Taylor R. Genovese

Within the last decade, there has been a rise in publications—particularly within Western academia—focused on a constellation of techno-theological ideas relating to resurrection, immortality, geo-engineering, and space travel developed in Russia at the turn of the 20th century. These ideas have retroactively been collated and labeled as "Russian Cosmism." While most of these recent studies have been nuanced and critical, many shy away from the glaring appropriation of cosmist ideas by overlapping groups of Silicon Valley capitalists and "neo-reactionary" (NRx) philosophers. Rather than claiming a direct trajectory between Russian theorists in the 20th century to Silicon Valley technologists in the 21st, I instead illustrate how cosmist techno-utopian, futurist, and other-than-human discourse exist as Weberian "elective affinities" within diverse ecologies of the imagination, transmitting a variety of philosophies and political programs throughout trans-temporal, yet philosophically bounded, communities. I dissect how different groups of philosophers and technologists interact(ed) with cosmism—as well as how seemingly disparate communities (re)shape and deterritorialize cosmist political theology in an attempt to legitimize their constructed crypto-fascist imaginaries.

A thorough study of Domenico Losurdo’s discursive projects reveals a distinct, yet implicit, set of methods for analyzing the material conditions of the world around us and for the development of his dialectical lens of "critical communism." In this article, the authors set about to make concrete Losurdo’s methodology by outlining the potential, value, and implications of his method to contemporary political movements, and its use in constructions of historiographical narratives, while still maintaining the integrity of historical materialism. To illustrate this, the authors will be engaging with several of Losurdo’s works—including his texts on liberalism, his critique of Western Marxism, and his broader understanding of class conflict through the "struggle for recognition"—as well as their own analysis of recent Herrenvolk movements within Marxism in the West. This discursive analysis is in service of concretely outlining how Losurdo’s theoretical and methodological contributions to historical materialism can be applied in scholarship and political practice.

Following the provocation put forth by China Miéville in which he proposed the development of an “apophatic Marxism,” this article seeks to advance his suggestion of transmuting Marxism beyond the baggage of its historical experimentation and substantively putting it to work within our present material conditions. In this article, I argue that unlike cataphatic Marxist analyses of the past, the apophatic way is one that is better primed to take seriously the unique plethora of aporias and uncertainties that seem to define the twenty-first century. In particular, I propose that a critical engagement with affects such as melancholy and nostalgia allow us to learn from past political motivations as well as discover and develop liberatory tactics better attuned to the advantages of an intersectional praxis.

By utilizing words, photographs, and motion pictures, this multimodal and multisited project traces a rhizomatic genealogy of Russian Cosmism—a nineteenth century political theology promoting a universal human program for overcoming death, resurrecting ancestors, and traveling through the cosmos—throughout post-Soviet techno-utopian projects and imaginaries. I illustrate how Cosmist techno-utopian, futurist, and other-than-human discourse exist as Weberian “elective affinities” within diverse ecologies of the imagination, transmitting a variety of philosophies and political programs throughout trans-temporal, yet philosophically bounded, communities. With a particular focus on the United States and Ukraine, and taking an apophatic analytical position, I dissect how different groups of philosophers, technologists, and publics interact(ed) with Cosmism, as well as how seemingly disparate communities (re)shape and deterritorialize Cosmist political theology in an attempt to legitimize their constructed political imaginaries.

Appearing for the first time in English, Art and the Working Class is the work of Alexander Bogdanov, a revolutionary polymath and co-founder, with Vladimir Lenin, of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. Bogdanov was a strong proponent of the arts, co-founding the Proletarian Culture (Proletkult) organization to provide political and artistic education to workers. In this book, Bogdanov discusses the origins of art, its class characteristics, and how it might be created within a revolutionary socialist context.

The utterance of morals or morality within a communist space is one that may, in the best of cases, raise a few eyebrows or, in the worst of cases, summon calls for condemnation or accusations of being unscientific. The subject of communist morality is one that is often ignored within the broader revolutionary left, while at the same time—especially within our current insurrectionary moment—beckons to be engaged with. As the hydra of neoliberalism begins its inevitable collapse, throwing capitalism once more into a global crisis—and thusly its imperialist head begins to twist fascistically from the periphery back inward toward the United States and Europe—these categories that before seemed abstract and idealistic suddenly become vivid and tangible. Evil is how these injustices are described—in a non-hyperbolic fashion—by those engaged in the frontlines of revolutionary activity. So why is morality eschewed and denounced in left academic discourse? Are morals solely the provenance of the reactionary right or the dreamy idealist?

In this article, I will be focusing specifically on cryopreservation and two of the American biotechnomedical tenets introduced by Robbie Davis-Floyd and Gloria St. John in their technocratic model of medicine: the “body as machine” and “death as defeat.” These axioms are embraced by both the biotechnomedical establishment as well as the cryopreservation communities when they discuss the future of humankind. In particular, I will be focusing on the political economy of cryopreservation as an embodiment of American neoliberalism—as well as a Durkheimian death ritual—in the twenty-first century. Finally, I will theorize on a future populated by human beings from “the past” and the implications and consequences that may be caused by contemporary humans experiencing a temporal shift from traveling in deep time vis-à-vis cryopreservation.