Reframing How We Come Together

Combating authoritarianism by cultivating new democratic ways of organizing

The world is becoming increasingly authoritarian!

Authoritarianism, one could say, has evolved into a sort of megatrend.

And this isn’t only about politics; authoritarian elements have woven themselves into our culture, our economic system, into how we run companies, and into how we design the tech platforms that all of us use every day.

The systems around us, the systems we rely and depend on, have become more and more authoritarian:

♦︎ The Economy: The term Wealth Supremacy describes the bias towards wealth that’s woven into the fabric of our economic system, making it extremely undemocratic and fueling inequality. This is more visible than ever, given the recent mass layoffs at companies that continue to rake in record profits and dispense an even greater slice of the pie to shareholders and CEOs.

“In a democratic society founded on the truth that all persons are created equal, we have permitted an economic system based on a directly contrary principle: that the wealthy matter more than the rest of us.” – Marjorie Kelly

via Fortune Magazine

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♦︎ Corporations: The concept of Managerialism describes the glorification of an elite group of people (gotta have that MBA) who are said to be uniquely qualified to have power over workers (and companies): managers. The autocratic nature of how we structure our organizations, and of management in general, gets hidden behind “good leadership” or “our company is like a family”.

”Managerialism cloaks the sources of this conflict—the workplace’s undemocratic, hierarchical, and asymmetric power structures—in humanistic and benevolent terms.” – Roland Purser

what the actual f*ck (source)

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♦︎ Technology (or Platforms): So-called – and this name alone speaks volumes – “tech overlords” and their techno-capitalist visions have become more outspoken or confident to share their ideas more publicly in recent years. Yanis Varoufakis came up with the thought-provoking concept of Technofeudalism, describing a new economic and power system, even worse than capitalism, powered by monopolies of clouds and algorithms:

“Profit drives capitalism, rent drove feudalism. Now we have moved [from one system to the other] because of this new form of super-duper, all-singing, all-dancing capital: cloud capital, algorithmic capital. If I'm right, that is creating new digital fiefdoms like Amazon.com, like Airbnb, where the main mode of wealth extraction comes in the form not of profit but of rent.” – Yanis Varoufakis

NY Times

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