#book Timeline

The below is an old review, from 2015. I am not sure if I would still say the same about this book. More than ten years later I can safely say that I have often fallen back on some of Graeber's analyses and concepts (e.g. the interpretive labour mentioned below), so there's that.

Original review:

I am a bit on the fence about this bundle. First of all, I hadn't expected it to be a bundle -- I figured that Graeber would provide an integrated critique of bureaucracy, since he seems to have been working on the topic for a while. Of course, essays can be perfect vehicles for the development of new ideas, and The Utopia of Rules< certainly delivers in terms of exploration, but it falls a little short when it comes to substance.

That is not to say there's nothing of interest here: Graeber's style is intact and he explores some very interesting ideas. He argues that bureaucracy is predicated on violence and the power gradients that stem from it and introduces a concept he calls interpretive labour, which is roughly the same as the psychological theory of mind, but is contextualized within class society. The logic that takes him there -- through the anthropological observation that bureaucratic forms are uninteresting and the feminist critique of one-sided empathy -- is fascinating in its complexity.

Another promising idea is that bureaucracy appeals not because it leads to a fair, meritocratic society (it doesn't), but because predictable rules appeal to a society that is suspicious of play. Here Graeber makes use of the distinction between games and play, something that couldn't be pulled off in my native language, but nonetheless makes all the sense in the world to me. He explores the promise that play has to change the world, in an argument that is explicitly based on the Situationists and other ludic, anarchist movements. For Graeber, the dichotomy that is at the core of the left-right divide is that of play versus (violent) order --which is a refreshing thought in an era that is stuck in the Cold War logic of states versus markets -- and clarifies that this is exactly why the Left should resist being tempted by bureaucracy.

It doesn't make sense to summarize the book, so let me stop there. If you are interested in seeing a solid first step towards a critique of bureaucracy that is deeper, more coherent and more productive than the common right-wing one, Graeber's collection is where you should be.I am a bit on the fence about this bundle. First of all, I hadn't expected it to be a bundle -- I figured that Graeber would provide an integrated critique of bureaucracy, since he seems to have been working on the topic for a while. Of course, essays can be perfect vehicles for the development of new ideas, and The Utopia of Rules< certainly delivers in terms of exploration, but it falls a little short when it comes to substance.

That is not to say there's nothing of interest here: Graeber's style is intact and he explores some very interesting ideas. He argues that bureaucracy is predicated on violence and the power gradients that stem from it and introduces a concept he calls interpretive labour, which is roughly the same as the psychological theory of mind, but is contextualized within class society. The logic that takes him there -- through the anthropological observation that bureaucratic forms are uninteresting and the feminist critique of one-sided empathy -- is fascinating in its complexity.

Another promising idea is that bureaucracy appeals not because it leads to a fair, meritocratic society (it doesn't), but because predictable rules appeal to a society that is suspicious of play. Here Graeber makes use of the distinction between games and play, something that couldn't be pulled off in my native language, but nonetheless makes all the sense in the world to me. He explores the promise that play has to change the world, in an argument that is explicitly based on the Situationists and other ludic, anarchist movements. For Graeber, the dichotomy that is at the core of the left-right divide is that of play versus (violent) order --which is a refreshing thought in an era that is stuck in the Cold War logic of states versus markets -- and clarifies that this is exactly why the Left should resist being tempted by bureaucracy.

It doesn't make sense to summarize the book, so let me stop there. If you are interested in seeing a solid first step towards a critique of bureaucracy that is deeper, more coherent and more productive than the common right-wing one, Graeber's collection is where you should be.I am a bit on the fence about this bundle. First of all, I hadn't expected it to be a bundle -- I figured that Graeber would provide an integrated critique of bureaucracy, since he seems to have been working on the topic for a while. Of course, essays can be perfect vehicles for the development of new ideas, and The Utopia of Rules< certainly delivers in terms of exploration, but it falls a little short when it comes to substance.

That is not to say there's nothing of interest here: Graeber's style is intact and he explores some very interesting ideas. He argues that bureaucracy is predicated on violence and the power gradients that stem from it and introduces a concept he calls interpretive labour, which is roughly the same as the psychological theory of mind, but is contextualized within class society. The logic that takes him there -- through the anthropological observation that bureaucratic forms are uninteresting and the feminist critique of one-sided empathy -- is fascinating in its complexity.

Another promising idea is that bureaucracy appeals not because it leads to a fair, meritocratic society (it doesn't), but because predictable rules appeal to a society that is suspicious of play. Here Graeber makes use of the distinction between games and play, something that couldn't be pulled off in my native language, but nonetheless makes all the sense in the world to me. He explores the promise that play has to change the world, in an argument that is explicitly based on the Situationists and other ludic, anarchist movements. For Graeber, the dichotomy that is at the core of the left-right divide is that of play versus (violent) order --which is a refreshing thought in an era that is stuck in the Cold War logic of states versus markets -- and clarifies that this is exactly why the Left should resist being tempted by bureaucracy.

It doesn't make sense to summarize the book, so let me stop there. If you are interested in seeing a solid first step towards a critique of bureaucracy that is deeper, more coherent and more productive than the common right-wing one, Graeber's collection is where you should be.

Edited 38d ago