Anthropologist David Graber - one of the most influential intellectuals at the beginning of the 21st century died

He criticized the device of modern labor, and his ideas were far from not only scientists

On September 3, the famous American anthropologist, political activist, professor of the London Economic School David Graber died in the Venice Hospital. This was announced by the wife of Graber, the artist Nika Dubrovskaya. He was 59 years old, the cause of death is still unknown. Graber is one of the most noticeable and influential intellectuals at the beginning of the 21st century, and that's why.

David Graber is an outstanding anthropologist, known far beyond the academic environment. In addition to the obvious institutional recognition - at different times, Graber taught at Yale University, the University of Goldsmith and the London School of Economics - Graber wrote several very popular books on how the modern economy and the labor market are arranged - they are easy to find in Russian translation. Here are a couple of names: “Debt: the first 5000 years of history” , “delusional work. A treatise on the prevalence of senseless work, " " utopia of the rules. About technology, stupidity and secret charm of bureaucracy. ”

Graber was engaged in anthropological research both in tribes far from capitalist realism, and in the everyday life of the Western world: he studied the Malagasis in Madagascar and European office workers. The anthropology of Graber questioned the versatility and justice of the current order, in which society cannot function without the supervision of the state, the poor should always be rich and feel guilty for this - but we work more and more, contrary to automation of labor.

Graber argued that most works have no sense - and the “pleasant” work also deserves payment ... In 2020, the book “delusional work was transferred to Russian. A treatise on the prevalence of senseless work ”is close to anyone who spends most of the working day in social networks, not knowing what else to occupy themselves in the office. In this book, Graber is dealing with a problem that is usually bashfully hushed up or discuss only with close friends: why do so many people are engaged in labor, which makes no sense - and most of the working day do nothing at all?

Graber believed that not only the unconditional basic income and reduction of the working week, but also the revision of the moral foundations of capitalism, like the idea that suffering and suffering at work, is right, and those who refuse it, will help to get rid of meaningless work and, lazy loafers refuse it.

... And the market system is not as free and fair as it seems. The book “Debt: the first 5000 years of history” brought the greatest fame to Graber. In it, he explains in detail why debts and the need to give them out with the arrival of centralized authorities, which is interested in establishing maximum control over members of the community.

Graber argues with the popular idea that the market is a free and fair self -regulating system, and the state is its complete opposite. In fact, Graber claims that the institution of debt appeared earlier than the institution of natural exchange - for this bold thesis the book was criticized a lot, which did not prevent her from becoming a bestseller.

Graber was one of the authors of the slogan “We - 99%” (We are the 99%) and the ideologist Occupy Wall Street . Graber, a native of a family of left -wing activists from the working class, adhered to anarchist views both in adolescence and in the last years of his life. He believed that it is possible to reform the economic and political system not only with the help of protests, but also thanks to changes in everyday life, at the same level. His small book “Fragments of anarchist anthropology” describes examples of horizontal organization both in large western cities and in tribal communities, which have not yet encountered modernization.

Natasha Fedorenko