Re: <nettime> Fwd: Re: Forms of decisionism

[Brian Holmes <bhcontinentaldrift@gmail.com>]

Alex, your last posts have been spot on and I am totally fascinated to 
read more. I agree with you that the broad framework of crisis theory is 
predictive and above all, it shows that in the wake of past crises, some 
mix of decisions, inventions, organizational forms, cultural trends and 
governmental interventions has always come together to form a new 
pattern, a new phase or period of global society. With Felix were 
talking about possible stagnation or a continuingly chaotic, entropic 
phase opening up now, and I would suggest that these two things could at 
worst coexist: you would see a new pattern emerge _for the oligarchies 
and their closest supporters_, while the rest would limp on in a 
continuing decline of the old system.

This leads me to question one of your ideas:

> A schumpeterian state that redistributes innovation opportunities in a
> democratic, transgender polity where citizens are not disenfranchised
> by social exclusion could be a way to go.

Indeed, this was the kind of state we theorized with the old gang at 
Multitudes, but can it really become egalitarian? That was exactly the 
Clintonian vision of the 90s (education, education, education) and to 
some extent it has been realized. Precisely to the extent that such a 
state is possible under capitalism, I would argue. The innovation 
society is hypercompetitive, it depends on a social divide between the 
brightest/most agile and the exploitable others. I guess that's crucial 
to the whole Schumpeterian framework. An ecopopulism would have to be 
sustaining rather than hypercompetitive in my view.

But let's hear some more about it!

best, Brian

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