002 The Rise of the Ecofin Altasphere

In NeolibGov, state and capital were deeply interconnected, forming a complex system in which the spheres of government and economic power increasingly converged. The relationship between state and capital was intrinsic, like the two phases of a physical device, one could not exist without the other. This totalizing link was present in every country, but the management of this relationship varied from nation to nation. The "two-headed machine" exercised political, economic and military sovereignty by adapting to the means and objectives of each nation. They incentivized production, consumption and sometimes destruction through conflict and war. Within each bicephalic machine, there was not always harmonious balance and significant tensions frequently arose: not being aligned, the exercise of government and the accumulation of capital often generated conflicts of interest and divergence. The underlying global trend shifted power toward capital, which tended to globalize. But soon contradictions became apparent as capital could not disregard states. In fact, during the first Great Financial Crisis of the 21st century, states were essential in rescuing capital, withdrawing resources from the subaltern and poor classes; this further confirmed the indissolubility of the two phases, or else the binomial system would fall.

But now faced with a looming global ecological collapse, weren't we facing an "every man for himself" situation? And who had the means to save themselves and abandon the sinking ship if not the techno-tycoons?

The economic crisis didn't slow, but rather accelerated the process of privatization of services and public goods, which had become one of the main features of NeolibGov. This phenomenon, together with the deregulation of finance, contributed to the concentration of economic power in the hands of a narrow oligarchy.

In the official media, this group was called Ecofin, a term intended to be smooth and neutral and avoid the overly Marxist definition of capital or capitalism. Ecofin included the powerful techno-tycoons, who were the heavy hitters. Ecofin was driven by the classic capitalist rationality of unlimited accumulation and, in the move toward globalization, had a tendency to make the world one big, single market. At the top of stock market valuations were, of course, the technbro businesses (Great Platforms, Information and Life Technologies, etc.) that gave this sphere an immaterial and bio-neural dimension. Despite everything, Ecofin was incapable of securing territories and was forced to maintain a complex and contradictory relationship with nations. On one hand, the nation-states' selfish and belligerent territoriality often represented an obstacle to Ecofin's desire for global expansion. On the other, Ecofin benefited from monopolies on the extraction of key resources and privatizations of public and social services, amputating essential organs of the living body of states.

Because of this inextricable tangle of common interests and conflicts between states and capital, as we progressed into the Neolib era, it seemed to some that we were on the road to a return to feudalism. This perception could be justified by the growing inequality of rights and legal protections between the subordinate classes and the elites, as well as the obvious inconsistencies, such as the fact that warring countries maintained financial flows and trade relations with each other.

Even under Gov Neolib, as had been the case in earlier phases, the conquering strategies of the large, inherently imperialist capital-state entities generated deep contradictions that inevitably resulted in destructive conflicts. The very identity of capitalist rationality was characterized by the production-consumption-destruction triad. During war, production destroyed and, after, rebuilt. However, during this period, doubts began to arise as to whether this cyclical succession of production and destruction could continue on forever. The malaise in the biosphere presented itself as the anomaly that threatened the future of the NeolibGov.

At this juncture, the Ecofin oligarchs harkened back to the myth of of Mont Pelerin, from whence they had all descended. A proposal to regain political and physical altitude was made, taking advantage of the sphere of space logistics that the techno-tycoons were preparing in view of their future movement to the High Frontier: a destination that would be used to begin to progressively transfer certain Ecofin command centers to a sphere of geostationary satellites that the techno-tycoons ran. This operation would be mediatized as the preparatory phase of a future space colonization called Massive Space Migration, or MSM for short. It would later involve experimenting with life in space colonies with selected volunteers from within Gov, then establishing a logistical base on the Moon, and finally massively transferring so-called "strategic human and technological resources" to Mars. There were several advantages to this progressive approach, called the three phases. First, it would put all the crucial technological infrastructure out of reach for any sabotage or destruction, and be powered directly by solar energy. It also constituted a first step in the distancing and long preparation for the great leap for the privileged who would be able to make use of space elevators. This is how the designation of Ecofin High Spheres was born: it formalized the term "economic-financial high spheres" commonly used in the mainstream media, which went beyond simply designating the new forms of capital, and was a way of suggesting the possibility of a distancing from the Earth itself. Spatialized Capital.

There was a long history of osmosis between Ecofin, which was now aiming to conquer the High Frontier, and the spheres of political power of sovereign states. In fact, this was precisely part of the functioning of the capital-state machinery. At this stage, however, the roles were more openly exchanged than in the past. The Ecofin AltaSphere could engage in all kinds of lobbying in every sovereign state and often placed its members in their respective national governments or in GlobalGov instances. Inversely, political personnel could recycle themselves with some freedom through Ecofin's global bodies.

In this complex relation between the imperialism of large state-capital machines and the Ecofin AltaSphere, small and middle sized states were taken over, becoming largely subject to the directives and interests of external agents. When this not-so-subterranean path reached its apex they became post-states, or PoSt/ates. This term emphasized that these states, often mere simulacra of representative democracies or neo-autocracies, had limited sovereignty.

The PoSt/ates maintained a monopoly on the use of force and violence to control populations and territories. This role was divided between the police, responsible for internal control, and the army, responsible for external defense. In this field, too, came privatization, and even before the entropy of the biosphere accelerated, in many of the PoSt/ates the emergency, which had now become the norm, had induced the military and police DNA to become recombinant.

The distinctive features and associated functions of these bodies blended and overlapped, modifying and enhancing the already existing supply chain of militias, police and private armies. A new and powerful strand of services, called SecurServ (from Security Service Providers), developed as the main component of the security industry, flanking the armament industry and strengthening this strategic sector, without which NeolibGov would have collapsed.  Of course, the whole sector was under the dome of the Ecofin AltaSphere, which extracted profits from it that were unthinkable in other economic compartments.  In addition to the eternal issue of territorial wars, SecurServs were essential for the repression of populations given the decline that had characterized the soft control of NeolibGov's neurocapitalism. This decline is easily explained: living conditions were decaying, people were struggling to meet their basic needs, there was no neuro-persuasion of any kind that could hold. Such a situation created fertile ground for riots and uprisings of various kinds. Fearing that they would not be able to contain these ephemeral but violent outbursts, the SecurServs were endowed, by the public funds that guaranteed the private interests, with technological and operational capabilities for deterrence and destruction that were absolutely disproportionate to the exasperated efforts of poor populations. SecurServs also intervened in local wars between PoSt/ates, further fueling the cycle of violence and conflict.