NOUS N’AVONS ENCORE RIEN VU… ACCÉLÉRATIONNISME ET DÉCÉLÉRATIONNISME À L’HEURE DE L’AUSTÉRITÉ MONDIALE

In this article, I critically discuss Benjamin Noys’ thesis on accelerationism to evaluate the origins of the term and the debate, then I turn to Noys’ arguments about the necessity to retain negativity. While Noys analyses accelerationism as a symptom and ideology of neoliberal capitalism, he reads other moments in the history of thought when accelerationism was also dominant (Italian futurism in the 1920s, New Economic Policy in USSR in the 1920s, Cybernetic Culture in academic discourse in the UK in the 1990s and today’s austerity-inflicted societies). I point out accelerationist discourse largely omits the virtual neofascism that haunts Europe and the United States and question more broadly the place of desire in politics today. The great merit of accelerationists is to have brought the problem of work and alternative social policies to support it (such as basic income) to the centre of political debates and examine the role of singularities and negativity in these new political imaginaries.