A Fiction to Transcend Capitalism

To summarize my interpretation of k-punk's masterful analysis of a recent talk held by Zizek and Badiou concerning the ideas of capitalism, populism, and the use of fictions to enact change (see also here and here), the future of the Left lies in creating an alluring counter-fiction to the seductive appeal of capitalist commodity fetishism. It is not enough to expose the lies and exploitation of corporate liberalism (a "politics of truth" which has failed to gain any ground), we must install an alternative belief system and compelling means of being-in-the-world, a "fiction" to which we commit our lives. What might this post-capitalist fiction be?

As k-punk states, this fiction is not be something "imaginary", but an "already-operative generator of possibilities". I can think of no more compelling an example of such a "generator" as the peer-to-peer and open source movements which have captured the imaginations of the internet. Michael Bauwens has written a brilliant (albeit lengthy) manifesto of sorts demonstrating the neo-marxist evolutionary potential of the P2P revolution, which he sees as the next major shift in production, a "relational dynamic" to succeed Fordist industrialism (which itself begat agriculture, which begat foraging etc). Though P2P has its correlates in the corporate world, the bulk of P2P seems to be one without capacity for generating money, relying on such non-capitalist values as sharing, responsibility, innovation, and mutual trust.

Key quote:

So the general conclusion of all the above has to be the essentially cooperative nature of production, the fact that companies are drawing on this vast reservoir of a 'commons of general intellectuality', without which they could not function. That innovation is diffused throughout the social body. That, if we accept John Locke's argument that work that adds value should be rewarded, then it makes sense to reward the cooperative body of humankind, and not just individuals and entrepreneurs. All this leads quite a few social commentators, from both left and liberal (free enterprise advocates), to bring the issue of the universal wage on the agenda and to retrieve the early Marxian notion of the 'General Intellect'.

Obviously, I know fuck-all about economics, much less politics, which is perhaps the point: even with my limited theoretical understanding, I can grok P2P, which proves its eligibility for uptake by a global populist movement. This vision I dub Open-Source World, and it takes as its marching orders the transformation of the entire planet, all modes of production and ways-of-being, into a massive P2P open source project, a Wiki for the Kosmos. Don't like the way your government is run? Sick of global economic policies? Wish the media would cover the Alaskan caribou elections? Download the "source code" and patch where you see fit. A global network of World OS coders will review your work, preserve what fits, jettison what threatens the health of everyone else, and things will proceed apace. "Citizen hackers" will dot the globe, and life, reality, will be under constant revision, and improvement. People will be so busy hacking their lives they won't have time to fetishize useless commodities (unless, of course, useless commodities are created by a P2P crew, and use that as a selling point).

Whether an Open-Source World is "true" or not is besides the point: its compelling, and that's enough.

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