As Vallelly points out, the most obvious tension in Bentham’s utilitarianism is between its individualism and concern with “a form of wellbeing that extends beyond the individual. Utilitarianism, after all, intends to maximise utility for the greatest amount of people, with, theoretically, no individual’s happiness prioritized over another’s.” Put another way, if it is psychologically true that each individual is egoistically motivated by the pursuit of pleasure for herself, how do we move from there to a moral argument that she should put her desires aside if that would secure greater happiness for others? Futilitarianism is a neologism that comprises an argument. In the historical development of utilitarianism and capitalism, Vallelly argues, the principle of utility maximization became entwined with capital accumulation. With the emergence of neoliberal capitalism, however, the logic of utility flipped into one of futility. From the onset of neoliberalism to its contemporary mutations, Vallelly suggests, "existential futility is the logical outcome of the historical relationship between utilitarianism and capitalism" (51). By focusing on futility rather than nihilism, the theory of futilitarianism extrapolates not only the experience of meaninglessness that comes with neoliberalism, but the construction of that meaninglessness in contemporary social and political practices. Futilitarianism brings the futility of everyday life in the neoliberal period to the fore, with the hope of generating ideas of how to counter meaninglessness that do not end up in nihilism. Nihilism is an end-in-itself; an increased awareness and understanding of futility can be the starting point of something meaningful. Vallelly’s main thesis is that under neoliberal capitalism the individual pursuit of utility is totally severed from the common good and that individual utility has morphed into a widespread futility. The way in which futility permeates neoliberal capitalism is understood as fairly novel: previous variants of capitalism were exploitative and destructive, but some residual logic of utility remained intact. Though Keynesian capitalism was centred on a collective utility, Hayek prioritized the utility maximization of the individual. For Keynes, capitalism was a Faustian bargain, a flawed system he believed would deliver future progress and that would one day liberate humanity from toil. Why Keynes’ prophecy failed to materialize, i.e., why improved technology has failed to reduce working hours, continues to be a hot topic of debate. Whilst reading Vallelly (particularly alongside the late David Graeber for an exposition of neoliberal work) may not fully solve the question in its entirety, his contribution provides a compelling intervention to the debate with his notion of futility and the claims it is entangled with. Put simply, futility arises because the pursuit of individual utility ignores the common good, and without the principle of the greatest happiness for the greatest number, utilitarianism ultimately becomes futile since we cannot avoid the fact that none of us exist outside our relationships to others. We are inherently connected to the world and to the rest of humanity; our wellbeing depends on the wellbeing of others. Instead of attempting to spread the greatest happiness to the greatest number, neoliberal capitalism seems to spread the greatest unhappiness to us all. ROAR is published by the Foundation for Autonomous Media and Research, an independent non-profit organization registered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. All editors and board members are volunteers. This allows us to spend all income from our Patreon account on sustaining and expanding our publishing project. Once we have paid for basic running costs like web hosting, the remaining proceeds will be invested in high-quality content and illustrations for future issues.

Yet futility has rarely featured in any comprehensive way in the study of capitalism. Perhaps this is because futility appears to be a side-effect of capitalist production and its social relations, something that is not intrinsic to the functionality of capitalism. I argue, on the contrary, that the concept of futility deserves more attention in critical examinations of capitalism, especially because futility is central to the development, implementation and longevity of neoliberal capitalism in the early 21st century. The genesis of the futilitarian condition emerged precisely at the point where utility became sanctified under capitalism, because at that moment, the possibility of futilitarianism also came into existence. Under the conditions of capitalism, the greatest happiness principle cannot be realized, or, at least, only a perverted version of it can exist. The working class have always carried the burden of the labor of utility maximization — of producing the things that are useful and, ultimately, the money associated with utility. The university is not the only example of the logic of the futilitarian condition. In fact, neoliberal capitalism seems to work better when many of our actions are rendered futile, not only because we are incapable of challenging its hegemony, but also because in our desperation to maximize utility to improve our individual social and economic conditions, we simultaneously internalize the rationalities of self-sufficiency, personal responsibility and competition that dismantle social solidarities. Drawing on a vast array of contemporary examples, from self-help literature and marketing jargon to political speeches and governmental responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, Vallelly coins several terms—including “the futilitarian condition,” “homo futilitus,” and “semio-futility”—to demonstrate that in the neoliberal decades, the practice of utility maximization traps us in useless and repetitive behaviors that foreclose the possibility of collective happiness. MIT Press Direct is a distinctive collection of influential MIT Press books curated for scholars and libraries worldwide.A proposal for countering the futility of neoliberal existence to build an egalitarian, sustainable, and hopeful future.

Futility is not just a natural consequence of neoliberal capitalism. The futility that pervades contemporary society is also implanted by politicians and media elites who promote the idea that little, if anything, can be done to aim towards the common good, a notion examined by Vallely in the fifth chapter. Austerity has no sound economic basis. It extends recession by further contracting the economy. But with some media spin, the blame for financial crises can be shifted onto those least responsible who suffer the consequences of austerity the most, claiming it is ‘the only fair response’ (152). Through utilitarian tools such as cost-benefit analysis neoliberals can attempt to use the cheapest means to keep a system just about functioning. This financialization of public services cuts hospitals, care work, welfare and education to the bare bone, leaving it unable to cope when a crisis like Covid-19 hits. Even during the pandemic, the costs to the economy are weighed up against the benefit of saving human lives. If maximizing utility leads to the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people, as utilitarianism has always proposed, then why is it that as many of us currently maximize our utility—by working endlessly, undertaking further education and training, relentlessly marketing and selling ourselves—we are met with the steady worsening of collective social and economic conditions? In Futilitarianism, social and political theorist Neil Vallelly eloquently tells the story of how neoliberalism transformed the relationship between utility maximization and the common good. But as Vallelly points out, it was not to last.“The neoliberals won the long game,” he writes. “The economic stagnation and political crises of 1970s crippled Keynesian logic. In its place, [Friedrich] Hayek and the neoliberal cabal of the Chicago School of Economics chewed the ear of sympathetic politicians in the US, UK, and further afield.” Neoliberal FutilitarianismNeil Vallely’s “Futilitarianism: Neoliberalism and the Production of Uselessness,” is out now from Goldsmiths Press. Wendy Brown, author of In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Antidemocratic Politics in the West MIT Press began publishing journals in 1970 with the first volumes of Linguistic Inquiry and the Journal of Interdisciplinary History. Today we publish over 30 titles in the arts and humanities, social sciences, and science and technology.

If maximising utility leads to the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people, as utilitarianism has always proposed, then why is it that as many of us currently maximise our utility—by working endlessly, undertaking further education and training, relentlessly marketing and selling ourselves—we are met with the steady worsening of collective social and economic conditions? In Futilitarianism: neoliberalism and the production of uselessness, social and political theorist Neil Vallelly (University of Otago) tells the story of how neoliberalism transformed the relationship between utility and the common good. The book at once maps the historical relationship between utilitarianism and capitalism, develops an original framework for understanding neoliberalism, and recounts the lived experience of uselessness in the early twenty-first century. In doing so, it shows that countering the futility of neoliberal existence is essential to building an egalitarian, sustainable, and hopeful future. Jeremy Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (first published 1789; Dover Publications, 2007) The rest of the book explores how the logic of futilitarianism and the futilitarian condition manifest themselves in everyday life in the twenty-first century by focusing on several examples of the ways individuals are encouraged, or even forced, to maximise utility. Chapters examine the relationship between human capital theory and the rise of self-branding as a form of utility maximisation; the rhetoric of personal responsibility and the escalation of both precarity and, to quote the late David Graeber, “bullshit jobs”; the relationship between social media, language production, and anxiety; the depoliticising effects of futilitarianism, especially for the Left; and, finally, the crisis of utilitarian thinking in the grim reality of the COVID-19 pandemic, where cost-benefit calculations had to contend directly with quantifying acceptable numbers of deaths. The utilitarian fantasy of a world of utility-maximizers, rationally pursuing the accumulation of money and contributing to a secure and healthy common good, has predictably not materialized. Instead, especially with the neoliberal mutation of capitalism, a society of atomistic individuals has emerged, who view utility maximization as a competitive endeavor, one that attempts to alleviate any responsibility towards the common good. The practice of utility maximization, far from pushing us towards a more egalitarian society, has ultimately trapped us in a destructive relationship with capital. The Futilitarian Condition What Vallelly achieves here is a remarkable new theoretical insight into why… utilitarianism under neoliberal capitalism must mutate into futilitarianism. A thoroughly welcome, timely and profound intervention.”

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Neil Vallelly's analysis of our neoliberal predicament is at once historically informed, politically sophisticated, and close to our everyday experience. The book documents the ways that business and political leaders have increasingly offloaded responsibility for social ills onto individuals and shows that the constant exhortations to build up our human capital, to network, to self-brand, self-start, and self-actualize serve only to make us feel useless, anxious, and alone. With the term 'futilitarianism,' Vallelly has coined a witty new entry for our critical lexicon and pointed the way to new forms of solidarity that can overcome our individualized futility.