When Technofeudalism Manifests as Transphobia
Life is both experiential and commodified, but they don’t want us to have our gender in any dimension
Yanis Varoufakis, who was briefly finance minister of Greece in 2015, has a new book, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism. It introduced me to some new economic ideas pertinent to our time.
Elements of His Thesis
I’m not an economist, but I’m reassured by his comment at the end that economics is more philosophy than science, as I feel I’ll have more hope of understanding it. The broad brushstrokes do make sense to me.
Capitalism is dead
Capitalism is no longer driving the economy. Technofeudalism is.
Technofeudalism is a hopped-up mutation of capitalism. It’s a “far, far uglier social reality.” It’s the demon baby of the 2008 financial crisis and the U.S. and Chinese privatization of the internet.
Capital still exists
In general, capital can be commodity (a tool) or power (a force to compel others to work).
The old kind of capital, which used to be about markets and profits, is no more. It no longer matters who owns “machinery, buildings, railway and…
