Obituary for the anthropologist and Occupy thought leader David Graeber

Icon: enlarge

David Graeber (1961-2020)

Photo: Micha Theiner / intertopics / eyevine / ddp images

One day he would be washed by robots, fly to school and beam him anywhere in the world - David Graeber, born in 1961, was a child of the space era and secretly an optimist: If we only think wild enough and act decisively enough, then we will real progress will still result from the whole screwed-up capitalism.

Graeber, who has now died at the age of 59, was not only an ethnologist and academic, he was also an activist who particularly enlivened and inspired the Occupy movement.

The movement's slogan is said to come from him: "We are the 99 percent"

His thoughts were less radical left than classic anarchist: Why, he asked, do we lose more and more time entering passwords, updating software and filling out forms?

Why do science and business get lost in pure self-employment?

Despite all the criticism of the existing conditions, his books put people in a good mood because they opened a horizon of thought.

Why do we waste our time doing pointless activities when we can improve life?

That was the underlying question of his work.

Of course he was in favor of redistribution and a whole bunch of things from the classic left catalog, but his motive was liberal in the classic sense.

The earth's resources and human effort should be used for festive, spectacular goals, and not for sitting around in seminars on seminar leadership.

He coined the expression "bullshit jobs", whose low relevance should be compensated by all the more fervent commitments to the company - a widespread phenomenon especially in digital capitalism.

He not only invoked freedom, he also showed how to use it in thinking, especially in his great book on debt.

In Germany in particular, it is still a shameful topic, both privately and politically.

Graeber reinterpreted the topic: Debts are by no means an identification of bad economic activity or bad life in general, rather they are the engine and medium of economic life, bookkeeping, thus of writing and our culture in general: Debts, according to Graeber, are economic spirits, and those who pay homage to the "black zero" promote boredom and technical and cultural stagnation.

In contrast to other theorists of the left, such as the economist Thomas Piketty, Graeber was never predictable.

Piketty can be woken up at night - his answer to any question is taxing the rich;

and that can also be a good thing.

But Graeber came with different observations and thoughts, found the way from a description of the stupid digital everyday office life to an accusation of the course of history in general.

He was not interested in an academic career of the classic type, his contract at Yale was terminated and he moved to London.

He traveled a lot and also campaigned for the Kurds.

David Graeber died in Venice on September 2nd.

Icon: The mirror