Scan barcode
A review by raoul_g
Another Now: Dispatches from an Alternative Present from the Sunday Times no. 1 bestselling author by Yanis Varoufakis
5.0
This book was recommended and lent to me by a friend. I really enjoyed reading it, as I've been interested in the work of Yanis Varoufakis for quite a while, and already have another one of his books on my shelf, waiting to be picked up.
This book takes an unusual approach: Basically it is a relatively short novel about a small group of friends, that are in some way or another interested in economics and society, and about their discussions on these topics. The main goal of the book is to convey a certain critique of capitalism and to present some alternative approaches. Thus one might wonder why the frame narrative is even necessary, or what it adds to the book. Quite a lot actually!
One of the main characters is able to create a kind of wormhole to an alternative reality through the use of some complicated (and of course not entirely plausible) technology. He is able to make contact with his double in the alternative reality, and thus finds out that the alternative reality (called Other Now) 'split off' from This Now in 2008, just after the Global Financial Crisis. Instead of the massive bailouts that happened in our reality, and which profited only the banks and their wealthiest investors while leaving countless households economically vulnerable, in the Other Now the activity of different activist groups prevented this and led to sweeping reforms in the financial system worldwide. The activists managed to destabilize the capitalist system further, so that it was not able to recover from the crisis which, together with other reforms, led, practically, to the end of capitalism.
The core of the book is thus the dispatches from the Other Now that describe what a world with no commercial banks, no stock markets and no tech giants could look like. The vision Varoufakis depicts here is a kind of technologically-driven anarcho-syndicalism. His main characters explain and debate the different kinds of mechanisms that make such an economic and social system work. What I really liked is that through the different characters, Varoufakis is able to view these mechanisms and their underlying principles from different perspectives and even to critique them. The Other Now is not presented as paradise on earth: It still has its problems and is not even able to win the hearts of all the protagonists, despite the fact that it has overcome many of our current economic and social problems in a democratic way.
Furthermore, the book does not limit itself to describing an alternative economic system. It also hints at possibilities, of how it could arise out of our current system in the first place. Just one example that I will name is the Crowdshorters movement described in the book. Similar to the GameStop movement in 2021, they aimed to do damage to investment firms by collectively organizing online. Other imaginary activist groups and their actions are also mentioned in the book.
Finally, I like that the book goes one step further and enters the territory of philosophy at the end: It self-critically asks the question whether the approach it proposes, namely a change of economic system, is enough, or whether we as humanity are in need of a deeper change, a change at the level our very mode of being and relating to one another.
This book takes an unusual approach: Basically it is a relatively short novel about a small group of friends, that are in some way or another interested in economics and society, and about their discussions on these topics. The main goal of the book is to convey a certain critique of capitalism and to present some alternative approaches. Thus one might wonder why the frame narrative is even necessary, or what it adds to the book. Quite a lot actually!
One of the main characters is able to create a kind of wormhole to an alternative reality through the use of some complicated (and of course not entirely plausible) technology. He is able to make contact with his double in the alternative reality, and thus finds out that the alternative reality (called Other Now) 'split off' from This Now in 2008, just after the Global Financial Crisis. Instead of the massive bailouts that happened in our reality, and which profited only the banks and their wealthiest investors while leaving countless households economically vulnerable, in the Other Now the activity of different activist groups prevented this and led to sweeping reforms in the financial system worldwide. The activists managed to destabilize the capitalist system further, so that it was not able to recover from the crisis which, together with other reforms, led, practically, to the end of capitalism.
The core of the book is thus the dispatches from the Other Now that describe what a world with no commercial banks, no stock markets and no tech giants could look like. The vision Varoufakis depicts here is a kind of technologically-driven anarcho-syndicalism. His main characters explain and debate the different kinds of mechanisms that make such an economic and social system work. What I really liked is that through the different characters, Varoufakis is able to view these mechanisms and their underlying principles from different perspectives and even to critique them. The Other Now is not presented as paradise on earth: It still has its problems and is not even able to win the hearts of all the protagonists, despite the fact that it has overcome many of our current economic and social problems in a democratic way.
Furthermore, the book does not limit itself to describing an alternative economic system. It also hints at possibilities, of how it could arise out of our current system in the first place. Just one example that I will name is the Crowdshorters movement described in the book. Similar to the GameStop movement in 2021, they aimed to do damage to investment firms by collectively organizing online. Other imaginary activist groups and their actions are also mentioned in the book.
Finally, I like that the book goes one step further and enters the territory of philosophy at the end: It self-critically asks the question whether the approach it proposes, namely a change of economic system, is enough, or whether we as humanity are in need of a deeper change, a change at the level our very mode of being and relating to one another.