Garry
Glass discusses how advances in automation are disrupting class
relations.
Part
1
Automation
is redefining the contours of the state, corporate, societal nexus by
establishing an even greater reliance on the technological
infrastructure and further removing agency from organised labour and
the democratic process.
With the
rise of automation, society is staring down the barrel of massive
increases in the rates of unemployment not seen since the first Great
Depression. The massive political shock is that this will affect not
just blue-collar workers but those with white-collars as well. As
Capitalists drive this innovation the left is, well left, trying to
articulate its own vision of automation as having liberatory
potential.
Innovations
are usually subject to political capture as those on both sides of
the political spectrum naturally see any new technological
development as a terrain of contestation. Will innovation be used to
reproduce and advance capitalism or could it be used for greater
empowerment of individuals, communities and the emancipation of the
working class? Some argue that domination is inherent to reliance on
what they see as technological empire, others speak of a liberatory
technology epitomised by social ecology and the solar punk design
aesthetic.
The fact
that the term ‘revolutionary’ can be used to describe anything
from disruptive technologies such as Uberisation and open source 3d
additive manufacturing to the latest gimmick in dental hygiene
demonstrates the openness of all that is novel to the politics of
narrative construction. What is apparent is that we are embedded in a
culture which values innovation in technique over the inculcation and
advancement of sound ethics. As Bookchin noted we exploit nature as
an extension of our exploitation of each other.
Source:
Related:
Comments
Post a Comment