Beyond the utopia. Two viewpoints on post-industrial labor

Statism and anarchism are a binary opposition that divides Marxists into two irreconcilable camps. This opposition was felt especially irresistible during the Iron Curtain. But already in the 1980s, both in Soviet philosophy and in European Marxism, the idea of dialogue and communication was actively gaining popularity, which called for compromise between opponents. And today, when the depoliticizing nature of late capitalism tendentiously smooth out “rough edges,” imposing radical centrism according to Anthony Gidden contradictions completely lose their fundamental importance. Within the framework of this hypothesis, the author constructs a theoretical dialogue between Italian post-Operatism (Antonio Negri, Paolo Virno, Franco Berardi, Maurizio Lazzarato, etc.) and domestic cultural philosophies (Vladimir Bibler, Vadim Mezhuyev, Nal Zlobin, Moses Kagan, Arnold Arnoldov, etc.), which are usually located at opposite poles of the political spectrum: post-operatives are known as anarchists, and cultural philosophers are more conservative and rather closer to the Social Democrats.

Both schools, referring to Karl Marx’s early works, analyze a new reality where the role of the main producer is occupied by a cultural person (scientist/artist) or a post-industrial worker. Both schools experience a certain affect of disappointment in radical political changes, and therefore see the main way to improve society no longer in political struggle, but in culture and communication. But while Italian Marxists urge to seek horizontal solidarity in subcultures, cultural philosophers take a position of power, developing pedagogical programs to make from proletariat the so-called cognitariat. The post-operatives label the new society emerging with the term “Empire.” The author of the article draws parallels between the new Empire and the late USSR, in which cultural philosophers worked. The article compares critical and apologetic views on post-Fordist production, as well as examines two proposed Enlightenment projects. The article attempts to demonstrate the theoretical similarities of the two directions and lays a certain foundation for their convergence with the aim of creating a dialectical theory that would combine both elements of pedagogy and a program of horizontal solidarity.