Event Highlights: In the European Night with Franco “Bifo” Berardi
Organized as part of EU Futures – a series of conversations exploring the emerging future in Europe – The Center for the Study of Europe at Boston University hosted a lecture by cultural agitator, media activist and transdisciplinary philosopher Franco “Bifo” Berardi. Berardi is an Italian Marxist theorist and activist in the autonomist tradition. His work mainly focuses on the role of the media and information technology within post-industrial capitalism. One of the founders of the notorious Radio Alice, a pirate radio station that became the voice of the autonomous youth movement of Bologna in the late 1970s, Bifo is the author of multiple works of political theory, including, among others, And: Phenomenology of the End, (Semiotext(e), 2015), Heroes: Mass Murder and Suicide (Verso, 2014), The Uprising: On Poetry and Finance (Semiotext(e), 2012), After the Future (AK Press, 2011), and The Soul at Work (Semiotext(e), 2010).
The event began with an introduction by Boston University’s very own Dr. Vivien Schmidt, who welcomed Berardi and presented the moderator, Nicholas Knouf, an Assistant Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at Wellesley College. Knouf began by discussing the significance of Berardi’s influence in Bologna in the late 1970s on Radio Alice given his deep understanding of the “power of languages, of signs, of semiotics.” Knouf continued by highlighting some of the major events in Berardi’s career, highlighting his nuanced thinking and evolving relationship with advancing forms of media. Briefly outlining Berardi’s analytical approach to the financialization of language, Knouf emphasized Berardi’s belief that the power of poetry, art, and media act as counterbalances to microfascisms in modern capitalism, before finally introducing the Italian thinker.
Berardi began by describing what he explained as the “two different brains” of human experience. One is the realistic brain, focused on examining the probable future. The other is dedicated to the imagination, or, as Berardi stresses, “the possible.” He admits that, at a theoretical or existential level, it is virtually impossible to distinguish these two interpretations of life, emphasizing how humans should not mistake reality and probability with the “entire spectrum of possibilities” as “the possible is much more wide than the probable.” Berardi continues by describing his concept of “futureability,” a term he designates as the “layers of possibilities.” Bifo explained how assuming the probable future limits the entire scope of potential citizens will face in the decades to come, and that for citizens to escape the present condition they must conscious react to contemporary tendencies and imagine an alternative narrative for their futures. Berardi tied this conceptual observation to current day events, by first quoting the former President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, “I am not resigned. I am obliged to certify a progressive weakening of the EU. Not only because of the Brexit but because of the lack of any common sentiment or any common policy.” Berardi then read aloud statements made by French President François Hollande on the same day: “We are totally going to dismantle the Jungle… we don’t want France to become a territory of refugees.” Bifo began emotionally describing his own experiences as a refugee in France, and criticized the “irresponsible and ignorant” French President, in addition to condemning the Swiss Referendum banning Lombardian workers under the motto ‘Switzerland 1st”. As all three of these events occurred on the same day, Berardi cited the significance of these simultaneous announcements as evidence of a darkness falling upon Europe.
Berardi continued the discussion by explaining the darkness experienced globally in 2016, specifically stating that “The European Union is a nonexistent thing… after the massive wave of migration from MENA, you know that the reaction of some of the Euro countries…that reaction has been totally breaking the very idea of Union.” After briefly addressing the resistance of Eastern European countries and the conundrum of Brexit, Berardi boldly announced “we can say the EU is a dead man walking – it is a zombie.” He then explained the fallout resulting from the 2005 Constitutional Referendum aimed at liberalizing the labor market. Claiming, “the EU does not exist except when it comes to paying the debt, except when it comes to rescuing the banks, the banking systems,” Berardi explained how the attempt to strengthen the political unification of Europe and the financial crisis resulted in the working class being forgotten by European elites. The result, Berardi argued, is the contemporary rise of extremist political groups (such as La Front National in France) who run on nationalistic platforms rooted in resentment and fear. Examining the interplay between the financial devastation in Europe and the political environment, Berardi criticized the effectiveness of the establish system, stating “democracy is unable to grasp the abstract sphere of governance – financial governance.”
Addressing the global uncertainty surrounding the question, ‘What is governance?’ Berardi broadly defined the term as the “political will able to transform, decide, control reality.” He explained how human’s inability to fully understand complex topics results in a transferal of decision making power from the political will to technical linguistics which support what Berardi refers to as the “financial machine.” He then criticized the “autopilot” of the European economy, and began discussing the rise of extremism in the social unconscious against rational and democratic in favor of “social nationalism – a social origin of new, aggressive nationalism which is growing everywhere in Europe.” Berardi turned to a discussion of the perspective of the Spanish population on the governance system in their country, and then delved into an evaluation of the “general depression of the social life… a real dismantlement of the European culture, of the European citizenship, European ‘belonging.’”
After discussing the global trend of overproduction and the rise of automatization, Berardi emotionally said: “We are witnessing – we are facing the most beautiful, the most interesting, the most prosperous situation ever. We are facing the possibility of reducing the labor time of the 45%. We are facing the possibility of stopping of producing coal steel oil, of over producing… we are facing the possibility of not having to work anymore. This is the good news. But we are mistaking this as frightening, darkening news… We should stop thinking about revolution or reaction about progress or regression… the real problem is that our percept of the world is totally misleading us. We see fear, and misery and unemployment [but] we should see freedom, emancipation, richness.” Berardi explains how accepting the “possible emancipation of human life from slavery of the economy” as a positive concept is essential for society to evolve.
Continuing, Berardi boldly announced to the audience: “What is going to happen in Europe next? I think that Europe is seriously out of the picture. And I don’t even care – I don’t want to think in terms of European union. It’s dead. We have to stop thinking about saving institutions, about saving the form. We have to save the real body of Europe.” From these sentiments, Berardi returned to his earlier comments on balancing perception, highlighting the recognition of the “plurality of possibilities versus the probable future.” Berardi concluded by describing how he wants to join the minority who avoid a trap of identity, and hopes society can avoid a global civil war resulting from rising fascist regimes. He ended with a call to action, claiming that the only force powerful enough to disentangle the potential narrative of a fascist Europe would be the collective action of the conative workers of the world.
The Q&A portion of the event began, as Knouf then rejoined Berardi, and asked the Italian about his statements regarding the current dynamic in Spain between the citizens and their government and about the role of various media platforms influencing activism internationally. Beradi briefly explained the experiment in citizen autonomy in Spain, and then described how media is not entirely good or evil, but it consistently gains power. Knouf and Berardi then discussed techno-linguistic automatization, the programming of the financial machine, and the need for conative workers to sabotage the machine to ensure “a future emancipation from financial dictatorship.” The floor then opened to questions from the audience, which included questions relating to the role democracy will play in the future of Europe. Berardi emotionally discussed the perpetual state of war in the human experience resulting from the precariousness and depression caused by the increasing dependence upon technology, emphatically explaining his hopeful opinion that the “reactivation of pleasure of life is the only way out. It is difficult – hyper-difficult – but not impossible.”
This event takes place as part of a new initiative entitled “Interferences,” a series of events on issues pertinent to democratic politics in the US and Europe. Organized as part of EU Futures, a series of conversations exploring the emerging future in Europe. The EU Futures project is supported by a Getting to Know Europe Grant from the European Commission Delegation in Washington, DC.
– Claire Coffey ’18
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