![]() ![]() we don't have steam engines nowadays, what we have are computers. Vulgar Marxist extraordinaire Mckenzie Wark wrote a bullshit book that tries to invalidate Marx's 'genteel' ideas on capital simply for being outdated i.e. (This review is based on a complimentary pre-release copy of the book, provided by the publisher.) ![]() ![]() For people with a tech background who are unfamiliar with Wark's work, I'd probably recommend A Hacker Manifesto over this book. That was what I found novel about Hacker Manifesto, and I had hoped that this book would take the opportunity to sketch out the concept more fully. Overall, I wish there was more critical analysis of what the author describes as the vectoralist class, which may have replaced (or superseded) what we usually think of as the 'capitalist class' through attaining control or ownership of information. There's also an analysis of The Young Karl Marx (a film), in the last chapter, which I found surprisingly thoughtful, but which felt a bit out of place as a closing chapter. I liked A Hacker Manifesto a lot, and this text definitely builds on the ideas introduced there, but there's also a lot that will likely confuse anyone who isn't well-versed in the literature on topics ranging from vulgar Marxism, to what is sociology, to how planning worked in the Soviet Union. It zigzags between wading deep into academic debates over interpretations of (e.g.) Marx, and lucidly illuminating modern-day economic phenomena using concepts from critical theory. This is a bit hard to rate, because it's not the most consistent text. ![]()
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