Vallelly, N. (2021, November). The futilitarian condition. This is Hell! Podcast. Retrieved from https://soundcloud.com/this-is-hell/tih20211130 Vallelly, N. (2020). Counting the cost: COVID-19 and the crisis of utilitarianism. In V. Lyon-Callo, Y. M. Madra, C. Özselçuk, J. Randall, M. Safri, C. Sato & B. W. Shear (Eds.), Pandemic and the crisis of capitalism: A rethinking Marxism dossier. (pp. 215-223). Boston, MA: ReMarx Books. Retrieved from http://rethinkingmarxism.org/Dossier2020 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. His first book, Futilitarianism: Neoliberalism and the Production of Uselessness (2021), examined the historical relationship between capitalism and utilitarianism. It explored, in particular, how the neoliberal mutation of capitalism in the late twentieth century transformed the relationship between utility and the common good, trapping individuals in what he calls “the futilitarian condition,” where they are forced to maximise utility in ways that lead to the worsening of collective social and economic conditions. An Italian translation of the book, under the title Vite Rubate, was published in March 2022.

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. Futilitarianism is one of those strong books which excels in outlining a birds-eye view of society and the world we inhabit. Rather than analysing neoliberalism from one limited vantage point, Vallelly draws together perspectives from different disciplines – sociological, political-economic, psychological and philosophical – to contribute a holistic account to the canon on neoliberalism. Vallelly concludes that the way to overcome futility is through a ‘becoming-common of the futilitariat’ (173). If we recognize that we are all subject to futility, though to unequal degrees, then we can begin to imagine a world in which utility is reclaimed by the people and for the common good. Without imagining a world aiming towards the common good, we will hitherto be trapped in the futilitarian condition. In late 2021, Neil was awarded a two-year Rutherford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship to work on a project on the historical relationship between neoliberalism and migrant incarceration in Aotearoa and beyond. He is also developing several collaborative research projects on topics relating to social reproduction and essential work during the COVID-19 pandemic, the history of migration policy in Aotearoa New Zealand, and the cultural politics of suicide in public. Vallelly, N. (2022, February). Neil Vallelly on precarity, debt, and how to overcome futilitarianism. Postcapitalism podcast. Retrieved from https://postcapitalismpodcast.com/neil-vallelly What we are witnessing is an important inter-generational divide between the old and the young, the baby-boomers and the millennials. The nay-sayers, dissenters and anti-capitalists across the globe are increasingly emerging from the younger generations, the very ones who were born into neoliberalism and have known nothing else.Vallelly, N. (2021, November). Neoliberalism and the production of uselessness: An interview with Neil Vallelly. A World to Win Podcast, from Tribune and Grace Blakeley. Retrieved from https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/11/58-neoliberalism-and-the-production-of-uselessness-an-interview-with-neil-vallelly When Joseph De Maistre described the French Revolutionaries as satanic and destructive, he at least granted them the dignity of making an impact. José Gasset might have been wary of the “revolt of the masses” of mediocre people against the aristocracy, but occasionally expressed admiration for the permanence and sweep of their uprising. Vallelly locates the roots of neoliberalism in the moral and political theory of Utilitarianism, which has long antecedents, but was generally given systematic form by the English polymath Jeremy Bentham in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. 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.

Despite the appeal of this synthesis of utilitarianism and capitalism, it was never uncontroversial. In the twentieth century, Vallelly observes, there was a climatic struggle between socially minded utilitarians, mostly inspired by J. M. Keynes, and the increasingly strident neoliberal economists. For a while, the socially minded utilitarians were successful, and largely justified the creation of extensive welfare states on the grounds that a more even distribution of goods and services would make people happier and prevent needless suffering. Vallelly, N. (2021). Rejecting the existential futility of neoliberal life. ROAR Magazine, (November 2). Retrieved from https://roarmag.org Vallelly, N. (2022, February). Futilitarianism: Neoliberalism and the production of uselessness: An interview with Neil Vallelly. New Books in Education, New Books Network Podcast, hosted by Thomas Discenna. Retrieved from https://newbooksnetwork.com/futilitarianismFutility 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.