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cythera15 's review for:
Fully Automated Luxury Communism
by Aaron Bastani
What an interesting proposal! I was interested in reading this book ever since I read a short book review about it a few years back. I finally got the book during the Verso books sale and then when my professor mentioned the book in our class, I decided it was finally the time to read it.
The proposal can be summarized as: we live in a world of abundance that finally allows communism. But it would not be the communism as we know it since it could be luxurious, attending to everyone's basic needs with the technology we have now. We just need to have a political motivation to apply the technology correctly.
It reminded me of Jameson's "An American Utopia" a lot because he also emphasizes that we live in a post-scarcity world. Distribution is the key question that needs to be addressed in this world, not production. Unlike Jameson which focused primarily on the US, it seemed that Bastani attempted to include the entire world in his investigation.
As radical as the proposal was, I also found the book to be slightly disappointing because it spent so much time outlining future technology that makes abundance possibly and not enough time on proposing ways to make the political change possible. It seemed to me that even without relying on sci-fi-like innovations, many reading this book would be already convinced that the globe is producing enough. What I then would be curious about is how to make sure that we are distributing them effectively. I was not entirely sure whether his proposals to do that were as interesting and radical as his initial proposal of FALC.
Nevertheless, I imagine how wonderful would it be to look back in 10, 20 years and realize that Bastani's dream came true! I am skeptical about it, honestly, but at the same time, I think I can indulge in wishful thinking.
The proposal can be summarized as: we live in a world of abundance that finally allows communism. But it would not be the communism as we know it since it could be luxurious, attending to everyone's basic needs with the technology we have now. We just need to have a political motivation to apply the technology correctly.
It reminded me of Jameson's "An American Utopia" a lot because he also emphasizes that we live in a post-scarcity world. Distribution is the key question that needs to be addressed in this world, not production. Unlike Jameson which focused primarily on the US, it seemed that Bastani attempted to include the entire world in his investigation.
As radical as the proposal was, I also found the book to be slightly disappointing because it spent so much time outlining future technology that makes abundance possibly and not enough time on proposing ways to make the political change possible. It seemed to me that even without relying on sci-fi-like innovations, many reading this book would be already convinced that the globe is producing enough. What I then would be curious about is how to make sure that we are distributing them effectively. I was not entirely sure whether his proposals to do that were as interesting and radical as his initial proposal of FALC.
Nevertheless, I imagine how wonderful would it be to look back in 10, 20 years and realize that Bastani's dream came true! I am skeptical about it, honestly, but at the same time, I think I can indulge in wishful thinking.