An Ocean Of Lemonade
26 Nov 2011 - 05 Feb 2012
AN OCEAN OF LEMONADE
Or the trouble with living in a time of fulfilled utopias
26 November, 2011 - 5 February, 2012
In 1808 Charles Fourier’s phantasmagorical utopia proposed what he called “the combined order” – a new social order based on the respect and harmonization of the human passions. This will inevitably lead to changes not only in the community but in nature itself which will respond with bountiful resources. The new world would produce in such profusion that it would be necessary to throw away the superfluous products.
In a chapter on “Combined Gastronomy,” Fourier described how even the poorest classes would have access to an abundance of food:
“[...] sugar, the poorest kinds of which will be as good as our finest, will be equal in value to wheat flour, so that ships coming from the equator will exchange a cargo of the purest sugar for an equivalent weight of European flour. But in Europe, good dairy produce and good fruit will be so common that little value will be set on them. Fine jams and purées or creams made of sugar and fruit or dairy-produce in equal proportions will cost less than bread, and for economy’s sake poor children will be given quantities of matched fine jams, cream, sugar and stewed fruit.
[...] lemonade and other costly drinks will be as plentiful as small beer and cider are now. Lemons in the torrid zone, and pippin apples in the temperate zone, will be so abundant that their only cost will be transport.
[...] it will be necessary to dump a mass of produce which could grace the best tables today in the sea and down the drain. It is a sacrifice which will be made without regret, however, as the surplus will be necessary to sustain the combined order.”
In his 1883 Marxist pamphlet against the exploitation of workers and the problem of industrial overproduction, Paul Lafarge perversely turns the laws of capitalism against itself. He addresses the capitalists and as if to demonstrate the absurdity of a system incapable of pursuing its rationale to its logical conclusion, proposes a solution that is as obvious as it is unlikely: that of sparing the workers, reducing their working time and helping them become the consumers of their own production:
“Make available to your workers the fortune that they have built up for you with the flesh of their flesh. You are a friend of commerce? Facilitate the circulation of goods: here are the consumers you are looking for: give them unlimited credit.”
Both texts exemplify the imagination and the desires behind industrial-era utopia. They represent
Pierre Bismuth
some of the early historical grounds of the emancipatory projects of the 20th century, the heritage of which still outlines the limits of our political imagination today.
One of the strongest images produced by early utopias was the future as a world of plenty, where poverty will be eradicated and everybody will have access to a better living. Another aspect of the utopian future was defined by the desire to free the workers from their modern slavery in the factory and to assure free time for all.
Unencumbered by the ideological constructions of latter days utopian projects, clearer than anything else today, these texts point to the fact that contemporary capitalism appears to have achieved utopia. Abundance and excess of food and all kinds of products for consumption, mortgages and loans, leisure time and entertainment – all dreams of the past have become reality.
It is clear that this fulfillment of utopia in the West has become possible also through exporting labor exploitation and inequality beyond the boundaries of the western world. However it seems no longer sufficient to show the limits of capitalism in the instances and spaces where it fails. The logic of growth and prosperity that continues to be deployed against the much deeper lessons of the crisis today, suggests that it has become more important to formulate a critique of the success and affluence of contemporary society, than one of its injustices and failures.
Or the trouble with living in a time of fulfilled utopias
26 November, 2011 - 5 February, 2012
In 1808 Charles Fourier’s phantasmagorical utopia proposed what he called “the combined order” – a new social order based on the respect and harmonization of the human passions. This will inevitably lead to changes not only in the community but in nature itself which will respond with bountiful resources. The new world would produce in such profusion that it would be necessary to throw away the superfluous products.
In a chapter on “Combined Gastronomy,” Fourier described how even the poorest classes would have access to an abundance of food:
“[...] sugar, the poorest kinds of which will be as good as our finest, will be equal in value to wheat flour, so that ships coming from the equator will exchange a cargo of the purest sugar for an equivalent weight of European flour. But in Europe, good dairy produce and good fruit will be so common that little value will be set on them. Fine jams and purées or creams made of sugar and fruit or dairy-produce in equal proportions will cost less than bread, and for economy’s sake poor children will be given quantities of matched fine jams, cream, sugar and stewed fruit.
[...] lemonade and other costly drinks will be as plentiful as small beer and cider are now. Lemons in the torrid zone, and pippin apples in the temperate zone, will be so abundant that their only cost will be transport.
[...] it will be necessary to dump a mass of produce which could grace the best tables today in the sea and down the drain. It is a sacrifice which will be made without regret, however, as the surplus will be necessary to sustain the combined order.”
In his 1883 Marxist pamphlet against the exploitation of workers and the problem of industrial overproduction, Paul Lafarge perversely turns the laws of capitalism against itself. He addresses the capitalists and as if to demonstrate the absurdity of a system incapable of pursuing its rationale to its logical conclusion, proposes a solution that is as obvious as it is unlikely: that of sparing the workers, reducing their working time and helping them become the consumers of their own production:
“Make available to your workers the fortune that they have built up for you with the flesh of their flesh. You are a friend of commerce? Facilitate the circulation of goods: here are the consumers you are looking for: give them unlimited credit.”
Both texts exemplify the imagination and the desires behind industrial-era utopia. They represent
Pierre Bismuth
some of the early historical grounds of the emancipatory projects of the 20th century, the heritage of which still outlines the limits of our political imagination today.
One of the strongest images produced by early utopias was the future as a world of plenty, where poverty will be eradicated and everybody will have access to a better living. Another aspect of the utopian future was defined by the desire to free the workers from their modern slavery in the factory and to assure free time for all.
Unencumbered by the ideological constructions of latter days utopian projects, clearer than anything else today, these texts point to the fact that contemporary capitalism appears to have achieved utopia. Abundance and excess of food and all kinds of products for consumption, mortgages and loans, leisure time and entertainment – all dreams of the past have become reality.
It is clear that this fulfillment of utopia in the West has become possible also through exporting labor exploitation and inequality beyond the boundaries of the western world. However it seems no longer sufficient to show the limits of capitalism in the instances and spaces where it fails. The logic of growth and prosperity that continues to be deployed against the much deeper lessons of the crisis today, suggests that it has become more important to formulate a critique of the success and affluence of contemporary society, than one of its injustices and failures.