@maxhaiven.bsky.social
Propagandist for an impossible country. Two letters away from a tax haven. Canada Research Chair in the Radical Imagination. Views are probably some else's because that's how ideology works.
@maxhaiven.bsky.socialGood news, the book is free!
@upstreampodcast.bsky.socialReposted by @maxhaiven.bsky.socialNEW EP @maxhaiven.bsky.social joins us for a conversation on how the gamification of US society has led to a new form of 21st-century fascism that has transformed us all into players in an exhausting and unwinnable game
@maxhaiven.bsky.socialHope and hype spring eternal...
@maxhaiven.bsky.socialYup, that's the big scam indeed.
@maxhaiven.bsky.socialThe book, "The Player and the Played: From Gamed Capitalism to Twenty-First Century Fascism," is now available for free from MIT Press.
direct.mit.edu/books/oa-mon...
@maxhaiven.bsky.socialMeanwhile hucksters, scam artists, and grifters promise to sell us the "cheat codes" to win.
@maxhaiven.bsky.socialMigrants who are said to be cheating the border; Benefits and welfare claimants who are cheating society of its wealth; Environmentalists who are cheating the nation of its prosperity; Women and minorities who are cheating men out of their entitlements and gaming the capitalist meritocracy... etc
@maxhaiven.bsky.socialFascist ideologues and politicians harness and harvest our anger: the cheated player, as the archetype of our age, can be easily convinced to redirect its vitriol downward on socioeconomic and racial hierarchies towards what I call "cheating others"...
@maxhaiven.bsky.socialBut if we are all players now, most of us play to lose. The system is obviously and irredeemably rigged against us in a million small and large ways. The very platforms we use to compete are like casinos: the house always wins.
@maxhaiven.bsky.socialHence our attraction to cinematic spectacles like The Hunger Games or Squid Game, which represent sympathetic characters caught up in an unwinnable and unescapable game.
@maxhaiven.bsky.socialThink of the way that education, housing, dating, or fitness have all been recast as personal investments for future payoff. Everyone's got to hustle these days. Become an influencer; Become an entrepreneur; Flip houses; Invest in crypto; Snag a husband; Drive Uber; rent a room on AirBNB...
@maxhaiven.bsky.socialTHE CHEATED PLAYER: The core of the argument in my new book is fairly simple. Over the last 50 years of neoliberal financialized capitalism, individuals have been tasked with recasting ourselves as competitive speculative players, striving to make the most judicious investments in a merciless game.
@upstreampodcast.bsky.socialReposted by @maxhaiven.bsky.socialNEXT WEEK: gamified capitalism and 21st century fascism w/ @maxhaiven.bsky.social
@bsa-asmr.bsky.socialReposted by @maxhaiven.bsky.socialBillionaires & Guillotines Game Night with Max Haiven
Join us to play Billionaires & Guillotines with the designer of the game, @maxhaiven.bsky.social!
21 Oct, Pelican House. Doors open at 6pm, game starts at 6:30pm. Free & open to all. Places are limited, please register: tinyurl.com/24m74w8e
@maxhaiven.bsky.socialAn incredible privilege and joy to edit the Vagabond series for @plutopress.bsky.social since 2020.
Like the itinerant souls after whom the series is named, each book is a sweet tempestuous experiment in freedom.
All are right now on sale until September 30th.
www.plutobooks.com/product-cate...
@maxhaiven.bsky.socialListen here newbooksnetwork.com/the-player-a...
@maxhaiven.bsky.socialFascism is back and it's fun. The cheated players of gamed capitalism want revenge. The antifascist game is about more than slaying Nazis.
It's a podcast interview with the @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social about my book The Player and the Played (now available open-access from @mitpress.bsky.social )
@maxhaiven.bsky.socialTomorrow I will be presenting my book "The player and the played: from game capitalism to 21st-century fascism" at my university. Even if, for some mysterious reason, you don't happen to be in Thunder Bay, Ontario, you can tune in online. 1pm EST. tinyurl.com/lu-played
@maxhaiven.bsky.socialBut the largest direct theft of labour in modern history is obviously the transatlantic slave trade. Millions died. Civilizations were erased. The consequences remain deadly. It shaped our world, including the very ideas of labour and intelligence and freedom at play in these questions around AI.
@maxhaiven.bsky.social"Cheating and the fascistic public pedagogy of gamed capitalism: Pyramid schemes, sexist advice, misogynist scams and the perfect perfect bastard" published in the Review of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies - doi.org/10.1080/1071...
(I can send you a PDF)
