Andrey Fursov: "Surveillance capitalism made raw materials out of man"

“The problem, however, is that what Shoshana Zuboff called surveillance capitalism, is by no means capitalism. And this whole book, in fact, shows that this is not capitalism.

This is something new and much less enjoyable than capitalism.

The first thing she says is that surveillance capitalism is not control over the means of production, but over the means of behavior modification.

That is, the main factor that is alienated here is behavior.

And she writes that Google invented surveillance capitalism in the same way that General electric invented managerial capitalism and mass production in the early 20th century.

Well, together with Google, this is Microsoft, Facebook, and so on.

And the products of this surveillance capitalism are not products of value exchange, which is characteristic of capitalism.

She herself writes that they do not create constructive producer-consumer relationships, they package our behavior, habits and experiences in such a way that they serve other people's interests. Man becomes a raw material.

And this supervisory capital knows everything about us, and we practically nothing about it.

If industrial capitalism flourished at the expense and to the detriment of nature, then this information capitalism, information civilization is being built at the expense of human nature.

But the fact of the matter is that this is no longer capitalism.

Because capital is materialized labor that realizes itself as a self-increasing value.

If we are talking about controlling social behavior by means of what your needs are, how much you “click” - and this is recorded - this is no longer capitalism. Here, the object of appropriation is the person himself, that is, his, so to speak, the spiritual sphere.

And Shoshana Zuboff says that for her the important moment is not September 11, 2001, but August 9, 2011, when three events happened, at first glance, completely unrelated to each other, but together they add up to a puzzle.

First, Apple has surpassed Exxon mobile as a highly capitalized corporation.

Second, there was a riot in London, 16,000 policemen went out against women, students, people of color, and so on.

And finally, the third: on the same day, in Spain, the citizens demanded from Google that he forgot them. They have such a right - so that he does not meddle in their affairs.

And if you look at where both financialism and deep power and this supervisory capitalism are growing from, then, of course, the moment of truth is the mid-1970s. The Keynesian economy began to stall when the world elite realized that a few more steps and left-wing parties relying on the middle stratum and the so-called welfare state, which in fact is the general welfare state, would begin a big, big redistribution.

And the installation was made for neoliberal ideology and those layers were found that could be pitted against the traditional left and the working class. Shoshana Zuboff calls them "people of the second modern". These are students, women, marginalized people, people of color, migrants. And it was with the support of these people that this neoliberal turn was made.

Well, and, of course, after it was committed, these people rubbed themselves off and threw away.

And the events of August 9, 2011 became an expression of the anger of those people who want to be part of the middle stratum, but they are not allowed there, because the neoliberal economic system does not really presuppose the existence of a middle stratum at all.

Well, the second point is the de-democratization of Western society; the call for this was, in fact, formulated in the report "The Crisis of Democracy".

The entire conversation with Andrey Fursov can be viewed here.