A Tale of Two Metas: Help DiEM25’s mέta cancel Zuckerberg’s dystopic Meta.
A message from DiEM25 co-founder Yanis Varoufakis.
We already live in meta, or post, capitalist times. New feudal lords are emerging whose digital platforms, with the help of governments they control, have grown not just into monopolistic markets but, instead, into private digital fiefdoms in which you, we, everybody, are their neo-serfs.
This is why last year DiEM25 set up mέta, our Centre for Postcapitalist Civilisation. In our mission statement we explained its purpose:
“We live in postcapitalist times. They may turn out dystopic, utopic or anything in between. Through art and research, argument and poetry, mέta works to break with a dystopic present to imagine the world anew – to grasp our present historical moment so as to help radical progressive movements find a path from the emergent dismal postcapitalism to one worth fighting, and living, for.”
The most prominent of the techno-feudal lords, Mark Zuckerberg, has already told us what he is planning: To turn Facebook into a 3D metaverse into which people move their lives. A digital world in which they play, work and laugh. A world that he owns and in which we are his digital serfs.
Make no mistake: Zuckerberg, Bezos and Co. are hell-bent on doing exactly that which DiEM25’s mέta was created to prevent: To build a techno-feudal dystopia. And, as if to drive his point home, Zuckerberg announced the first step toward creating it – yes, he will call it… Meta.
So, here we are, staring at a fork in the road:
- We can take DiEM25’s mέta road toward a technologically advanced democratised society, leading one day to a Star Trek-like liberal communism. Or,
- We can surrender to Zuckerberg’s Meta, a techno-dystopia that will lead humanity to a Matrix-like nightmare.
This is where you come in.
To help us help you walk DiEM25’s mέta path, rather than be sucked into Zuckerberg’s META, here are some simple steps you can take:
- Join DiEM25, along with Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Slavoj Zizek, Caroline Lucas and tens of thousands of activists and progressive thinkers.
- Contribute to DiEM25, remembering the zillions Zuckerberg is investing in his dystopia. While we do not need zillions to counter his Meta dystopia, we do need your financial contribution. So, please donate!
It’s DiEM25’s mέta or Zuckerberg’s Meta. Let’s seize the day, or Carpe DiEM. For if you, we, don’t, Zuckerberg certainly will!
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