric implementation of irs socialization-this pressure of the economic system on the technical system leads to a systemically careless development oftbt ftc/mienl systtm its�1f.
4 . 1he geogrnphical, biological, demographic and psy chic systems find themselves disadjusred, leading to their disequilibrium, rather than
TO
beneficial disrup
tions (that is, to disruptions that would be effectively ncgenrropic. disruptions capable of leading to rhe production of lltW mttasmbililia, such as would occur if the phnnnnkoll were implemented therapeutically).
Th. collap" ofthe sysum ofmotivations Human becoming is lhe resuh of a threefold process of individuation for which
the
technical system.
social systems and psychic apparatuses are the meta stable configurations engendering proCesSC5 of technical. collective and psychic individuation. These three individ uation processC5 arc inseparable: they form rransducrivc relations.22 104
Phllnnllcolog)' o/Capillll
These transductive relations tie rogether three orga nological levels which must be distinguished. and which have their own logic and their own tendencies. bur which cannor be considered in isolation from one another: •
The psychic appar:ulIs is bast.-d on a system of psycho
•
The technical system connects artificial organs which
som:ltic organs; become the
phrtrlllllka
of the psychosomatic body.
connecting it to Q(her bodies at the heart of social systems; •
Social systems are [he organi7..3tions through which the rransindividual merastabilil,cs and unifies the therapeutic regimes which constitute social blend ing [foirt-c01;t'.J] through me collective individuation process.
That the technical system is in transductive relation with the social systems means that it cannOt be devel oped without a human milieu in relation to which it is exogenous. a milieu formed OUt of psychic and collective individuals
cultivating thtir sil1glllnritit'.J by cullillllling
cOl1sistt'11ct'.J. thllt is, ohjtcl.J which do not t'Xist, btl! which art
infillil�and which.
as
such. permit the unification
at infinity (infinitely to come) ofsystems and individuals. 105
fOR A NEW CRITIQUE
That the psychic apparatus is i n transductive rdation with the technical systl:m means mat psychic appa ratuses cannot socialiu: without passing through the phllnnlllril constitutive of thc technical system-which is also a syncm of tertiary retentions,lJ and which thus supports individual and collective protentions (and [he formation of credit), These pbnrmillra permit the forma rion of both long and short transindividuation circuits. Reciprocally, social synems, as proccsses of collective individuation, thar is, as evolving systems. cannot per
petuate themselves whhout adopting pIJarma/ra through the psychic individuals who transindividuare themsdves at the hearr of these social systems, pllllrmnkn which as
such disrupt the organiutions
n i
which these systems
consin: each organological level being individuated in transductive rdation to thc individuadon of the other systems. In the rwentierh cenrury, howevcr. the economic system having taken a step beyond all the othcr systc=ms, and being charged with the rask of unifying them by
finitizing thml,
that is. submitting them to a prOCdS
of generalized "monetization"-and the financial sub system having taken a step beyond [he production
sub-system at {he heart of the economic systcm itself-it is
infinitivt (omutmu
(thc law of desire), constituting
the condition of any genuine co-individuation of the
lOG
Pbannacology o/Capital thref! organological levels, which finds itself destroyed. Now. there
can
be no suJlaillabk (that is, care-ful
[mriL"UStU prottntion without infinitive consistency. This resuJrs in both the squeezing of all anticipations imo an ultra-shorHerm horiron of specula£ion, and (he collapse of the system of motivations. Speculation, very far from producing a new dynamic. on the comrary fossilizes dme: it freezes it into a waU of time where past and future cancel each other OUt, and where all forms of invcstmenr disintegrate. The ulna-short-term tendency of completely deregulated fictitious capital, which systemically shorr-circuits the process of rransin dividuation, thereby causes fictitious capital to become totalized and extremist. This tendency is, then. intrinsi cally self-destructive and as such annihilates rime-time, of which the law is deJire,
huofor as it pmnitJ fht reali
zaHon (through Jublimation) of motilm of imagination (poHibilitit'J). Sucb a situation of carelessness-which
can
only
lead to the entropic disintegration of the three orga nological levels. while at the same time destroying the txrrt1-organological systems {geographical, climatologi cal, geological. and biological systems)-is induced by a consumerist model which, having reached its limits through (he spread of dissociated milieus,24 that is, pro letarianil.ed milieus, becomes self-destructive, insofar as 107
FOR A N E W CRITIQUE
what it destroys is not merely the desire o f consumers but also [heir health. The reinvemion of the industrial economy presup poses the reconstitution of a libidinal economy withom which there can be no investmem, and this means that lltW appartlfllJt!l
ofproduction of/ib;dilla/ m�w mllJt b�
cOllui/J�d and imtitltud-beC3USC JUcb appardttlJts I1rt tltcflJari/y i1lJtil'llti01lJ: hcncc the ecclesiastical institution and irs care-ful [cllri�/l.\·j inhabiram, the curCi hence rhe school and its master, thc [cacher [hlItihlullrj.
To rcol1omiu at/tw, that is. to Jtrugg'� agaimt tht car� ms tmdmcy inherent to that piJarmakol1 thar is capiral. and dUff to fltk� etrr� of th� world, can clearly no longer pass by way of "scimulating consumption." But neither can it pass by way of a "decrease in growth" ["dicr
oissllnul Rather, a pathway to gmuint growth must be refound, a growth running counter to the mis-growth
[microhsl111Ct] rhat consumerism has become,25 and a growth which would consist in a renaissance of desire. Such a rebinh would be achieved by implementing an economy of contribution, an economy for which "to
uOl1omiu" means '"to mkt rnrr,"26 and an economy within which carc culrivates associated milicus.!7
108
Pblll'1nttcology ofCllpitlll
Pharmacology oftechnical tendencies In the course ofhis ethnographic research, and by com paring ethnic groups, Andre Leroi-Gourhan created the concept of what he called "(eelmical telldtllcits." Technical tendencies emerge from char "interior milieu" which the "echnic group" constitures. Technical tenden cies emerging from the ethnic group are projected in the form of technical objects, the torality of which con stitute a "memhmne" (or a "film" ) through which rhe erhnic group takes hold of its exterior milieu, which it rhus assimilates via irs technical objects. Leroi-Gourhan's analysis is greatly inspired both by Henri Bergson , as Leroi-Gourhan expliddy acknowl edges with his references to che theory of "life force," and by Claude Bernard, who makes use of the concepts of interior milieu, exterior milieu,
as
well as of mem
brane and cell. in order to describe the "metabolic" functions of sodo-ethnic groups, Now. the interior milieu in which technical tendencies aTe formed is at the same time the sear of counter tendencies
limiting their concrete expression.
The inte
rior milieu "secretes" these tendencies, bur it a/Jo secretes something simi l ar to an (auto-)immune system in order to struggle against the toxic effects that these tendencies may ar rimes provoke within the interior milieu.
109
P O R A N E W CRITIQUE
This is in effect constituted through a technical milieu which suppons it, which is its condition. and which is its double (in the double sense of the word. if I may put it like this): the technical milieu (equivalent to what Bertrand Gille called the technical system), harbored by the interior milieu, and supponing it. also does not cease to exceed it and to threaten it with destruction. as though it were a parasite that also happens to be the condition of possibility (and of impossibility) of that upon which it is parasitical. In brief. it is a matter of a pharmacological milieu. bearing tendencies which are curative as well as poisonous. This is why. within the interior milieu, a technical tendency. though it has its provenance in this milieu, is never completely expressed wirhin that milieu: a technical tendency is omy realized through technical facts which are a compromise between technical char· acterisrics, emerging from the tendency. and ethnic characteristics that Leroi·Grouhan describes as degrees of technical fact18 limiting this tendency--degrees of which the tim is the pure rendency. but which is therefore covered over by other degrees which mask it, limiting its expression, indeed returning the technidty of the tendency against its own expression. In certain regards. there is a manifest comem (which is the tech nical fact) and a latent content (which is the technical
110
P"nnllncolo� ofCapital
tendency)-the manifest comenr expressing fie larenr content only by dissimulating it, and
tkftrritlg (diJfirnntJ
it,
diJf�mltiating [diJfirtnciiltltl itself from it.
Such is the case because the interiot milieu (which constitutes the ethnic group) harbors within the tech nical milieu
3.
social sub-group (the technical group),
bearer of the tendency, which is distinguished from other social groups, themselves bearers of coumer tendencies emerging from other social systems. A social coumer-tendency consists in causing the technical ten dency to "diffract," to deflect, and even to reverse irs direction. in order
to
ensure that the technical ten
dency docs nor destroy those systems constituting (he interior milieu, which would be inevitable were it
fa
be expressed without any limitation whatsoever. The tendency which bears the technical group is therefore concretely expressed
as
a technical fact in the encoun
rer with other social groups which rake hold of this tendency in causing it to bifurcate. This deflection. this diffraction, and the bifurcations which are produced by it, and which arc specific forms of what Derrida described as
diJfiranr�
(which is also
an economy)29 constitutes the reality of the process of co-individuation of the technical sysrem with the social sysrems-and. through them, the individuation of the psychic systems mar anticipate them and realize them 111
FOR A N E W C R I T I Q U E
jusr as much as {hey are submirted ro rhem and find themselves conditioned by rhem. In contrast with these conserv;nive reactions of the interior milieu. however. the technical group, which tends ro facilit:ue the expression of the technical ten� dency. is a step ahead when compared to the ethnic group. insof.1T as it is extremely aware of dements of the exterior milieu th:1I we must
I.
. .
J understand first
of all
as
a natur.l]
milieu, which is inert. composed ofsmnes. wind, trees. and animals. but also as rhe bearer of the objecrs and the ideas of diRerenl human grou ps.30 The technical group is. then, what causes the passing
into action (or the transgression [pt1JSl" iz I;"cun of the technical rendency (which is nothing other than a poremial), via the intermediary of objects and ideas coming from the exterior milku, that technicians assim� ilate, and through which they take a step ahead of the interior milieu. The interior group is. however. led to itself assimilate rhis technical milieu in order to be able to assimilate that which. in irs exterior milieu, has changed, something Leroi-Gourhan demonsrr:l.les with his example of the snowshoe. adopted by the A�:lskan Inuit because their climate was becoming frozen: every�
112
Pbarmacology a/CapitaL
thing here is a maner of arrangements between dynamic systems.
The economy ofcontribution as the overturning {renversemenr} ofthe bearish macro-tendency The technical tendencies proper to human groupsJ l define the human as such, and threaten [he human as such: they threaten the cohesive factors unifYing the group. Technical tendencies originate from the ethnic group itself. Leroi-Gourhan's "technical milieu" may be a step ahead when compared with the interior milieu, yet it is so, if one can put it like this, from our of this interior and,
i some way, by hollowing alit this interior. n
In Gille's account, on the other hand, the technical system and its dynamic seem to become exteriorized, to
detach from the interior milieu, and to dc-correlate
from the social systems: this is what Gille describes
as
disadjustment. The societies of which Gille speaks arc no longer ethnic and tribal groups: they are much larger social groups (empires, politically and economically organ ized and hierarchi7.ed cities, churches, nations, etc.), the social srructures of which are profoundly distant from those of ethnic groups,
as
well as being divided and 113
FOR A NEW CRITIQUE
differentiated into sulrgroups. social classes, economic sectors, etc. In these hierarchical societies, social groups are in a reladon to other social groups with which they form a uniey (imperial, political, religious. national, etc.). as if these "ethnic cells" have integrated to form a superior body constituting a new interior milieu. Furthermore, such hierarchical societies maintain commercial and mil itary relations with one another, leading to an exterior milieu that is more and more strongly "anthropited." that is, technlcizcd: a milieu of exchanges and of"exter nal commerce," through which inrernationaJ law
can
form, which is $Ometimes an economic site, and at other times a site of war. Disadjustment is manifested in the spatial differ entiation which urbanization induces. But it has only become a perceptible and constant factor of the social dynamic since the time of the industrial revolution. The technical system then tends to blanket and absorb the social systems, first of all by inscribing stllloir.jairt inro machines (by grammarizing knowledge), rhen by shott circuiting Stlooir-v;vu via the apparatus supporting the service industries (in the consumerist epoch), contem porary reticulated society grammacizing social relations themselves via sodtll mginttring. There have always been, in all preceding periods of 1 14
Pbamlac% D OfCapitaL
human sociery, proc�ses de-correlating the technical sYSle'm from the social systems, and the technical milieu has always exceeded the interior milieu-something the Greeks characterized as a form of hubris. But for the past ten thousand years of sedentary life and urbanized civilization, such processes-which disrupt the social system and the overall collective individuation proc�s, and which are provoked by "leaps" in the individuation of the technical systcm-always constituted exceptional episodes. Disadjustmenr becomes chronic from the time of the industrial revolution. And this becomes even more the case
at the beginning of the rwentierh cemury, when
industry, struggling against the te.ndrntial decline in the rate of profit, systematically organizes a form of perma nent innovation which prC$upposes the development of a consumerist sociery. and which depends upon the systematic and continual transformation of ways of life. From that poim not only does rhe technical system ,
no longer seem to be: secreted by the ethnic group--a situation which began from the moment the ethnic "ceU" became integrated with other, similar "ceUs in order to form a more complex social body-but it seems as though the technical system, in fact, escapes to a new interior milieu within this complex body. Such is the process of dissociat;�n, a process through which 115
FOR
A
NEW CRITIQUE
social systems cease
[0
appropriate the technical ten·
dency by deflecting it and individuating it. but rather in which the social systems themselves are shorr-circuited and literally dis-integrated via the technicizarion of rhe social. Within this process. rhe economic system toO is de correlated from the other social systems. both through financialization and by taking control of the technical system, which rhus becomes the vcctor of dererritoriali z..;trion. 'fhe technical tendencies no longer proceed from out of rhe interior milieu, and arc no longer secreted by it, to the extent that
thrr� 110 101Jg�r is Ill' illf�rior milim:
the technical milieu. pa.�sing into the control of a techni cal system itself largely deterriroriallzed and globalized. leads to tbe pure and simple dilution of the inrerior milieu, as if ir had been parasitized-and poisoned. This amounrs, then. ro the attaining of a Iimir because the dilution of interior milieus is also the disintegration of psychic apparatuses. as well
as
rhe
total exhaustion of libidinal energy and of capacities for investment, antiCipation. and will. According to the principles of general organology, a technical milieu stripped of the interior milieu is a process of technical individuation Stripped of the process of psychosocial individuation, and is hence a process which inevitably becomes entropic, given rh:1.I it has destroyed its energy
1 16
Pharmacology ofCnpira! base-libidinal energy, which is a necessary condition for every kind of protent ion
and given that technical
-
tendencies are actualized in technical fucts which are the material expression of these tendencies
.
Having reached this stage. the tendential decline in the rate of profit and its consumerist and speculative .
counter-tendency, together engender a bearish macro tendency which eventually becomes unsustainable: such is our lot. In order to overtllrn tbis tendenC]. it is essential
[cnpitn� to reconstitute
a
process of individuation of
the technical milieu through the individuation of a new type of interior milieu (constituted by "multitudes" of
"cells") via investment in the relational technologies characteristic of reticulated societics. The therapeutic program of this pharmacology, which rests o n the formation of new associated milieus. is the economy of contribution.32
Organology oftendencies and oftheir tramdttctive arrangements There are tendencies and counter-tendencies proper to each of the three organological levels, but these arrange and tie together the transduccive relarions between the three levels:
1 17
FOR A NEW CRITIQUE
•
At the psychosomatic level, drive-based and sublima tory tendencies and coumer-tendencies play out, the compromise between which constitutes a libidinal economy--expressed concretely in the course of time through psychic configurations which are each time specific-by arranging pharmacological possibilities and through being projected across phnnnakl1 on the social plane, where psychic individuation equally becomes collective individuation and the formation of a circuit of cransindividuarion;
•
At the: technical and pharmacological level, techni cal tendencies play our, which are only expressed concretely as technical facts encountering counrer tendencies elicited by orner social systems, which thus cross, animate. structure and individuate the techni cal system itself-an encounter which always takes place through psychic individuals inscribing their psychic individuation within collccrive individuation;
•
At the social level, which is that of organizations and institudons of collective individuation, tenden cies merasrabilizing roward synchronization (where synchronization is the condition of uniey of the social level in its totality) play both with and against diachronizing tendencies, which incessandy jostle against these Structures which are metastabilized through collecrive individuation-under the impetus
118
Phllmlacology ofCilpitill of psychic individuals themselves individuated and diachronically singularized through their relation
pbllrmllkll
[0
(and to technical tendencies), wherever
therapeutic spaces deriving from the social level make rhis possible. It s i through these arrangements of multilayered ten dencies that transindividuarion processes are woven. Each of (he social systems is itself constituted by specific tendencies which instantiate the dynamics of synchro nization and diachronizacion, and which form irs own circuits of rransinclividuarion. Nevertheless, with each new stage of grammari zarion, new synchronization processes, that is, new regimes of mera5cabilizacion, are enabled. Bur begin ning with that grammatization process which enabled the discretization of corporeal Rows, in turn enabling their calculation via machine tools and the appara tus of production, management and conception, and eventually via the psychorechnologies orchestrating con sumption (making it possible to calculate the flux of consciousness-"available brain-time"), the economic system rakes a step beyond all the other social systems by taking control of the technical system itself-that is. by controlling which possibilities are selected from amongst all those constituting the protenrional fields 1 19
fOR
It.
NEW CRITIQUE
opened up by technical tendencies, and by imposing favorable technical fucts on fictitious capital, which is itself imposed on productive capital. Grammatization-that is. pharmacology-is never theless what also enables new proccsses of diachroniz.1tion-thar is, of individuation. Faced with the bearish macro-tendency described in the preceding paragraphs. a macro-tendency amounting to a negative arrangement of tendencies issuing from the three organological levds, we must reacrivate an inherem ltlldmry IOlUllrd tkVII tion in human societies, and which was translated, at a cenain stage of grammati7.ation, and via the hypomnesic phflrmllkon, into the culture of consistences of the skllok and otium.
Th( tendency to ekvation-"there ar( a lot of alternatives .. For every stage of grammatization, societies institute therapeutic systems, sySlems of care, techniques of self and others. which constitute spirirualities and diverse noetic forms. from shamanistic modds to anistic models. passing through churches. medical therapies, schools. sports. philosophies. and every system of sub limarion. 120
PbnmlflCO/ogy ofCnpitnl
These systems, which are concrete exp ressions of the
tendency to cultivate consistence::s . ne::ve::nheJess presup pose the apparatus of production of subsistences with which they compose, and through which is formed a negotium which, as commerce, is also a calculation about
what does exist and what will exist. What composes together, then, is the otiltm of consistences, the l1rgoti/lm of subsistences and that which constitutes existences worthy of this name-through which a $(t/Joir-vivre is formed that one can caU exisull(t. 1he economy of contribution is the stimulation of desire through the reconstitution of systems of care founded on contemporary phanllfllm and constituting a new commerce of subsistences in the service of a new e::xistence.
In the course of history, human societies arrange, combine,
and
economIze
vanous
tendencies
and
counter-tendencies which weave and metastabilize the dynamic systems that are formed on the:: three orga nological levels. These arrangemems are formed by porentizing
[potelltia/isflmj the tendencies and counter
tendencies occurring at these three levels. The dynamic historical processes resulting from these arrangements are generated from Ollt of the limits of those which precede them, and they are subsequently transformed through the encounter with their own limits. We live at
121
F O R II N E W C R I T I Q U E
such a moment-to a very grave degree: to the degree that the very survival of humankind is
31
stake.
Toward the end of [he twentieth century. the tendential fall in the r.ue of profit, counteracted by coumer-tendencies harnessing libidinal energy. in the end produced
fI
conjunction of rht drivt-bastd undmcy
of I},t psychir !Jsltm find Iht sptmlnlhlt Imdmcy of tht tconomic IJsum. Bur in the new pharmacological contexi created by digital ne(Works.
fI
controT) 1l"llllgt
mmt clearly h«omes imaginable: one can imagine that tmdmdt!
10
inlJtstmml couJd be combined with mbli-
1nl1toT) undtncit!. These arrangements presuppose articulations between [he economic system and the psychic apparatus at both the organizational level and the psychosomatic level. Th� aniculations are translated at the level of the technical system by giving orientations co technical tendencies. and more precisely through the rypes of technical faCt which are then selected by the economic system conjOined to the psychic system, technical facts which concretely express technical tendencies: the technictl tendency that comes to be expressed in a [echnical system is not a determination. no more than the tendenrial fall in the rate of profit determines the end of capitalism-and the technical reality is not the tendency. but the f2ct. On the other hand, the 122
Pharmacology ofCnpila/
tendency o�ns various possibilities. and that is why [0
{he TINA ideology,
"therr is
110
a/urflalivt." one
must oppose the TALOA argument. "thtu nrt lot! of nJurnativts...
Tendencies are potenrials lying within the imerior and rtom which possibilities can be selected: they open fields or protemional possibilities. Possibilities which are selected are then expressed concretdy as technical FJctS. but these are always oriented through social syStems. Social systems. on the other hand. are themselves cur· rendy involved in a slruggle ror comro1 or collective individuation. Our epoch is characterized by the f.tCt that it is thc economic system dominated by fictitious capital that imposes a tcchnical system the evolutions of which it presents as ineluctable-an ineluctability supposedly extending to the liquidation not only of the state, but or all long circujts of transinruviduation, which was the very thing advocated by Thatcher and Reagan in the 19805. and still advocated by Sarkozy and Berlusconi in ,he 2000s. But in reality such arrange· menu are hisrorical. and perfectly contingenr-what is more, they are profoundly roxic.
123
FOR A N E W C R I T I Q U E
From drivt-based nnptintss to the ovtrturning of the tendency The ultraliberal parameters of the rechnicaJ system which led to what proved to be the catastrophe of 2008 were directed solely by the short term. rhat is, by techni cal facts organized and produced through marketing-a marketing which denies that long-Icrm tendencies exist: nothing other than the marker can direcl becoming. we are informed by this "managerial dogmatism.")) and it is just too bad if this becoming longer have any future
[dl'!lmirj turns out to no
[n!lmiTj.
'mose arguing for and explicidy demanding this denial of long-term existence, and finally of time itself (that is. of the indivicluafion of singularities, of existence), claim that it is not possible to predict the technical future, nor is it possible to build any kind of political will or bring it into reality. But this devaluing of anticipation, which i n its own terms is comradictory to
all forms of invest
mem, rests on a confusion operating betw�n technical faCt and technical tendency. Leroi-Gourhan in effect shows that it is entirely pos sible to anticipate technical becoming. on the condition that we understand that becoming, oriented, encour aged and moved by technical tendencies, is �diffracted" and deAecred into technical Sets which, in the short 1 24
Pharmacology oJCnpifl11
term, can seem perfectly dearly ro rorally contradict this tendency (jUSt as the current of a river, observed at a very reduced scale, can give the feeling of Rowing from east
ro west whereas it is in fact Rowing from west ro
east. because the observed pOTtion, being a whirlpool, engenders contrary currents). indeed to durably block it (an available tech nique can be utilized in order ro counteract the new technique of which the tendency is a bearer). Such apparent contradictions are possible because technical faCtS are compromises between technical tendencies and social systems, which arc themselves organizations resulting from tendencies and counter tendencies constituting Utem as metastable sysu�ms.J4 The question then becomes
ro
know how a public
power can, without reducing all social systems ro the economic system (because this would be ro dissolve desire into pure calculability), create adjustments ena bling the Tet:onsrruction of the long term, anticipation. investment, etc. The careless tendency substituting the marker for commerce is currently dominant, a tendency resulting from a toxic combination oftmdencirs andcotmur-ulltun ci�s at the mree organological levels. This roxic economy of regressive tendencies, implemented by consumerism exercising the psychopower of irs cultural hegemony 1 25
FOR A N E W C R I T I Q U E
through [he intermediary of psychotechnologies, in this way connols the becoming of individual and collective behavior, as well as the dynamic processes of the (echni· cal system. From the resulting destruction of circuits of rransindividuation also resulu the dilution of those interior milieus constituting human groups. "I nternalizing"
,"imirioriJrr")
capitalism and its
functioning. jf one still wishes to speak the language of Bohanski and Chiapello, presupposes that the interior milieu has not been completely dillllcd-failing which, there is no longer any internalization, bur only pure exte· riorization leading
(0
a drive·based emptiness. Such are
the systemically bearish conscquences---consequcnccs which include me production of an immense systemic swpidiry3S-of the tendential fall in the rate of profit and its consumerist counteNendency. The tendency to carelessness is irreducible: there is not, there never has �n and there never will be a para· dise on earth. This is why it is necessary to organize an economy of carelessness by cultivating systems of care which presuppose a pharmacological intelligence, con· cretely expressing in this way an an of living. weaving therapeutic multiples. Our epoch is, however. very sin· gular: unlike any other before it, it btU modt carrlnmrss into Ihr UtI] principlr o/itt orgolli2Alion. This is what can no longer be endur(."d. 126
Phannacology oJCapital
Such
an:
the urgency and the challenge-global and
unpr«edemed-w conduct a grand ovenurning of (cn dencies in the face of generaJiud drive-based emptiness.
Tht tconomy ofcontribution as a ntw r�/ation btlWttlJ tht uchnical rysttm and social rysttms Under the influence of t«hnical tendencies. the bttom ing of the (<Ce$S through which several functions come to be founded on a single function. which thus becomes plurifunctional. Gilbc=.n Simondon analyza: this process of b«om ing in particular in relation to heat engines: his first example is rhe passage from external combustion (the furnace), which moves the piston of [he steam engine, to the combustion produced in the interior of the cyl inder, where the piscon slides open due
co
the force of
the explosion of a gas. a passage which occurs when the Lenoir engine replaces the steam engine in the series of heat engines.J6 Another case of functional integration appears with 127
FOR A NEW CRITIQUE
what Simondon calls the techno-geographic milieu asso ciated with [he Functioning of a technical system. Simondon developed this theory in relation to the Guimbal turbine. for which he showed thai Ihe marine element is functionally intcgr:Hed inro the engine and thus becomes an associated techno-geographical milieu. Other forms of techno-geographical milieu exist. nor strictly associated wirh the technical system, hur adapted via a technique which forms an intermediary between it and the geographical milieu. and which as such forms a rechno-geographical milieu. Consider, for example. the comours of a stretch of land. worked upon and tcchnicized so that it can incorporate a rail network. and enabling a locomotive to be adapted to these COntours of land: in this situation, the network constirures an inter face berween the geographical system and the technical system. In 1990 Philippe Aigrin and myself put forward the idea that the software industry and irs digital nerworks will eventually cause associated techno-geographical milieus of a new kind to appear. enabling human geog raphy to interface with the technical system , to make it function and, especially, make it evolve, thanks
to
this interfacing:;!7 collaborative technologies and free license software rest precisely on the valorization of such associated human milieus, which also constitute
128
Phal71l1tc% gy oJCapitflL techno-geographical spaces for the formarion of positive externalities. This process is an inter-systemic macro-tendency formed at the interface of the technical system and social systems, and operating a functional integration between them-hur where this integration is, however, not necessarily beneficial: it is highly ph:!rmacological, and hence, for example, social nelworks are clearly also connected to processes of auromated traceability, set into motion by actions and requests rhar network acrors mostly produce without even knowing ir, bur which confer ro those who obtain rhis informarion a new rype of power. Here, me interface between the technical system and social systems docs not operate via the economic system, but precisely through those social systems which are bearers of the knowledge (savoirs] which society holds. Such forms of knowledge and their valorization are the only possibilities we have for struggling against the pro duction of information
without knowledge. Developing
such forms of knowledge and valuing them economi cally will calise a new economic system to emerge from the hean of the social systems, and respecting these soci:!1 systems mcans constituting an economy of contribution, contrll the economy of carelessness.
129
NOTES
For II. New Critique of Political Economy Imrodllrtio"
", I Th� COnctpfli are dcvclo� in La
T«Imiqut tt It Ttlllps 3:
Lt temps du rillima tt'" qumion till mnl-ftrt (Paris: Galilee,
2001). A summary an be found in PIJiIOJop/�r pnr ltrridtnl, with Elic: During {Paris: Galil�c, 2004}, pp. 74ff. 2 LA 7«hniqllt tt It Tt",ps 3. Phannacology ofll� proltlarial 1 A podWt is available on the: An Inawtrialis websire: http:// www.arsindwrrialis.org 2 http://www.ecic-<:e.risy.asso.frlaClivire:marchanae08.hunl
3 Christian Faurl!, Alain Giffard, Bernard Sric:gle.r, Pour mfinir IlI1rC'
III ",kroiJSllllrt. Que/quft propositiolls d'An buiustriaus
(Paris: Flammarion, 2009). " In panicular Andr� Gon...
5 And ,his would be: contn.ry [0 the F.amasy. inspired by incau tious radings of Hannah Arendt, ,hal sc:c:lu 10 puriff "the: politiar of anything «onomie.
(j S� Je:remy Rifkin, 7/� EndofWo"": tbt Dtt/hlt oftilt Global l.4bor Foret (lIId fIN DnllJ/f of t/� Pou-Mar/ttl Era (New York: Putnam Books, 1995). And Michel Roard "Prc:faee,� to Rifkin, La Fin dll travail, frans. P. Rouve (Paris: La .
D.:couvc:nc:, 20(6).
130
Notu to png�s 20-22 7 Dominique Meda, Lt Tmvnil. ,ioll (Paris: Aubier, 1995).
VIII' /lil/tur I'll
voit dt dispnrj
8 Andn; Gon, Mitalnorp/}osrs dll tra/l(/il. Critiqllt dt III misoll kOllo",iqut (Paris: Callimard. 2004). In English Criliqlt/, .
of &ollomir RtiUon.
trans. C.
Tum�r :and C. H:andysidt
(London: Ve�. 1989).
9 Anronella Corsani and Mauririo La:u..ar:no. Inrtr",irrnllJ " pmairtJ (Paris Ams[erdam. 2008). :
Wark. A HtU:k" Mallifrsro (Cambridge. Massachusttt'i: Harvard Univtrsity 11reS$, 2004). Pekka Himanen. 77J1' H,uJur ftllir: A &IdirnlAPPNJflch t/J Ihl'
1 0 McKenzie II
Philosoph] ofBI/Jinru (New York: Random House. 2002).
1 2 The new ques[inn of work is a1su thaI of a new attitude. which is chnracmistic of [he nspiralions of youngtr gen trmions.
! argued in L4 TtllrMtit rOlltrt III dtll/orrmit (Paris:
Flammuion. 2006) that the demonStrations of French dents against The CPE (Conua[ Premier contrao) were Ixfore anythi ng else
ULt
Emploi: a first job
a prot�t against [he
conn1.don between work and job: �Not :Ill employment i5 work:
not all jobs
are
conducive
to
the acquisition and
dcvelopmem of knowledge and therewith. tion. that is. the process whereby you youf5Clf in society as
am
ro individua a placc for
make
a producer. mill not Oil" ItS a COlmlmtr
whostjob!lIrnMm ,hI' emploJ« It Mlltry which in
tllm
(,(J/Ifm
blt]ing po/�. Individuation is on ,he conlr-uy wiJat t4Jm
work btyo"d ml'rt rmploymtlll. jf one understands that 'work' (OllJurs in 1t(l;OIl
;n tht worM in ordtr to tr411sform it 01/ lIlt
basis oftilt kllow/tdgt 0111' IIilS ofit. Now work, to the extent [hi!! it has been affected by grammariution. in the s«ondary
as well as in the tertiaty sccrors. insofar as it has become: more: and more a matter of 'wages: is today most often reduced t he time spent in employment: th is
[0
is what results from the 131
N O T E S TO P A G E S 2 2- 3 3
sprt.'3d of dissociated milicus, :1 spread which is itself thc first consequence of the grammaril.:ltion of gcSt1.ITC:s and modes of production in which the industrial revolurion comisrs� ( Tllkrafit (OlUrt la dtmocrntit. pp. 243-4). I will rerum to th� queslionJ in more derail fun:h..:r on. ClI1CC" th31 Immanuel Wallerstein has perhaps
13 It Is this �3t
overlooked in his refercnce 10 Ihe Ihear}' of cydes. 10 describe the negalive dynamic of rhis exhaustion in
1 4 r try
POllr tiljillir /1/1« la mkroiSSllIlt't.
i� to say, thc increasc in the fixed Clpiral component (the mrans uf production) and the curresponding decrease
1 5 That
of \'':lriable Clpital (wage labor) .....hich Man: shows 10 be Ihe resul! of a dI.'Crcasc in the profitabiliry ofinvcstmem. 1 6 Bernard Stiegler. Eronomit dt n1Jprrmntlritl n ,III psychOPbll
fIOir. Elltrrt;tIIs
(IIIfC
Pbilippr PniJ n Vil/et/It BOllltlu (r3ri�:
MiJlc er une nuit.�, 2008). 17 POllr tnjinir tlV« la mkrosstlllt't. i 1 8 Jeremy Rifkin,
71,t
Agt of Aruss: 711t Ntw elllfllrt of
Hypartlpitalism Wlltrt All of Lift Is a Paid-for Exptritl/u
(New York: Putnam, 2000), p. 9. J9
Kar] Marx, ContriblltiOIl
to fl
Critiqllt ofPoliticlt! Economy.
trans. S. W. Ryanzanskaya. (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 20
1970). pp. 195-6. Ibid., p. 197.
21 Guy Debord. 71)t Sodtty of tbt Sptctllck. lrans. Dooald
Nicholson-Smith (New York: Zone Books. 1995), p. J 59.
Dcnida. OiSStmi"fll;OIl. lrans. Barbara Johnson {Chicago: Chicago University Press. J 98' l. pp. 6 1 - 1 7 1 .
22 Jacques
2 3 Gilles DeleulC and Filix Guanari, A"ti-Ot"diplfI. lroms. Roben
Hurley, Mark Seem, and Helen R. Lane (Minneapolis: Universiry or Minnesota Press. 1 983). pp. 144-5. 24
�[AJ memory of words (pamirs) and no longer a memory of 132
Notes to pllges 34-4J
things. a memory of signs and no longer of cffects.� Allti OrdiprtJ, p. 144. 25 Scott Lash and Celia LuI)', Global Culmrr InduSfry (London:
Polity. 2007). 26 The reader may consult the repon of rhe International Tek-com m unicalion
Union:
hnp:llwww.ilU.inr/itunt'Ws/
managerldisplay.asp?lang=cn&ycar=2005&issue=09&ipagc =thing.,&cxt=html 27 Gr:lmm:nil:uion is the condition of possibiliry of what Guy Dl.'bord calls matcrialized ideology. Sec TIJI! S(lrirry of thr Spmlle/t. pp. 212-13. But Debord docs not think grllm matization itsdf. nor its phatma(()]ogic:ll charaCTer, and Ihis consritlJll.'S a block.1ge in his thought. 28 Micr,allrt tf disrridit 3. L rsprit prrdll dll CRpitn/islllr (Paris: Galilee, 2006). 29 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engd�,
Thr COt/lIIlIlI/ist MrmijtSfo.
trans. Samuel Moore (London: Penguin Uooks. 1 %7), p. 88. 30 fbid. 31 Jacques
R:mciere. tbr Nights of Labor: 71lr \\Vorkt7J' DrMm
ill l!Jth Crllrrtry Frnllu. trans. John Drury (Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 1 989). 32 Hypolllllrllltltn are mnemo-rechniques, which is also
10
say
hypomnesic p/;tlrllltlkn, shown by Michel Foucault to plaY :1 decisive role in the formation of otirrlll and mOTe widely in rhe processes of sublimation thar he describes
as
�techojques of
the �elf." On thcse -ohl1;on" 24-5. 62,73. %-8, 101
consistences 10>-8. J 20. 12] consumer
prolctarlanized 25. 27-8. 35, ,.....
prntcllliOrls of the 68-9. 84-6 cOll'itJlllcrism 16, 23-8. 6J--6. 7 1 .
sharehulder 88---9. 92-3_ 103-4
87-9, 9 1-3. 107-8. 1 1 5.
om
ofthr sdCS4 $)'5lenl or44, 50. 70, 86. 108. 120. 1 1 1 . 1 26
('::Il1,'icsn s cu
economy of 1 25-6, 129
144
125--6 end or4-7, 22-3. 5}--6. 69, 10' conSlLlllption ;IS
Ih(' dt:Sltucdon ofIciClic� 30-1. 34, 46. 62. 6ij-9, 82-4. 88-9, 1 0 1 Cur'Sani, Amondla 2 1 . 22, 51-2,
crrolt 67. 80. 94. 106 critique 8. 1 1
dcomsffiJcrion as 1 5 K2nli:lJ1 1 9
economy 40-4
�nd metaphysics 1 5 n� or palirla! economy
1 4--1 5, 16--19. 36. 40--4.70 cul ture indumioo; 4. 3 1 . 53-6,
58-60 . 96 Curlis.
Adam.
7111' C""wry of
Stlf28 cynicism 63
Debord. Guy 27
deconSTnlcrlon IS, 29. 36
DcJcUlC, GUles. /imi·Ordiplil 32-3
inliniriuuion or43. 82-4. 86. 93-6. 106-8 rdmion
10 consum ption
12,
·11-4, 65, 82-4. 1 2 1 . 125 dCS(llid�riutiol1. and negativc
cxternallties 57-60 d('sublimation 40. 42. 59. 62-3 diachroniurion 1 1 11. 1 1 9-20 dblogistl'l (Ihkhtin) 4 1 dijJhnllrt 1 1 1
digital networks 24 mncsic powt"r of3U. 1 22,
54.56 �rcalivilY 46--7, 51-6
orlibidinal
Pharrnacyw 29. 36
desire
128-9 digital !('tieulalion 47-50. 1 14.
117 digitali7,;ition 20. 21 dis.;adll.l$!mcill 1 1 3-15 disc!('tiution JI)-II. 31-2
diseconomr 62, 73--4 discnehantm('nt 59-60. 62-3.
67-S. 94-6
disequil ibriu m 104
disindividuation 31, 37-S. 41-4.
62 disinvtstm�nt 4-6. 79-B 1 . 116.
89 dispmabilil}' 30. H3. 86 dissociation 37-8, 49-50. 58-60. 84. 107. 1 1 5-16 communist 60-1 Donin. Nico la! 65
145
I NDEX
drivC':$ 40. 59-GO. 86. 121 eonsumpliou �ud material
of 12. 82-4. 8S-9, 95-6.
aledor milieu 112, 1 1 4
124-7
ClIterM:iri7.<1lion 9, 27, 126
economic crisis (2008) 3-7. 22-3. "
elCcessivellcss 93-6 existence 1 2 1 . 124
74. n-9. 92-3. 102. 124 e�ouornic tv()lulion� (Schump<:tN) 83. 87
a:onomic S)'Stc:m 3nd p-\ychic S)'!1c:m 122 3ud social syttems 81--4.
of memory and knowledSI' as 10$' 29-31 , 33-5 ClIltmalitie; nq;ative 49, 57-60, 62. 92-3 po,]dvc pharma(ulugic:l.l 49-50 . 5 1-6. 129 and Ir"I1sindi\'idu�tion 13. 49-50
\06-8, 1 1 6-17. 1 2'" 3nd ta:hnical syitl:rn H2-4, 96-8, 102-4. 1 1 9-22 l'COnomics. aud philosophy 16-20 econllmiun 17-18 l"collomy or contrihutlon Itt
1':I.\"'rtau. Olivier 1 6 fin�nci�1i1.:nion 83. 97. 106-8. 1 16 finitiution "'2. H6. 95-6. 106-8 Fbu\xrt, Gu.mlye 63 flexibility 8}-4
ronuibulM:ill. economy of
Fordism 23-4. GO. to-a
prolenliOlu, economy of
Fren(h government
economy of prolc:mions," rouc:nional system 96
c:lev:ltion 120-3 employmcut, and time qUC':$tion 51-" Enauda.u. Corine 74
c:nergy, libidinal IN libidin31 energy
Engels Fri�rieh 24-5. 28 .
umllll"';s, Mllllifrs,o 1 1 . 38
cntreprent'ur 87
Founult. Mkhd 29, 54
emplo)'mem policy 20-1
'!.fld inlrrmirunrs all ,ptttdd� 51-" invcstment policy 4-5 Freud. Sigmund 28, 4 1 , 74, 76. 88.94.99 Fritdm�n. Milton 22 functional imegnuion 127-8 rUlUrt possibilili(':f 6-7, 84-6. 107. 124
tnltllpic ad3pt3tion "'6-7, 1 16-17 environment31 de;tructlon 49-50, 57. 92-3. 102 c:thnic group, intc:rior milic:u of 109- 1 1 . 1 1 3 - 1 4
146
Gaullism 99 generatIons. tr.ltlSindividu�tion or58-9 gcslUrc: di5('rt'til.:uion or 10, 33. 35
Imux Gillr. Brnrand 98. 99. 100. 1 10. 1 13-15 glob31i7.:uion 97-8. J 16
HUSKri. F..umunU 8
God. [he d�th of94
Gon:. Andre, MiuIII'''rphosn au II"ItlNlil 20 gO\'�rnmentaJ power.
m:w
'l/1bris 1 1 5 Hum/mili. L ' 1 4
form of
5 1 , 97-8. 101 gr;lm"'�tiz:lIion 10-1 1 . 33-'1. 36. 1 14 as coopera[Ion bc\wun b/""Jiru
hypcrindllSlrial em 30-1. 33-5. 1 14-15
hypl'rmau:rial 24 iJYPO"W(IIIIUIl 29. 3-1-5. 41-4. 45.54 hypomnesic mllkus 30-1
"ypo"lIIniJ 29, 35. .J6
"
ident!fiutlon. primary 58-9.
13. 30-5
ideulogy S. 19-20. 123
induslrl.11iution :ll a proctsS of Ilmr:nion of48-50 new forms of 1 1-13, 39. 54..(,.
8}-4 im�gil1nry. [he 12 indIviduation -17. 9'.1-100.
1 19-20 as
phum:t<:ologiOlI 42-4. 70,
12.
:uwcialed milit:u.� of 48-50. 1 17
1 1 9-20 tnn5form, fetishism 4 1 which short-circuits
psychic and colk'Ctivc 44. 48-50, 54--6. 59-60. 61.
tnnsindividu�don 3S-9
99-100. 102. 1 ()4...,..8
grnmlllt1 (retl'ntional gl"lliru) 1 0 GIl':lt Britain 73. 97. 99. 1 0 1 . 123 Clffnspan, Abn 47 Crogman. i!veiyne 3, 16 Guamri. Felix. Ami.OtdipUJ 32-3
1 1 1-12. 1 1 5 . 1 1 8. 123 of rc:ference 57-8 !«hnial44. 1 16-17
individuaI;on (cOni.) Jrr
Ills" co-individuation;
disindividuallon;
Innsinaividualion inausuial economy
Mhacker e[hies" 22. 48
and human bcroming 1 3 . 3 1
H:l.tchud, Armand lG
noopolilical of memory 3 1
hirr.ltchicll societi« I I3-15 Himanen. Pclli 22. 48 Hirschman. Alben 85 hominiution 8-9 Mhomo economicw- 1 7 Horkheimff. Mu 96
rc:in"ention 108 indumial modd collapS!: of obsolett 4. 22-3. 49. 5 5 . 87 consurnerul JrrCOnslImeriSni indumbl polili(".5, ntw 7, 1 0 1
147
I N DEX
n i dusuial mlolulion 10, Ij,
Iho:rary hypomn()K 30
infanillc 'rn�ploscnCli) 44, 83
prolcr:lli:mil.alion as loss of
�lic H ... 6
32-3, 67, 98, 1 14, l i S, 127
infinitiulion ofd(:)irr 43, 82-4, 86.93-6, 106-8 innovallon prm1:1ntnl l i S JOdaIiulion 0(82
and ,p«.\II�tion 8 1-4, 90, 92-3. 102
37-9, 40--4, 4S-50. 56, 60,69 and tc1cntion;tl time 69
Iho:or�k:aI 30. 46
IN
TrrlJlliqlll' rtk rnnp1
LA
(Stiegler) II
in.idcr I!'ltding 93 irulitUliuns 108 hUcthca 128-9
I�bof
dcf;nidon of and thc question ufpruduclion 1 2
inltrlurillilicu 109- 1 1 , 1 13-15. 1 1 6-17, J26 intcriorirndon 18-1\1, 126 InlcrrncJlarinn 62 ill1o:rmil1o:ncc S 1-6, 57, 69 inu�rnalional law 1 14 o i \'Otmo:nl :IS
anddp:uion 78-81
desrNCtion ofS-7, 59, 69. n. 107, 116, 124
new t}·PC oftcQnomic 6-7, 66,
mUiation of I'), 18
oycrdetcrmined hy the
sod:al ilfld polhk:al 6-7
stimulus politICS 3--6
ml� (If
gralllmululion 1 2
al> vari:ablc
�-:tpital 45
l�bor po....cr . 38-9. 40
without knowted� 43, 46
la"£� :lnamnesic knowledge 000 aUfODUfo:cl proca.sing 33 discrctization of Row of 1 0-11.
1 1 7, 122
profil as rClum on 76-7
1l1s61111'Gir·fo;rr. S/1/I0iNIfI!Tt'
31-3 and j»)'Chosocial indi\'idWition 17-8
Ush. Scon 34 bw
Jospin. Uond 20
and prolt'llIioru 69-70 on "..,.k . ing Wttk 10. 22. 51
Kant. Immanuel, Criliqu(#/I'U"
Lu.ur:1I0, MauriJ.io 21-2, 47,
Ko:ynaianism 60, 95, 97, 99
Lcroi-Gourlun. Andri 9, 109,
RtIlS#II 8
knowledgc C'lffcriorir.:uion :lS 11m 0(29-30, "
5 1 -2. 54, 55.56
1 1 0. 1 12, 1 13. 124-5
libidinal o:conolll)' 2S. 27, S 1-6. 6 1 , 83--9. 93--6, 108. 1 1 8
infornmifll\ wilhoUi 129
148
critiquc of 40--4. 73--4
Indo<
libidinal enel'S), 25. 40. 46. 59. 61. 68-9. 82-4. 85-6. 88--9. 90. 92. 102. 1 16-17 nc:w �pp�r.mHes for production
tendcnq of talC of prufil
10
flll
23-8.75. 76-7.89
�hn:ism 17. 40. 60. 75 maM m�ia 96-7. 101
life force. Ihc:ory of 109
Meadows tepa" 92 Mkmm(f l'1 dimMil (Stiegler) 53
limit. p:w:ages to the 59-60.
Mnb. Dominique 20
75-6. %. 1 16-17. 121 logle 10.76
M�ef62
of%. 108. 122
of the tf:l� 19 ItIgOf 10. 32. 46 tury. Cdil 34 Lymaru. Je�n-F"'ln�ois. 7hr l'IIT1/lIod,m Omilit;,w 7 1 . 73-4
mcmlmulc 109 memo'}' C'X\crioriution of as loIS of 29-3 1 . 3J-5 hypomneslc �nd anan1rleJic len5ion j ] , 79 inlcrgcner.lliol'lul )Uppor, nf 9-11
machine-tools 34. .17. 1 1 9 m�thlnn: 19. 30.33.35.37. 66. 1 1 4 . 127
Maduff. l1emard 47. 78-9
mafi�. npitaliH 60-6. '12-3
Marc:usc:. Hcrtxn 40
market economy 5ff capitalism marke! offools 43. 47 matkcring 60-1. 62. 82-4. 88-9. 90-1. 95-6. 98. 1 0 1 . 103. 124 !echnini SYStcntS ;md social sptenu 99-101
living nppu� to dead Z'J-JO. 36
:IS
mat�riaJ culmr!.· 9-1 1
memory (tont.)
noopolidcaJ indumill cconomy of31 lec:hnin i j l , 35
S« IIIsII mllmuurr:/",in mc:t:l.physics and ultique 1 5 d«OIutruaion of29 nlC1Utabi1i;r;t;o ion 1 1 8-20. 121 middle d� 63-4
Man:. Karl 12. 28. 33. 35-6. 88 Cnp"'1I1 26. 39. 75
S« RIAl bourgeoisie:: petty
Qmlll/l1l/isr Mlmifol(J I I . 38.
Milner. Jcan.CI�ude 65. 69
"
untriblllill" til II Nn;., eri/i'l'll' IIj'Poliriral &1/I111I11J 14. 23. 26-7.39 Grrnlllll UMIIIKJ 30-1 Grlllld,inr 39
bourgc:oi�ic: mind
rffect$ of nl�chineJ on J4 and hypomnesic lind anamnt'llic lension 3 1 . 79 prolel�rjaniutiol'l uf the life of Ihe 2 1
149
I N D EX
1TUlm101«hnia 8-1 1, 21)..) 1, "
modem :1.II 63 Monlchrenim, Antoine: de I S money 66, 80 "funny" 87-9 mOliv.uion 60-1. 69-70, 85-6, 9 1 , 9� eoliapit' of 104-8 Moulief"80ul�ng, Y�nn 2 1 , 47, 49-S0
PoUKI. ReM S�. 9l �upcriulion 88
confuKd wilh
proktvi;rniz:uion 60-1
ofyoulh S9 pcrcq>lion. gramm�liulion o( )).42 pcrformalivi ry. Auslin'l theory 0(67 pcrmallC.'llI rt'YOlmion 66-70
pwy bourgeoisic 64-5 plurmxology
mmu..JiUlioll m�h:ll1i,mJ S I , 56
o(OlpitaI 71-129
C'lIIeriuri1..:11illn ttthniques 27.
29.70
UJnmt'chnologieil j I
pr"lelari�niudon �nd <10...1
ncg-.olium 53. 5<1. 121
ofIhe prolclariat 14-44
neg:lliYe In 22, S6
llq;emropy46. to-6
93,96, 10}-4, 107. 108 hypomnesic 21. 29, 34-5. 41--4. S4. 120
in ft'ticubtcd Clpiplism <17-50
and lechnital sysu:m 105-8
orthographit coruciousnw 3O
phililf 6
OIium6H. 120, 121
philosophy
and poJilivc extcrnalhle11 53-6,
57,64.6S
1 50
conlcmpul':lry 16-20 French 14-15. 17-19
IlIdrx politia.1 struggle 36
and profit nlc 92. 97
vs.
lendentlal fall in the I':Ite of
tuk of no:\\' critique 8. I I sophistry 29. 36. 42
Pbto on .""lnlll'JiJ 29. 4 1 . <13 11h1ttirw 29-30, 35, 36 and the proletari�t 28-36 polldal c:wnomy ddlnnl I5.36 new tridqu� of 14-15, 16-19. 36.70 {eniary retention pcDpcctive 0-1 1 as a w:ly uf ol'};aniting tr.lJIsindil·iduation 6 1 p()lIda.I .�I'm� 58
1)OIl!lc�l will 6-7. 124
on investment 76-7
23--8. 59-60, 68. 75--129 profitability 4. 86 proletarianization cognitive and alf«'l;\'(, 30-1 ofthe consumcr 25. 27-8, J5. ,"-" ClIICnsioll of7<1. 103-4 ;lI
10M ofknuwlnlge 33. J7-9. 60,69
of middlc duscs by consumerism 63-5 of the nervous system 45-50 prol('t�rianj1.lltiOJ'
(rolll.)
ncw form of 1:3. 27-8 �nd ph�rm�oo]ogy �0-4
politics drive·b3sal63 andthc !aw 18-J9 poSf·nrucrnr.llism 14-15 po�tmodemil)' 73-4
P()ur mfinir IIV« fA m/rroWlll i ct
(SlitglerJ
;lI return
17,24
powerlmnm- 29
Pro«:S$CS, :lnd rolc of bbor 4>-6 production
of the psyche 43 tcrtiary retcmion as the condition of 1 1 . 2 1
pro]ct:;lriat
definition 40 as disindividualnl workers
37-8 the imponance today 13. 28. 3S
and Ihe definition ofbbor 1 2
pharm�cology of the 14-44
exclusion o fworkC"r from
I'bto and Ihc 28-36. 35
conditions 008 and the financial sub-splcm " gr.lmmatization of I I , 1 2 relations with coruumprion 4, 23--8, 50. 90-1 profe.�rs 65. 69 profit
durdhlliry and toxicity 77-9
m:ruitnl fWIll all dass<'S 39
propmy 2 1
new objects of publit: 5 1
SOci3J 55-6
pmftllllons 8. 66. 93-6. 106. 107. 123 <.'Conmnyof66-70. 78. 80-1. 84-6,87-9 ProuSt. M�rcd 71
151
INDEX
SIIllOiN'ill" 16. 27, .W. 33, 40,
"""',
prolC1�ri�nil'lIion or the 43 rdation 10 infinity 9S
pS)'Chil; :lppar:llu§C$ 99-100, 104--8, 1 1 G-17 �nd �onomk system 122
42. 103, 1 14. 1 2 1
$thumpcter. jOKph 83. 87. 90 ""lor. .social 56 scdcl1tariz:l.lion 9-10. 12. 1 1 5 �If
psychology 76
produttion by sdrJO-- I
psydlopowcr 46, 50,65,90-1.
I�hniqua or the (FouClull)
95-6.98, I 2S-G Randere, jal;que'l, 71J, Ni:/Ill of
LAbor 40
r:nio 46, 50
Rca];�n. RUllald 97, 1 0 1 , 12.3
rrgulalory s)'Slems 80, 96, 9'), 100
I"CSCarch, intlcpendenl of priwle inveSlmcnt 100
responsihility 59-60. 89. 97 infinite 9U! relallion primary 8-9 �ond�ry 9 tertial)' 8-1 1 . 2 1 . 70. lOG retemion�1 Konomy 8-1 1 . 66-70 reticulation, digit:;ll -47-50, 1 1-4. 1 17 rcvoludon 7, 49-50 permanent 66-70
Rifkin, jeremy 20. 2 1 . 24. 52, 56
RoclrI:!. Mkhtl 20, S6 Roo�dl. F.O. 95 !rn�nski�. Je�n.Mkhd 7 \ , 74 Sarkoty. Nicol� 63. 12J
$Ilwi"'/nirt 16. 27,30. 3.3.40. 42. 43. 1 1 4
152
54, 10}. 1 20 sensibility, mechanical lurn in 65
servke .-conomil'f. hypcrindu�trial }}-5. 1 14-15
shareholder man�J;emcnt 88-9, 92-3, 103-4
shoft-lermism 5-6, 57-60, 6S-\l. 81-4. 86, 88-9, 89-9 1 . 95-6. 102-3. 107, 124 Simondon. GUlle,t 37. 42. 46.
54-5. 93, �-IOO, 127-11
Smith, Adam 34
social c� 13, 39. 40, 60--6 wdaJ engineering 1 1 4
sodal n i justke, economic crisis -and 6
social netWOrking 44 social relations
functionaHution or 19, 67
liquidation or 57-60 SOI;i:d SYSlems
bccomin g of82-4. 105-6. 123
�nd lechniClI system 109-16. 12), 1 24, 127-9
t«hnicd i)'5!ent �nd markeling <)<)-101. 102-4 socimhel';lpy )6, 70 Wrt power 95
IJld�x
Spaggiari. Albert 79 speculation 6. 59--.60, 77. 78-81 . 84-6. 89. 92-6, 102. J07. 1 1 7, 1 2 2 and innovation 81-4 spirit (Weber185 Stalinism 60-- 1 state 97-8, 99-100, 123 Napoleonic 99 JU II/sQ wdfare st�te
tcndcncic� and count�r·tcndcnci