Franco Berardi


Franco "Bifo" Berardi is an Italian communist philosopher, theorist and activist in the autonomist tradition, whose work mainly focuses on the role of the media and information technology within post-industrial capitalism. Berardi has written over two dozen published books, as well as a number of essays and speeches.

Creative work and activism

In 1962, at the age of 13, Berardi became a member of the Italian Communist Youth Federation, but was expelled due to "factionalism." He participated in the events of May '68 at the University of Bologna, where he graduated with a degree in Aesthetics. During this time he joined the extra-parliamentary Worker's Power group and met Antonio Negri. Berardi founded the magazine A/traverso in 1975 and worked with the magazine until 1981, when it reached its high point of publishing. He was also part of the staff of Radio Alice, the first free pirate radio station in Italy, from 1976 to 1978.
Like others involved in the political movement of Autonomia in Italy during the 1970s, Berardi fled to Paris, where he worked with Félix Guattari in the field of schizoanalysis. During the 1980s, Berardi contributed to the magazines Semiotexte, Chimerees, Metropoli and Musica 80. During the 1990s, he published Mutazione e Ciberpunk, Cibernauti, and Félix. He has also collaborated with artists such as Warren Neidich and publications such as e-flux in the contemporary arts field. Currently he is working with the magazine Derive Approdi as well as teaching social history of communication at the Accademia di belle Arti in Milan. He is the co-founder of the e-zine rekombinant.org and of the telestreet movement, founding the channel Orfeo TV.
He is a member of the Advisory Panel of DiEM25.

Theories

Unlike orthodox Marxists, Berardi's autonomist theories draw on psychoanalysis, schizoanalysis and communication theory to show how subjectivity and desire are bound up with the functioning of the capitalism system, rather than portraying events such as the financial crisis of 2008 merely as an example of the inherently contradictory logic of capitalist accumulation. Thus, he argues against privileging labour in critique and says that "the solution to the economic difficulty of the situation cannot be solved with economic means: the solution is not economic." Human emotions and embodied communication becomes increasingly central to the production and consumption patterns that sustain capital flows in post-industrial society, and as such Berardi uses the concepts of "cognitariat" and "info labour" to analyze this psycho-social process. Among Berardi's other concerns are cultural representations and expectations about the future — from proto-Fascist Futurism to post-modern cyberpunk. This represents a greater concern with ideas and cultural expectations than the determinist-materialist expression of a Marxism which is often confined to purely economic or systemic analysis.

''The Uprising'' and ''Breathing''

Two of Berardi's books, The Uprising and Breathing, are closely related speculative works which treat the global financial crisis, financial capitalism and the subsequent protest movements of the early 21st century such as Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring. In both works Berardi criticizes neoliberal financial capitalism, claiming that its supporting infrastructure of automation —together with standardized computer language conventions on social media —hollow out language to the detriment of human actors who naturally communicate in more sensuous and subjective ways. As remedies Berardi suggests poetry and "chaos"—citing the elegies of Rilke and Guattari's work on chaos—as methods for human subjects to overcome the lived experience of market logic. Additionally both books cite the work of Deleuze and Guattari, Marx's Fragment on Machines from the Grundrisse, the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Wittgenstein, and Symbolic Exchange and Death by Baudrillard.

''The Uprising''

In The Uprising Berardi rejects economic discourse, asserting that economics itself is not a science but rather a form of political ideology. Consequently he further rejects the notion that neoliberal economic policy is based in the objectivity of science, but is instead merely a political program and an undesirable one. Against the mathematical language of economics Berardi opposes a speculative rhetoric of poetry, which he intends to disrupt the conventional wisdom of contemporary economics.
Berardi decries the automation and standardization of language via computer technology, which he alleges results in an impoverished language as experienced by the human subject, with the result that it is more difficult to conceptualize another form of life apart from the current economic/political situation. He also criticizes the fragmentation of precarious work which leads to social atomization and precludes social solidarity, and further rejects neoliberal and conservative economic views. As remedies, Berardi proposes both a rediscovery of poetic language which speaks directly to humans, and also a redirection of the general intellect—a Marxist term deriving from the Grundrisse, referring to the cognitive capacity of society—away from capitalism and towards social solidarity.

''Breathing''

In Breathing, Berardi uses respiration as a metaphor to discuss modern society. Beginning with his own asthma and the death of Eric Garner, he advances the notion that humanity is experiencing a "breathlessness" in all areas of life as a result of being out of sync with contemporary capitalism and technology. The book continues several of the themes previously treated in The Uprising.
Berardi cites Chaosmosis, a text by Félix Guattari, to establish a dichotomy of rhythm and chaos. This dichotomy is then compared with breathing and the alleged tension between humans and capitalist society.
The rhetorical suggestion is that humanity is obliged to "shake off" capitalism in a spasm which will allow the social body to "breathe regularly" again, in a new rhythm.
Later, Berardi examines other alleged social ills of the early 21st century. He cites the novels of Jonathan Franzen as providing "insight into what is happening to the American mind, and particularly to the American unconscious, during the reign of Trump... the living brain of America is decaying, seized by anxiety and depression, furiously looking for scapegoats and for revenge." Berardi criticizes the virtual reality of dating apps and internet forum posts by the American hacker and troll weev as further examples of sickness in society. As proposed remedies, Berardi returns to poetry and the notion of seeking different rhythms of life.

Books