David Graeber: All Economies are Ultimately Human Economies (2015)

Speech held at the conference "Challenging Capitalist Modernity II: Dissecting Capitalist Modernity - Building Democratic Confederalism"
3-5 April 2015, Hamburg

[@foodparadise5792]

Too bad I found this man's work after he passed.

[@domeister76]

That guy asking him to slow down repeatedly! haha! Asking Graeber's mind to slow down is like asking an F1 racing car to keep to the speed limit.

[@idlikemoreprivacy9716]

Sounds like envy too. I'm a non native speaker and can follow w/o problems + have time to think about what he says and enjoy the talk.

[@elizabethdesousa8290]

I was feeling irritated that he continued to do that. I found it rude.

[@nathanielroach6559]

I know, right?

[@xyzunodostres]

Graeber: "The more useful your job, the less you get paid. How did that happen?"

[@puppetMattster]

This man can crash on my couch absolutely anytime.

[@anthony9475]

Firstand Last You’re a really weird dude.

[@remypetit1791]

You bet, I'll make sure we never run out of weed

[@ping-annaddo5248]

Great talk. And for the record, I DID read Graeber's "Towards an Anthropological Theory of Value." I cited it in my own work and teach it regularly to students. Great work. DG is a great teacher.

[@TechLive]

Sounds like you're a great teacher as well! Thanks for all your effort!

[@JohnWilson-ng1ui]

i started reading it a while ago and couldn't get through it. This inspired me to pick it back up

[@remypetit1791]

He's an incredibly inspiring scholar, I think I'm gonna start studying anthropology

[@nicetrymate813]

RIP David Graeber. Absolute legend

[@mikeh5399]

"That very isolation, which enslaves us is freedom." That's some George Orwell business right there.

[@suesimmons926]

Monetizing and commodifying everything reminds me of the elaborate system of classification of every kind of possible sin undertaken in the Middle Ages.

[@n1mbusmusic606]

we love you Dave. your the best. RIP

[@uberdru]

Mr. Van Halen, could you please play fewer notes?

[@manondamoon8911]

Or at least slow it down would ya. What a fucken liberty

[@hotelcampina]

Gwyn Williams. What a tragedy his passing. One can only imagine what else he might have produced for our enlightenment. We have all lost a brother, no doubt at all

[@LoisKl]

Truly a huge loss... on so many levels.. He had/has a book coming out hopefully in spring, in collaboration with David Wengrow. A snek peak on the subject can be listened to here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e6e4q5eAiLBnrpo

[@yabyum108]

A revolutionary thinker

[@instituteforexperimentalar7493]

DAVID GRAEBER was a founding member of the Institute for Experimental Arts He did a lecture with the title: How social and economic structure influences the Art World in the Financial Consequences - International MultiMedia Poetry Festival organized by the Institute for Experimental Arts supported by LSE Department of Anthropology. Influential anthropologist David Graeber, known for his 2011 volume Debt: The First 5000 Years speaks about the correlation between the cultural sphere and society. The intellectuals and the artists create an imaginary way to criticize the economic system in any era. Art can overcome hegemonic frameworks and acknowledge other possible worlds, offer us the opportunity to understand better the marginalized social entities. Social exclusion is the process in which individuals or people are systematically blocked from (or denied full access to) various rights, opportunities and resources that are normally available to members of a different group, and which are fundamental to social integration and observance of human rights within that particular group (e.g., housing, employment, healthcare, civic engagement, democratic participation, and due process). As the economic crises go deeper in time more people face the effects of exclusion. Art and social sciences can give voice to the voiceless. Especially young social aware poets can give us a clear view of the real social effect of the financial consequences. - David Graeber You can watch the Lecture here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jXSpXmuFhs9jiKc

[@johnstockwellmajorsmedleyb1214]

Thank You David for your speech, it is at one time Logical, Thoughtful, Entertaining, and Philosophical. I am proud to be and live, and Live Well, as a Libertarian Socialist. Most believe I am just a bit eccentric, but you allow me to show them there are others, in a fun way.

[@petertschann-grimm1468]

Heh I feel for that guy interrupting because Graeber really is brilliant, and he does talk fast... if English isn't your first english, I'm sure it would be hard to understand his points.

[@SamraK64]

I can testify. English is my second language and I think I'm really good at understanding it, but the first time I heard Graeber was one of the most intense intellectual effort I produced ever. Now that I saw a few videos I'm getting used to his way of speaking and I think I get everything, but wow, this first time, hearing him live with no "10 sec backwards" button... I feel for the (I think mostly German) people who are hosting and attending this event

[@adamstheguy1619]

You cant just keep stopping people from talking. It interrupts their thought process and is not polite. Just replay, for God’s sake. Or learn better English.!These days we should have real time robotic translators into any language. I am sure tech is out there.

[@nohisocitutampoc2789]

Definitely the moderator was a impolite gut, there’s no question about it. But, Graeber had a very difficult English. And most part of the word don’t have English as a the first, thanks God.

[@joshismyhandle]

That’s why the bloke who is interrupting should just rewatch the video on KZbin in half the speed if so desired. Interrupting the speaker’s train of thought for the listener to understand in a conference is not only rude, but subtracts from the points able to be made within the allocated window of time to speak.

[@nathanswann1198]

when Graeber goes off script and cuts like a knife, my brain wrinkles.

[@kingmob2615]

God DAMN, that's a good approach to medicine. Thank goodness for that doctor and thank goodness for social ecology. Rest in Power David Graeber, Murray Bookchin, Abdullah Ocalan, and all of the martyrs! ✊🖤🏴🦝🏴🖤

[@TheJoetebb]

ocalan lives on!!!

[@VIsTheMusic]

I absolutely agree with every single thing and living a life devoted to improving the global community one idea at a time. Liberate yourselves from BS in your lives. BS is not acceptable in 2017 + + !!!!!!!!!!

[@scottylilacleona9193]

This helps me understand what my mother believes, that belief of work being valuable in itself. I could bring this up to her sometime.

[@Shiro46AV]

Great vid!

[@robinhoodstfrancis]

Fantastic. I would've liked to make reference to his work in my masters thesis on co-operatives in renewable energy in Europe. I've been appreciating social constructivism/constructionism as a way to support understanding the mainstream neoliberal views and the alternative in civil society organizations like Greenpeace, Oxfam, and the World Conference on Religions for Peace. The co-operative business model, no less, with David Ellerman's new formulation of a Labor Theory of Property is excellent. William Greider wrote an excellent book, The Soul of Capitalism, in which he discusses these things, along with Herman Daly's ecological economics. Fritjof Capra has been using the expression "ecological literacy," some of the foundations of how we make each other, this idea that Graeber talks about so richly.

[@johnstockwellmajorsmedleyb1214]

For sure self reliance creating communities off the grid, diconnect ourselves from the machine in everyway and it will wither and die!!! So simple educate, plan, build, create, walk away from the machine in every way and back to what is really sacred!!!

[@mechabits197]

and paying over the odds for your education...to people who probably didnt....is a sure fire way to boost their economy.

[@pjabtg]

It’s funny I was mad at the guy for telling him to slow down three times, but at the end he was right, David’s too brilliant for his own mouth, when he slows down, we applaud :)

[@voltcorp]

yet, sitting down now with a button to slow down the video, and not having him around anymore to give us his brilliance, it does put into perspective how perhaps he should've been allowed to make the best possible use of his time.

[@robwallace8249]

At 5:35 David mentions that Marx wrote that ancient authors did not write about the conditions that would create the most wealth, but rather the conditions that would create the best people. Can anyone tell me where in Marx's writings that can be found?

[@0empanadas534]

Alguien mas llegó aquí gracias a Migala? :^

[@TarquinFoundump]

tight

[@christflu4221]

13:38-14:20 is the best summarization of the discussions around "reproductive labor" that i've heard. man he really had a way with words sometimes. what a loss. RIP

[@suesimmons926]

Production of people:"This is my work and my glory... to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."

[@FreerMasons]

It sounds like he is discussing Polanyi's embedded systems argument. capitalism embedded in Communism is much different than communism embedded in Capitalism. @29:00

[@tristanreynolds5135]

This reminds me of Baudrillard's book, *The Mirror of Production*. I think Zizek acknowledges this with Marx's work, though he uses some Lacanian maneuvering to make it into a good/neccessary thing.

[@niharnm3671]

Lmp

[@oldreprobate2748]

Money is a social construct, and that social construct is best used to support the needs of all of society. When not there is eventual crime, enemies, wars, and every other I'll that exist within our worldwide human experience.

[@domingo2977]

He serious because he took off the glasses. 🤣🤣😂🤣🤯😱🤔

[@OneEyedMonkey9000]

It’s funny to hear the guy asking David to slow down played at 1.25x speed 😆

[@AudioPervert1]

all love the mac laptop ... Wow!

[@smooa1889]

what

[@njits789]

"David, a little bit slower." What?

[@nicetrymate813]

Can I ask why you have the triskellion as your logo? and why is the triskellion being used in this presentation?

[@jakecarlo9950]

❤️

[@ernststravoblofeld]

I think they had a bet behind the scenes to see if they could get David to do an unwitting Shatner impression.

[@Anarchist_Black_Sheep]

I don't know much about David as a person, but somehow, I think he would have approved of such a bet.

[@funkybunky64]

David mentions this work *Stop creating capitalism". Found it here: www.johnholloway.com.mx/2011/07/30/stop-making-capitalism/ Interesting read!

[@FreerMasons]

@25:15 :)

[@s4njuro462]

That dude interrupting annoyed me enough to stop watching...

[@lemon4472]

The interruption was cuz the live-translators could catch up, but yeah, he could've totally been more chill about it.

[@legalfictionnaturalfact3969]

It's almost like it was intended to annoy and interrupt.

[@PerteTotale]

Interrupting a thought process is disrespect, and untimely i. is a sign of dumbness. (Live) Translators should be ok with this speed, though I give a small handicap: the fast leap from 1 topic to 1a or 2 is where importance of understanding the topic and a broad voca comes in. I understand all this talk at normal speed and English is only my 3th language.

[@anthony9475]

Some languages take longer to speak than others such as sign language. Try and be more sympathetic.

[@FreerMasons]

@17:45 :(

[@dumbnonblonde4840]

David is endlessly cute and he looks so damn young I won't look half as good when I age, love him so much

[@xyzunodostres]

Where is Rogivo?

[@ollipaukkeri]

it's Rojava. In syria

[@suesimmons926]

How can you stand to do all that housework drudgery everyday? Actually what I am doing is raising a family!

[@n1mbusmusic606]

they killed him we have to Stand up for whats right. this isn't okay. this guy was one of the most important people on the planet. absolutely unacceptable.

[@smooa1889]

this dude says um so fucking much everytime he speaks

[@harismichail2]

Just in the vantage point of a viewer. The guy interrupting. What a tool.Just follow the natural rhythm of the person. goddam

[@smooa1889]

um

[@amyjefferis3394]

29:05 "capitalism is just a bad way of organizing communism"😂

[@TheGodlessGuitarist]

I'll bet capitalists choke when they here DG tell them that they invented the notion of 'arbeit macht frei'.

[@alinebaruchi1936]

.

[@xyzunodostres]

31:42

[@markmason8469]

In the future, do not interrupt the speakers demanding that they speak more slowly. This is rude. An insult. If you have a problem with language communications you can hire a translator and hand our headphones. Don't interrupt speakers. Why is it necessary for me to even articulate this request? Don't confuse and distract any speaker with your own personal language problems.

[@SoziologeKS]

this. this damn moderator... and the 5 seconds he spoke slower after that were torture

[@dannyhermetz7201]

Teaching in school settings is primarily abstract and not useful. Teaching on the job as part of some production process which makes something people value is useful.

[@AtlantaBill]

Apparently there are simultaneous translations being done and that's why from time to time the call to slow down. Maybe they should let Graeber spell one of the interpreters for a while and find out how hard it is to put his sentences into another language. Incidentally, it's obvious that Graeber doesn't understand the classic concept of the Labor Theory of Value as found in Marx. If labor produces humans instead of material goods, how do you measure the value of these humans for the marketplace? You have to have material output before you can talk about stored labor power, i.e. Marx's dead labor.

[@kvaka009]

Atlanta Bill maybe the interpreters should make sure to try to do their work as best as they can without throwing off the speaker in his presentation. And I'm sure David knows more about Marx than you ever will. Your comment ignores or simply misunderstands what David said: Marx assumes the labor theory of value because he is engaging in imminent critique, which does not mean he himself believed that the only source of value is labor power. That was the point David explicitly made. Maybe he should've talked slower for you.

[@jedimastersterling1]

Slaves but to whom? If you're socially isolated but you have a baby and a mortgage you effectively become a slave to your work and your creditor. If you're socially isolated, your job sucks, but you don't owe anything to anyone you can pick up and leave any time you feel like it. Who is the slave master for a drifter?

[@luciennoxisou9502]

All the means of subsistence are enclosed for private profit - it is pretty hard to drift away from that hegemony though not entirely impossible if one is committed to squatting on commonly held land somewhere - for many working class people, this is not a real possibility.

[@aliceinwonder8978]

"your job sucks." you answered your own question. you are a slave to your boss, who exploits you for profit and puts you in bad conditions

[@moviereviews1446]

The lip smacking is unbearable.

[@legalfictionnaturalfact3969]

HOW ABOUT RECORD THE TALK AND PLAY IT AT HALF SPEED FOR YOURSELF LATER SO YOU DON'T WASTE EVERYONE ELSE'S TIME SAYING "SLOWER SLOWER PAUSE MORE NEEEE", YOU ENTITLED MANBABY.