- This piece serves to summarize my earlier work on the hypothesis of post-capitalism, the idea that a fundamental change in our global mode of production is rapidly approaching. Here, I will not only explain the specific causes and symptoms of the coming crisis, but I will also describe the societal ‘impulses’ which will shape our collective response to this crisis. Our future will consist of the competition between these responses, as modulated by the conditions of the end stage environment. Whatever world results from this competition, this we might then call ‘post-capitalism’. Its shape is yet to be determined.
- In diagnosing the imminent end of capitalism, my main concerns are in the areas of profitability and externality. On the one hand, our capitalist system of universal commodification and exchange is such that it constantly hungers for new regions, new resources, and new technologies to exploit. This drive for ever-increasing productivity is now running up against clear technological and metabolic limits. In other words, it lacks the necessary energy and expertise to continue to grow and redevelop itself. When combined with the general Marxian thesis about the tendency for the rate of profit to fall, a terminal crisis in capitalist accumulation appears to be in our near future.
- On the other hand, the problem of externality is even more intractable. In order to perpetuate themselves, State and Capital both depend on external elements which they can neither comprehend nor substitute. The most obvious (and most impactful) examples of this are the spheres of ecology and social reproduction. Although the attempt to enclose these areas has created perennial crises since the dawn of state society, the accelerations of Capital have made the present disruptions even more terminal.
- Among the most immediate symptoms of end stage capitalism, we find economic stagnation, political illegitimacy, and a series of ever-escalating disasters. In the long run, we will face such challenges as mass climate migration, the increasing uninhabitability of deserts and coastlines, and an overall crisis of governability. In societal terms, we should expect capitalist alienation to achieve some of its most grandiose forms, evolving into either a deluded ‘exit’ from society fueled by reactionary conspiracy theories, or else a tragic embrace of speculation and grift by the downwardly mobile middle classes.
- End-stage capitalism will excite a variety of responses among a variety of actors. In the ruling classes of the world, we can expect a tendency towards involution to be dominant. Involution here describes the politics of decline, the attempt to maintain a certain level of privilege on an ever-shrinking playing field. Thus, we can expect state and private actors to write off entire sections of the population, designating sacrifice zones so as to preserve their own gated communities. Present regimes of corporate consolidation and border militarization are a clear prelude to this tendency.
- Evolution describes another ruling class response, one which may be found among those sections which consider themselves progressive, or at least innovative. Their hope is to preserve the present system through a minimum of reform, the kind of ‘one weird trick’ which might put capitalism back on track. Their historical antecedents run from Keynesianism on the Left to corporatism on the Right. Here is also where we find the ecomodernists, those who would present the ‘climate transition’ as a mere speed bump on the way to further capitalist accumulation. At worst, they imagine that some form of geo-engineering might be necessary to put the ecosphere back in order. Such naivete is to be expected.
- Those reactionary elements who cannot find a home in either of the aforementioned categories will radicalize towards devolution. This term describes their regression into stochastic, millenarian violence, targeting oppressed populations even as they secure local zones of ungovernability. Compared to more classical fascists, their impulse is more absolute in its negations, skipping straight to the imagined Gotterdammerung. ISIS can be considered a prototype of the devolutionary response, as can the burgeoning coalition of ‘sovereign’ paramilitaries and ‘constitutional’ law enforcers in the US.
- The only realistic response, then, is to invoke revolution. The core objective here is to build a cohesive counterpower to State and Capital, one which can restore and augment the social and ecological spheres through stateless modes of democratic organization. Two developments stand out in this regard: the proliferation of ‘horizontalist’ revolts over the past decade, and the profusion of ideas on the structure of a social-ecological society. The challenge, clearly, is to bring these components together. Insurrection without consciousness is unproductive; by the same token, theories without a mass base grow insular, if not elitist. Such limits impede a revolutionary response.
- In order to advance a broad social-ecological revolution, we must develop a strong understanding of pedagogy, cybernetics, and the general process of socialization. These ideas are both vital to, and symbiotic with, our practical efforts in the realm of direct action, mutual aid, and community resilience. The overall strategy can be described as a form of prefiguration, or else an instance of dual power. The overall idea is to establish the stores of institutional knowledge and practice which can be rapidly scaled up in times of acute crisis. Only a living tradition of organization and struggle can counteract the despair and ignorance which gives rise to reformist and reactionary impulses.
- As the end stage of capitalism moves ever onward, we must continue to adapt our analysis and strategy to the changing times. In this context, it is essential that we study the coming insurrections and revolutions, wherever they may appear. It is also important to remember that history does not unfold at a single speed. The rot of capitalist decline is more advanced in some regions of the world than others. Thus we might say that the present of Britain represents the future of Europe, just as the stagnation of Japan is a template for East Asia as a whole. If we know where the future may be found, it need not baffle us so. Taken together, only a clear and widespread awareness of the coming end of capitalism can prepare us for the crises to come.
End Stage Capitalism: A Prognosis in Ten Points
The inner Moon 