Scorched Earth: Beyond the Digital Age to a Post-Capitalist World è un saggio del 2022 di Jonathan Crary. In esso, Crary sostiene che l'era digitale è sinonimo della disastrosa fase terminale del capitalismo globale. Vede Internet come uno strumento di finanziarizzazione, impoverimento di massa, ecocidio e terrore militare. Sostiene che se ci deve essere un futuro vivibile e condiviso sul nostro pianeta, sarà un futuro offline, disaccoppiato dai sistemi e dalle operazioni che distruggono il mondo del capitalismo 24 ore su 24, 7 giorni su 7.

Crary inizia tracciando la storia dell'era digitale, dalle sue origini nella ricerca militare al suo attuale status di infrastruttura globale. Sostiene che Internet è stato modellato dagli imperativi del capitale e che è diventato uno strumento per la sorveglianza, il controllo e lo sfruttamento delle persone. Indica i modi in cui Internet è stato utilizzato per guidare la finanziarizzazione, per creare nuove forme di disuguaglianza e per distruggere l'ambiente.

Crary si rivolge quindi alla domanda su come potrebbe essere un futuro post-capitalista. Sostiene che dobbiamo immaginare un mondo in cui Internet non sia controllato da società o governi, ma dalle comunità. Immagina un mondo in cui Internet viene utilizzato per promuovere la cooperazione, la solidarietà e la sostenibilità.

Scorched Earth è un saggio potente e provocatorio che ci sfida a pensare in modo critico all'era digitale. Gli argomenti di Crary non sono facili da digerire, ma sono una lettura essenziale per chiunque abbia a cuore il futuro del nostro pianeta.

Ecco alcuni dei punti chiave che Crary fa in Scorched Earth:

L'era digitale è sinonimo della disastrosa fase terminale del capitalismo globale.
Internet è uno strumento di finanziarizzazione, impoverimento di massa, ecocidio e terrore militare.
Se ci deve essere un futuro vivibile e condiviso sul nostro pianeta, sarà un futuro offline, sganciato dai sistemi e dalle operazioni che distruggono il mondo del capitalismo 24 ore su 24, 7 giorni su 7.
Dobbiamo immaginare un mondo in cui Internet non sia controllato da aziende o governi, ma dalle comunità.
Dobbiamo usare Internet per promuovere la cooperazione, la solidarietà e la sostenibilità.
Scorched Earth è un libro impegnativo ma importante. È un invito all'azione per coloro che hanno a cuore il futuro del nostro pianeta. Se sei interessato a saperne di più sul lato oscuro dell'era digitale, ti consiglio vivamente di leggere questo libro. ( )

In "Scorched Earth," Crary argues that the digital age has brought about a fundamental transformation in the nature of capitalism. He suggests that capitalism has moved beyond its earlier stages, where it relied on the exploitation of labor and the control of physical resources, to a new phase where it seeks to control and commodify all aspects of life, including social relations, emotions, and even human attention.

Crary argues that this new phase of capitalism has created a "scorched earth" where the natural environment, social relations, and individual subjectivity have been eroded and commodified. He suggests that the constant connectivity of the digital age has led to a situation where people are always "on call" and subject to the demands of capital, with little time or space for reflection, creativity, or genuine social connection.

However, Crary does not simply offer a critique of the current state of affairs. He also outlines a vision for a post-capitalist world that is based on principles of cooperation, sustainability, and the common good. He suggests that this can be achieved through the development of alternative economic structures, the cultivation of new forms of social organization, and the creation of new forms of subjectivity that are not based on consumption and competition.

In particular, Crary emphasizes the importance of collective action and the need to build networks of solidarity and mutual aid. He argues that such networks can provide a basis for new forms of social organization that are more democratic, participatory, and sustainable than those of the current capitalist system.

"Scorched Earth" is a thought-provoking and challenging book that raises important questions about the nature of the digital age and its relationship with capitalism. It offers a compelling vision for a post-capitalist world that is based on cooperation, sustainability, and the common good, and provides a valuable contribution to the ongoing discourse around these issues. ( )

Circuito Ubu - Fevereiro de 2023

The internet is a trap, and we have fallen into it. Powerful forces ensure we sink deeper. In Scorched Earth, Jonathan Crary pulls back the curtain to reveal the true wizard, giant corporations, employing the internet to both pacify and divide everyone. This is not division into likes and dislikes, political parties or socioeconomic class. This is division right down to the individual, isolated and powerless.

Crary says "If there is to be a livable and shared future on our planet, it will be a future offline, uncoupled from the world-destroying systems and operations of 24/7 capitalism." He points to not just selling, which allows people to skip visiting stores, but doing almost everything online, to the point where it has become mandatory. Companies routinely send customers somewhere online if they have complaints, warranty issues, want loyalty cards, discount coupons, and of course, direct purchases. Banking is all but totally online; customers literally never have to visit their branch. Voter registration is moving online. So are business meetings, family reunions, education, tax filing, postage, and applications for everything from COVID-19 test kits to class action claims. He says corporates "require digital compliance everywhere." The keyword here is "require". More and more, there is no other way.

A shutdown of the internet would not merely cause angst amongst gamers, it would cause an almost complete halt to western society. It is no longer even capable of handling business in-person. Crary claims "The internet complex is now the comprehensive global apparatus for the dissolution of society."

This is because the internet has substituted for almost all social functions as well as commercial functions. Endless scrolling fills hours a day. Americans consult their smartphones over 200 times daily. Contributing a comment online is essentially anonymous (and pointless), and interaction is generalized, rarely personal. Even when it is personal, it does not lead to closeness between people.

This sociopathic behavior is rewarded and reinforced with likes, retweets, followers and points, sucking individuals into less and less personal contact. He cites philosopher Bernard Stiegler: "'The hegemonic rule of the market' makes it impossible for an individual to love oneself or love others or to have any desire for the future."

For several years, headlines have been raging over younger generations feelings of a grim future, with less prosperity and success than their parents knew. There is less marriage, more single households, and a clear satisfaction deficit. Crary calls it presentism, as opposed to futurism, which held the light for countless generations. Today people only see a downhill slide looking forward, so they focus on what's available today; infinite scrolling. Presentism is a response to things like artificial intelligence, the next big thing on the corporate agenda: "One awaits this future as one would await death," Crary says.

It has also made idealism more shallow. He says the Green New Deal is "absurd" because it does nothing to dampen demand. It just satisfies users' need to acknowledge the problem today. Lip service at best, but it shuts people up and out. Signing an online petition is not canvassing door to door or participating in a sit-in.

All of this fits in Crary's bucket he calls scorched earth: "Scorched earth capitalism destroys whatever allows groups and communities to pursue modes of self-sufficient subsistence, of self-governance or of mutual support." It means the end of community to him: "The internet complex continues to mass produce these solitary subjectivities, to deter cooperative forms of association and to dissolve possibilities for reciprocity and collective responsibility."

An interesting example is the town hall meeting, totally anathema to corporate interests because it is beyond their reach. Democracy remains a thorn.

He puts the lie to the seeming ethereal nature of the internet, with its "wireless setups, the placelessness of data, and terms like 'virtual' and 'cloud'." The reality is massive server farms, each consuming millions of gallons of water daily to dissipate the wasted heat generated by all the equipment. The needs of exponential data growth show that in 65 years, server farms will take up more space than the entire land surface of the continental United States, he says. We are headed towards nothing but internet.

But it's also physically impossible. Which means dislocations of varying sorts. Again, not something to look forward to.

Until then, the beat goes on. For the corporations, it means even finer tuning of their online efforts. Crary devotes the mot space on any subject to eyeballs and how to measure their operation. The science of tracking and attracting eyeballs has advanced remarkably, and not for medical reasons. Getting users to look where the company wants and click what the company wants is the focus of armies of people. Users are directed and restricted. Creativity, he says, cannot come from a Google search.

For the elites, the priority remains: "keep people enclosed within the augmented unrealities of the internet complex, where experience is fragmented into a kaleidoscope of fleeting claims of importance, of neverending admonitions on how to conduct our lives, on what to buy and who to envy." This is the daily grind for far too many.

I can directly relate to a lot of what Crary says when he writes about the antisocial framework America is living. I read and write all day, tasks requiring no one else's input, let alone direction. I definitely meet with fewer people, and it's not simply because of the COVID-19 pandemic. I do take pride in ever-increasing numbers of followers - for book reviews of all things. Communicating with them has never led to anything real. And I have no hesitancy about doing my shopping anywhere in the world - online. The book made me feel a conformist, which is highly ironic if you knew me.

It's a short, powerful book, written as an essay in three parts. It can go on for a page without a paragraph break. It's a polemic and a rant. A number of Crary's assumptions are arguable when not simply wrong, but it doesn't change the overall truth of his message: we need to get back to communicating and working together. We need to learn from the ever-shrinking societies of the world that have not yet succumbed to the internet life. Because the path we're on leads to disaster.

David Wineberg ( )