Yanis Varoufakis: Welcome to the age of technofeudalism

UnHerd's Freddie Sayers sits down with former Greek Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis.

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// TIMECODES //

00:00 - 00:40 - Introduction
00:40 - 08:50 - Yanis Varoufakis explains why he believes our freedom is under attack
08:50 - 18:15 - What is technofeudalism?
18:15 - 29:52 - Varoufakis explains his take on globalisation
29:52 - 30:33 - Why the UK should not be debating immigration
30:33 - 36:03 - Varoufakis tells us what his final take is
36:03 - 36:23 - Concluding thoughts

#UnHerd #YanisVaroufakis #Technofeudalism

[mustafa]

This man touched on the most fundamental danger of our time. Monopolization of data puts too much power in the hands of disconnected technocrats.

[ramblerandy]

His explanation of Internationalism v globalism/globalisation is brilliant in its simplicity. I'm an internationalist and I'm often accused of being a globalist. And in the moment I have not been able to explain the essential difference, even though I know it at heart. Now it will be easier. Thank you Yanis.

[monikasmith]

Such a wonderfully calm, wise, voice of reason ❤Thank you Yanis🙏

[RealBigVideos]

For those who are curious, the video game company he referenced working for is Valve, the creator of Steam, Counter-strike, Half-life, etc.

[tekannon]

At 15:15, Yanis says "The capitalists are now vassals to the techno-feudal lords, the people who own the cloud capital." All of us should realize a new form of commerce is upon us.

[wojciechcieslukowski]

I love the final message. No safe places, no trenches, no bunkers to hide away with ones views. Get out into an open field and discuss. Talking to a person with same opinions is boring and waste of time. Thanks to Freddie and Yanis for giving an example.

[msolomonii]

I've been calling it neo-feudal corporate-fascism for years, glad the TRUTH is getting out there and at-least being talked about.

[Seremothgr]

The return to feudalism is apparent. It's not only about Cloud. Besides Big Tech, essential service providing monopolies, that rent ownership, are more prevalent than ever and keep getting more powerful (e.g. even real estate is turning into a service via large corporations investing in it). A monopoly controlling services, especially essential ones, is a terrible thing for obvious reasons and is nothing like the traditional market concept of capitalism.
As for immigration, I kind of agree, but at the same time issues about the proper acculturation of immigrants exist and must be addressed.

[harrybarry]

This is quite profound. I’ve always considered the digital landscape as virtual real estate where land is both created and owned. But it goes even beyond that. Not only do the digital tenants pay “rent”, they themselves also become a commodity (user data), which is the true source of wealth for the tech giants. It doesn’t just produce revenue, it also produces power.

[marilynmesange]

Interesting conversation! Yanis has a profound intellect, knowledge and elevated perspective. I’m buying his book today .

[LittleOrla]

I've read too much science fiction in my 77 years. I know where this is going.

[PossibleBat]

Greeks once again, blessing us with their knowledge. Why do we continue to repeat the same mistakes over and over?

[Emil-uwpk]

the problem in his proposal is that he assumes everyone is qualified to take good decisions, giving everyone no matter their qualifications the same power of decision will just make a mess where you have to convince everyone to support your idea. In the end, not the best ideas will pass, but the most popular.

[odettegibbs]

Ok, just to emphasize how Panopticon-like technology is now. I saw Yanis' book, 'Technofeudalism' in the bookstore yesterday for the first time. It was one of the only books in the store I mentally decided I would probably purchase later. I didn't google it. I didn't take a photo. I didn't speak to anyone about it. I had never heard of this book before. All I did was make a mental note. Now I open YouTube, and this podcast on Yanis' 'Technofeudalism' is at the top of my feed.

[PFJung]

I saw a clip of from this interview in which Yanis claimed *"borders are the sign of a failure of the human species."*

So while I am coming into this highly skeptical, I will try listen to him with an open mind.

*EDIT:* While I certainly agree with Yanis's assessment of "techno feudalism" as the best description of our current economic situation, I think his ideas on immigration and borders remain deeply misguided.

As a Marxist, Yanis seems to view the question of immigration as purely a question of economics, which perhaps causes him to underestimate the degree to which fundamental cultural differences can be irreconcilable. He seems to have a similar view to that of old-school liberals who believed that the economic liberalization of China would lead to an embrace of democratic cultural norms, when quite the opposite has occurred.

I would be very curious to understand Yanis's views on religion and culture, and if he subscribes to the Marxist belief that those are manifestations of the material conditions of a given society rather than something deeper and more psychological.

[lawrenceplatzky]

He’s absolutely right in explaining iCloud feudalism, deep and challenging analysis. As regards the rest, one of the most dangerous provocateurs second only to Yval Noah Harari

[peterjones]

Always a pleasure to hear Yanis expounding his ideas and robustly defend left wing idealism

[silotx]

Techno Feudalism is real and every huge conglomerate is trying to build a huge platform so it can rent cloud space to small businesses that become their pawns.

Amazon does that with sellers, Aliexpress, Temu do the Same, Food Delivery companies do the same with restaurants, Microsoft does the same on many fronts like windows, xbox game pass, Meta does it with their marketplaces in Facebook and Instagram and now the Metaverse, Valve with Steam etc.

They all want a giant eplatform that does nearly 0 work apart from the initial build up and gathering people, business and then just makes money off small business.

[somejimmydude]

Interested in how this fellow feels about borders for Israel

[louisgottlieb]

Thank you ! It has been a long time that a new interesting idea was developed. Yanis seems to have thought deeply about the world mechanisms.