Is “Fossil Marxism Black-pilled?”
Fossil Marxism is U/acc at its core. This isn’t to say that U/acc is a black-pilled theoretical framework, but the key aspect that FM (Fossil Marxism) barrows from U/acc are its “non-praxis” politics. Some will argue that this is untrue of U/acc, and there is Definitely room to argue against this point, but U/acc, to my understanding, isn’t necessarily prescriptive. It is descriptive like most accelerationist variants.
Now, what makes Fossil-Marxism different than U/acc? Not much, mostly the scope of the strata its analysis focuses on. Acc theory definitely tends to focus on Time and Capitalism, but it primarily focuses on Abstract Labour. This includes the energy inputs of the Entity that is consuming energy which converts it into Labour. [I’m going to bracket part of this since this isn’t necessarily “original” there’s plenty of this already happening within Marx’s writing] what I will expand on is how energy plays a role in two ways But categorized as one: Waste
FM is adjacent to Acid Communism, Peak Oil, and Neo-Vitalism if you’re interested in how I interpret acid communism. In terms of Peak Oil, FM only barrows what is needed. Primarily, it doesn’t focus on abstract economics. FM is just setting up the “Metaphysics” for Peak Oil. Meta-Nomad has done more in this area with z/acc than anyone else, and I’m not going to pretend I tilled the ground on this at all, so check out his work.
What I am trying to develop or expand on is the concept of Transcendental Waste. My understanding of waste is Bataillian and Deleuzian (not that those would be exclusive, except that waste often carries a negative connotation). If I were to boil down what I think communism is aimed at, it would be the production of “free-time” or, as stated by Xenogothic, the production of “shared free time.” Georges Bataille’s Accursed Share is the non-recuperable part of any economy. It is that which is destined to waste. In this sense, the struggle for free time or leisure is the pursuit of expenditure. Fossil Marxism understands that capitalism creates temporal disparities across a topographical view of energy and material accumulation (tracked via teleoplexy). Time peaks on a topological plane illustrate the inequality of the time. This isn’t to advocate a Flatlining of time but to refocus and redistribute these peaks to focus on cultural production and decouple it from commodity production.
This is why FM is adjacent to Neo-Vitalism. Waste or expenditure or leisure is a return to Bataille’s solar economy. It is to affirm the infinite set of possibilities of escape within the constrictions of a totalizing force. Taking Deleuze and Guattari affirmations seriously,
“This is how it should be done: lodge yourself on a stratum, experiment with the opportunities it offers, find an advantageous place on it, find potential movements of deterritorialization, possible lines of flight experience them, produce flow conjunctions here and there, try out continuums of intensities segment by segment, have a small plot of new land at all times.” — D&G -ATP
It’s Marxist in the vaguest sense as to “become imperceptible, chart out new shores and carve out a new non-space. It affirms itself and yearns not for equality of Time but to push for better quality time. Not the cyber time Mark Fisher so eloquently warns us about.
“Ghosts of my life” impacted me so much because, just like Mark, I have Ghosts of my life…
