Living in the End Times

The underlying premise of the book is a simple one: the global capitalist system is approaching an apocalyptic zero-point. Its four riders of the apocalypse are the ecological crisis, the consequences of the biogenetic revolution, the imbalances within the system itself (problems with intellectual property, the forthcoming struggle for raw materials, food and water), and the explosions of social divisions and exclusions. Society's first reaction is ideological denial, then explosions of anger at the injustices of the new world order, attempts at bargaining, and when this fails, depression and withdrawal set in. Finally, after passing through this zero-point we no longer perceive it as a threat, but as the chance for a new beginning. Or, as Mao Zedong might have put it, There is great disorder under heaven, the situation is excellent.A" A iA ek traces out in detail these five stances, makes a plea for a return to the Marxian critique of political economy, and sniffs out the first signs of a budding communist culture in all its diverse forms-in utopias that range from Kafka's community of mice to the collective of freak outcasts in the TV series Heroes.

ISBN 1844677028   Pages 432 ISBN13 9781844677023 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 640 Publisher Verso Books   Published in London Imprint Verso Books   Previous ISBN 9781844675982 Format Paperback   Height (mm) 210 Publication date 14 Apr 2011   Width (mm) 140 DEWEY 170   Spine width (mm) 38 DEWEY edition DC22   Academic level General

Fierce brilliance - scintillating.A" Steven Poole, Guardian The most dangerous philosopher in the West.A" New Republic A iA ek is to today what Jacques Derrida was to the 80s: the thinker of choice for Europe's young intellectual vanguard.A" Observer Such passion, in a man whose work forms a shaky, cartoon rope-bridge between the minutiae of popular culture and the big abstract problems of existence, is invigorating, entertaining and expanding enquiring minds around the world.A" Helen Brown, Daily Telegraph

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