Walking Away from Capitalism

How will we get to “After Capitalism?” Perhaps we’ll simply walk away? That’s the idea of Cory Doctorow’s excellent and aptly-titled novel Walkaway. But let’s be clear, he hardly envisions walking away as simple! It’s a tale of the emergence and clash between two worlds, those seeking to build a post-scarcity society by in effect dropping out from the “default” world of massive inequality largely run by super-rich “zottas.” There is little pretense of fairness left in the default world. The zottas make no apologies for having won the capitalist game. Those who don’t add value are seen and treated as surplus. Those with a conscience see no way to reform the default, and go into self-imposed exile and work on building a new society alongside the old. Given our focus on After Capitalism, I’ll highlight what I see as the key intersections with our three images of tech-led abundance, non-workers paradise, and sustainable commons.

There is a lot of the accelerating technologies of abundance. In the early part of the story, there is a description of how technology can be used to scrounge discarded materials and structures to build a new. Later there is the singularity-ish story of downloading human consciousness into the net as a backup to the death of the physical body, and by the end, we’ve figured out how to put the net consciousness back into physical bodies. For me at least, it doesn’t create a picture of a high-tech world, but a world in which very sophisticated technology is in the background of the physical world.

The Nonworkers Paradise is described in the walkaway society, in which people contribute to the common good because they want to. There is a strong message that a new meritocracy in the form of a reputation economy will not work, as it simply re-creates the old capitalism work that uses reputation instead of money as the scorecard. While it is a struggle at time to avoid score-keeping, the walkways are largely able to accomplish it. In my mind, this is describing the transition from a modern to a postmodern/integral worldview. In the modern world view, centered on achievement and competition, there needs to be some form of score-keeping. In the postmodern/integral alternative, scorekeeping is shunned. The story described the struggle of trying to build a society which contributes what they can without the explicit or implicit expectation of reward.

The Sustainable Commons is perhaps the least developed of the three images, but nonetheless is there. Everything is held in common. There are very few private possessions, essentially the clothes on one’s back. The transition of getting used to not possessing stuff is illustrated in a scene where newbie walkways have their backpacks “stolen” and they learn to accept that there is enough stuff in common to fill the void. The walkaway society emerges under the radar by claiming abandoned areas and using technologies to re-purpose material no longer in use. The story might have ended happily ever after there, but the discovery of downloading consciousness by technically sophisticated walkways gets the attention of the zottas running the default world, who then seek to assert their control. A long period of struggle ensues and it is suggested that gradually more and more people of the default world join the walkways.

There is much more in this wonderful book. It deals with some pretty deep existential themes by artfully weaving them into an exciting adventure story. Any fan of After Capitalism (and non-fans as well) should thoroughly enjoy this book. A shoutout to colleague Tim Morgan for recommending that this book cut the queue to the top of our reading piles…thanks Tim. – Andy Hines