Cav's Place

Some parts from the beginning are good enough, spelling out that Capitalism needs to be replaced urgently and not by going back to other failed systems like Socialism, but by coming up with a new one, making full use of humanity’s level of development, technology and knowledge. However, anyone looking for a vision of a Postcapitalist system and the steps to get there will need to wait until the tenth and final chapter. Or, all right, it can be said that chapter eight includes some good ideas from the past that got lost along the way and at the end of it the author finally, albeit vaguely, gets to what should actually happen, before moving on to some more reasons why the system needs to change in chapter nine.
In between, the book is firmly focused on the past, at best being somewhat interesting from a historical perspective. The pattern is usually to correctly but pointlessly refute some flawed theories from the past before switching to an awfully optimistic view of some current developments, the author occasionally admitting that the change will need to be planned but usually falling into the same trap of wishful thinking as those he points out were so wrong before, being too quick to dismiss the system’s capacity to defend itself and, mainly, having a far too good opinion of the general public, supposedly fighting a small elite that actively works towards causing great harm for their personal gain, when the problems are at all levels of society, if not even worse when it comes to “the people”, as Pratchett was pointing out. In addition, the level of anthropocentrism is terrifying and, while they tend to go in the right direction, even some of the general end goals of that vision of a Postcapitalist system don’t quite go far enough and, either way, the provided details paint a picture of a world that’s halfway there at best, still too anchored in the current system, even presenting some awful aspects as desirable, and maintaining the unfounded belief that most people will just make the right choices.

Rating: 2/5