Revolutions in Reverse: Essays on Politics, Violence, Art, and Imagination

by David Graeber

On This Page

Description

Capitalism as we know it appears to be coming apart. But as financial institutions stagger and crumble, there is no obvious alternative. There is good reason to believe that, in a generation or so, capitalism will no longer exist for the simple reason that it's impossible to maintain an engine of perpetual growth forever on a finite planet. Yet faced with this prospect, the knee-jerk reaction is often to cling to what exists because they simply can't imagine an alternative that wouldn't be show more even more oppressive and destructive. The political imagination seems to have reached an impasse. Or has it?In this collection of essays David Graeber explores a wide-ranging set of topics including political strategy, global trade, debt, imagination, violence, aesthetics, alienation, and creativity. Written in the wake of the anti-globalization movement and the rise of the war on terror, these essays survey the political landscape for signs of hope in unexpected places.At a moment when the old assumption about politics and power have been irrefutably broken the only real choice is to begin again: to create a new language, a new common sense, about what people basically are and what it is reasonable for them to expect from the world, and from each other. In this volume Graeber draws from the realms of politics, art, and the imagination to start this conversation and to suggest that the task might not be nearly so daunting as we'd be given to imagine. show less

Tags

Recommendations

Member Reviews

2 reviews
"Bir çıkmaza girdik gibi görünüyor. Bildiğimiz kapitalizm görünüşe göre dağılmaya başladı. Ancak finans kurumlan tökezleyip parçalanırken, hemen akla geliveren bir alternatif yok. Örgütlü direniş dağınık ve tutarsız bir görünüm sergiliyor... Bir iki nesil sonra kapitalizmin var olmayacağına inanmak yersiz olmaz, çünkü sonlu bir gezegende sonsuz ve süreğen bir büyüme makinesi işletmek mümkün değil. Ancak ilericilerin ve antikapitalistlerin bu olasılık karşısında görünürdeki ilk refleksi, çoğu zaman korkup varolana tutunmak. Çünkü daha da baskıcı ve yıkıcı olmayacak bir alternatif tahayyül edemiyorlar."

Düşünür, aktivist ve antropolog David Graeber'in bu denemeleri yeni show more siyaset stratejileri, küresel ticaret, borçlanma, hayalgücü, şiddet, estetik, feminizm, yabancılaşma gibi temaları konu alıyor. Bununla beraber hiç beklenmedik yerlerde sürgün veren umut dolu hareketlerin de izini süren Graeber, siyaset ve iktidar hakkındaki bildik varsayımların inkâr edilmez bir şekilde yıkıldığı bugün tek bir seçeneğimiz olduğunu vurguluyor: "İnsanların özde ne olduğuna, dünyadan ve birbirlerinden ne beklemelerinin makul olaca­ğına dair yeni bir dil, yeni bir sağduyu yaratmak için bir an evvel kolları sıvamak."

Bu seçeneğin hiç de imkânsız olmadığını gösteren Graeber, hayal- gücünü ve yaratıcılığı körükleyen bu denemeleriyle bugün sokağa dökülen milyonlar için yepyeni bir yol haritası öneriyor.

"David Graeber'e göre neoliberalizm, özünde 'başka bir alternatifimiz yok' görüşünü egemen kılan, sürekli bunalım yaratan ve tüm alternatif oluşumları saf dışı bırakan felaket bir sistem­dir. Bu ufuk açıcı denemeler bizleri kuşatan bu duvarlarda gedik açıp umut dolu patikalara işaret ediyor."

“Graeber bir âlim, bir aktivist, bir kamu entelektüeli!” PETER CAREY
show less

Members

Recently Added By

Lists

Books Read in 2021
5,361 works; 114 members

Author Information

Picture of author.
97+ Works 12,807 Members
David Rolfe Graeber was born February 12, 1961 in New York. He was an anthropologist, anarchist, author, and a professor at the London School of Economics. He was an outspoken critic of economic and social inequality. He coined the phrase "We are the 99 Percent,' the slogan of the Occupy Wall Street movement." He earned his BA in anthropology from show more State University of New York at Purchase in 1984. He earned his masters and doctorate from the University of Chicago. He did ethnographic research in central Madagascar which he used for his PhD thesis (1997). He was a prolific author. His books included Debt: The First 5000 Years (2011), The Democracy Project: A History, a Crisis, a Movement (2013), The Utopia of Rules (2015), Bullshit Jobs: A Theory (2018), and in fall 2021, Farrar, Straus & Giroux will publish The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, written with David Wengrow. David Graeber died on September 2, 2020 at the age of 59. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Work Relationships

Classifications

Genres
Nonfiction, Anthropology, General Nonfiction, Philosophy, Art & Design
DDC/MDS
303.484Society, government, & cultureSocial sciences, sociology & anthropologySocial processesSocial changeCauses of changePurposefully induced change
LCC
HM876 .G73Social sciencesSociology (General)SociologySocial change
BISAC

Statistics

Members
156
Popularity
209,454
Reviews
2
Rating
½ (3.27)
Languages
Czech, English, French, Italian
Media
Paper, Ebook
ISBNs
5
ASINs
5