Quit Everything: Interpreting Depression

by Franco "Bifo" Berardi

Gli ultimi anni hanno rivelato impietosamente tutti i limiti dei sistemi di governance attuale. La pandemia, la guerra in Ucraina, l’aumento dell’inflazione e la probabile carestia a venire hanno reso evidente come la politica possa ormai poco di fronte agli stravolgimenti mondiali. Anche il riscaldamento globale sembra inevitabile, così come lo è la sovrapproduzione di merci nell’economia capitalista.
Nei suoi testi più recenti, il filosofo e agitatore culturale Franco Bifo Berardi si chiedeva cosa fare quando non c’è più niente da fare? Questo libro offre la sola risposta possibile ormai: disertare. Scappare. Nascondersi. Perché quando si fugge non ci si limita a fuggire, ma si trovano complici, affinità, si creano legami, nuove idee e, perché no?, nuove armi con le quali difendersi da un mondo sempre più inumano.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

207 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2023

About the author

Franco "Bifo" Berardi (born 2 November 1948 in Bologna, Italy) is an Italian Marxist theorist and activist in the autonomist tradition, whose work mainly focuses on the role of the media and information technology within post-industrial capitalism. Berardi has written over two dozen published books, as well as a more extensive number of essays and speeches.

Unlike orthodox Marxists, Berardi's autonomist theories draw on psychoanalysis, schizoanalysis and communication theory to show how subjectivity and desire are bound up with the functioning of the capitalism system, rather than portraying events such as the financial crisis of 2008 merely as an example of the inherently contradictory logic of capitalist accumulation. Thus, he argues against privileging labour in critique and says that "the solution to the economic difficulty of the situation cannot be solved with economic means: the solution is not economic." Human emotions and embodied communication becomes increasingly central to the production and consumption patterns that sustain capital flows in post-industrial society, and as such Berardi uses the concepts of "cognitariat" and "info labour" to analyze this psycho-social process. Among Berardi's other concerns are cultural representations and expectations about the future — from proto-Fascist Futurism to post-modern cyberpunk (1993). This represents a greater concern with ideas and cultural expectations than the determinist-materialist expression of a Marxism which is often confined to purely economic or systemic analysis.

(via Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Rian *fire and books* · Rating 1 out of 5]

6% in and this is not what the description indictates. I thought I was in for a little novel analyzing depression in modern day society and we open with “I didn’t know who to side with” re Russia and Ukraine.

Like bro, I came here to know if maybe some of my depression is about the world, not a whole ass philosophical take on Marxism. That’s on me for not catching that but I am not continuing.

[HoneyBunny · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was genuinely intrigued by Quit Everything by Franco Berardi, but ultimately, I found this book frustrating and ended up not finishing it. From the opening pages, Berardi makes a bold, provocative start by sharing that he felt unsure about who to support in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict—a choice between the invader and the invaded. Right away, it becomes obvious that this book is designed to stir up controversy for the sake of attention, not insight.

In reality, this book barely contains any of what’s promised in the description. While it claims to address the struggles of current youth, especially their experiences with depression, this theme is only thinly touched upon. Instead, Quit Everything feels more like an exercise in stroking the author’s ego, with pages weighed down by philosophical jargon, dramatic language, and a “devil’s advocate” stance that serves little purpose other than to provoke.

Berardi’s approach feels self-important, overblown, and, ultimately, insubstantial. Instead of exploring meaningful dialogue, the book veers toward theatrics and grandiosity, with little engagement with the core issues it claims to examine. Some readers may find this style stimulating, but I found it exhausting and frustrating, with any real content drowned out by excessive philosophizing. While most of the time I thoroughly enjoy books that discuss current political or societal/sociological situations, this book wasn’t for me. And I imagine it will appeal most to those looking for provocation over substance.

[pianogothent · Rating 4 out of 5]

berardi so real for this:

The West is Russia, America, Europe; a world of old men who exorcise dementia with cognitive prostheses and artificial intelligence; of old men who exorcise impotence with proclamations of mutual extermination.

someone commented they stopped reading the book 6% in because of his initial statement on russia and ukraine — if you finish the book he goes on to say (paraphrasing): my gratitude goes out to the russians that deserted the war in order to avoid killing their ukrainian brothers, and ONLY to them.

[Oskar Jonsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has the funniest blurb I've ever seen:
"Berardi, your words are disgusting" - Giorgia Meloni

[draxtor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Page 42/43: "On 11 September 1973, when the fascist forces of General Pinochet overthrew the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende with the backing of many Western liberal democracies, this was the moment [...] Nazism returned to the scene [...] and introduced the automatic logic of economic Nazism, oxymoronically called 'liberalism'. Since then a struggle has been waged for the defense of the human [...] the ethical promise of modernity was a wager on the indefinite suspension of the natural ferocity of human history. We are now forced by the sheer weight of current events to recognize that the rule of Pinochet and Thatcher is irreversible and is leading to the giant holocaust that is already unfolding before our very eyes.”

Nuff said :(

Ok one more:

Page 113: "They say the depressed individual tends to avoid sociality. But what sociality are we speaking of? The sociality of the employment office? The sociality of competition propelled by advertising and Instagram? The military mobilization of existence? Or the defense of our sacred homeland?"

Ok ok oke ONE MORE:

Page 146: "To all those who desert goes my friendship: to those who desert the homeland and war, to those who desert wage labor, to those who desert procreation, to thos who desert political participation [...] For those others who are proud of their bloody nations, both Russians and Ukrainians, both Americans and Italians, I feel only desperate compassion."

I'd add Germany to that last sentence but Berardi was not able to see the Gaza genocide in action ...

This is a dark book, a necessary book. I see hope in it actually: the "re-signation" as he puts it = we can put new signs and new meaning up when we "drop out" so to speak, focusing on care and solidarity!

[Isaac Wade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weird experience, like walking into the wrong lecture at university and then being too awkward to leave.
A solid intro to Italian Autonomism and schizoanalysis with some interesting things to say about the general state of the world circa 2022

[sawyer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to read this book for my writing conscious course. Being in my major, I was expecting some integration of Marx within this book, but this was still not what I expected at all. It took me about 2 months to get through the first 20 pages. When looking at this book and selecting it I was looking forward to discussions about the connection of depression and capitalism. And although this is what I got in a sense, it was too drawn out and took forever to get to the point where I was actually enjoying it. Some discussions were okay, and I could see how an elaboration on them could be interesting, but most of this book i found to be plain boring. I agree with some points that Berardi makes, but most I am just lost. I also feel like we are offered a solution to our problem, but this solution is not attainable, or honestly realistic in any way. There were also so many times where Berardi were just quoting person after person that it was difficult to get his idea or own thoughts on what he was saying. It felt like I was reading a book review of multiple different texts within one book.
Like I said, I agree with the fact that we live within a system that is fueled of wage left and ultimately causes mental health issues-- but I did not need to read a 200 page book about that, I can just continue living my life within that system.
Writing my book review assignment will ultimately be pretty easy as I have much to say about this topic and about Berardi's view on it.
Thankful that this is over, it is a miracle that I got more than halfway.

[Tommaso · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marasma e psicodeflazione in un occidente invecchiato e incattivito, che non vede alternative alla ferocia per affermare la propria presenza nel mondo: a queste condizioni l’unico modo per salvarci è disertare, rassegnarsi. Rassegnarsi però - re-signation - nella semantica di Bito significa re-signare, dare cioè nuovo significato alle cose. Quindi ben venga la resa, gli hikikomori, Donna Haraway che grida GENERATE PARENTELE NON FIGLI, ben venga la grande depressione non patologizzata, la tristezza come segno di umanesimo. La salvezza sta nell’uscire dalla scacchiera, uscire dal gioco al massacro del liberismo.

[Anna Beltrami · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ha risvegliato e solleticato la mia mente, mi ha riempita di energia mentre faceva pian piano a pezzettini il mio cuore.
che dire, una lettura che mi ha trasformata
slay :(

[Francesco Abate · Rating 5 out of 5]

La foto chiara di una società finita che si deve reinventare partendo dalla consapevolezza di essere finita.
Un libro duro, ma indispensabile.

[CityCalmDown · Rating 5 out of 5]

The following is translated from the Franco Berardi's own description of "Quit Everything: Interpreting Depression" from his ILDISERTORE" Substack.

"Desertion is a way to escape the horrors of war, but also a way to escape the horrors of peace.

To desert means to abandon the battle, somehow sneak out of the fray, weasel away from the place where the fight is raging, and flee, before the military police catch you and shoot you in the
back for your cowardice. Desertion is becoming the line of conduct of more and more people in more and more fields of contemporary life.

I praise this behavior. Flight, abandonment, inaction, desertion are the only behaviors that I consider ethically acceptable and strategically rational. Defeatism, sabotage.

When I realized that devastation — of the physical environment, of the soul — has reached a point of no return, when I realized that techno-financial automatisms have disabled democracy and political action itself, I came to the conclusion that desertion is the only ethically sustainable position, and also the only strategically effective behavior.

At that point, the problem of subjectivity appeared in different light.

QUIT EVERYTHING

Is a book about depression.

Depression carries a message, and we should start by recognizing its cognitive value, in order to get free from the effects of isolation, loneliness, and despair, and in order to reactivate the imagination based on the acceptance of depression’s message, not on its denial.

It is the ambiguousness of psycho-deflation that interests me, because this ambiguity can evolve in a manner that does not deny the contents of depression, but turns those contents into collective realizations, tenderness, and relaxation.

From my point of view, the message that we may disentangle from depressive symptoms concerns desertion: desertion from war, desertion from nationalism, but also from the expectation of a better future, a future of expansion, of accumulation. Interpreting depression is a philosophical, psychoanalytic, and political task. In my opinion, it is the main task we have to face today."

https://francoberardi.substack.com/p/...

[Jared Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the core of precaritization: the relation between words and things is no longer based on affective confidence, on bodily sharing, but is reduced to an operational function. This is why people are unable to be friends.

[Pentu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Desertar como resistencia al capitalismo. Sí.

[Giulia Di Bella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Analisi critica della società di oggi che da il giusto spazio a depressione e affini. Un libro durissimo con degli spunti politici interessanti

[CityCalmDown · Rating 5 out of 5]

The following is translated from the Franco Berardi's own description of "Quit Everything: Interpreting Depression" from his ILDISERTORE" Substack.

"Desertion is a way to escape the horrors of war, but also a way to escape the horrors of peace.

To desert means to abandon the battle, somehow sneak out of the fray, weasel away from the place where the fight is raging, and flee, before the military police catch you and shoot you in the
back for your cowardice. Desertion is becoming the line of conduct of more and more people in more and more fields of contemporary life.

I praise this behavior. Flight, abandonment, inaction, desertion are the only behaviors that I consider ethically acceptable and strategically rational. Defeatism, sabotage.

When I realized that devastation — of the physical environment, of the soul — has reached a point of no return, when I realized that techno-financial automatisms have disabled democracy and political action itself, I came to the conclusion that desertion is the only ethically sustainable position, and also the only strategically effective behavior.

At that point, the problem of subjectivity appeared in different light.

QUIT EVERYTHING

Is a book about depression.

Depression carries a message, and we should start by recognizing its cognitive value, in order to get free from the effects of isolation, loneliness, and despair, and in order to reactivate the imagination based on the acceptance of depression’s message, not on its denial.

It is the ambiguousness of psycho-deflation that interests me, because this ambiguity can evolve in a manner that does not deny the contents of depression, but turns those contents into collective realizations, tenderness, and relaxation.

From my point of view, the message that we may disentangle from depressive symptoms concerns desertion: desertion from war, desertion from nationalism, but also from the expectation of a better future, a future of expansion, of accumulation. Interpreting depression is a philosophical, psychoanalytic, and political task. In my opinion, it is the main task we have to face today."

[Kira K · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. This is an interesting approach, depression through ethics and could be helpful alongside therapy depending on the individual and their forms of depression, especially with the current affairs around the world today and the natural impact they must have on some. I also liked having the references at the end of each chapter instead of the end of the whole book.

[David Pagnanelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una infinità di nuovi spunti per letture future. Quadro chiaro degli eventi contemporanei legati all’umiliazione. Ci esorta ad immaginare oltre il limite dell’immaginato.