Another Now

First edition, signed - Another Now

Today, a brown cardboard box landed on my doorstep. and buying some of my favourite books, in first edition signed by the author, I was so excited to open it and I’ve been sat looking at it for the last hour. It was my brand new signed copy of Another Now by Yanis Varoufakis – Hand signed by the man himself, not on a sticker plate, but right there on the title page. The man is brilliant, he somehow manages to be both economist and a fucking rebel, realist and dreamer. For those of you who don't know, he's an author, yes, but also a Greek economist and politician. Holding it in my hands is great. I remember reading it for the first time. I had just finished Techno-feudalism, that book was about how the system is broken, how it works and is one of the most powerful money books I have ever read, this book though, it was borderline sci-fi, it was Yanis reimagining of what society could look like, how things *Should* work. It was a powerful book that made me believe - really believe - that another future wasn’t just possible, it was actually within reach.

I first read Another Now a couple of years back, and I remember it cracked something open in me. It wasn’t utopian fluff, It wasn’t that one tedious friend we have talking loudly about shared wealth, It wasn’t some over-polished TED Talk optimism. It was a serious, deeply human look at what the world could be if we were brave enough to imagine beyond the stale inevitability of greed and capitalism and smart enough not to tear each other apart in the process. Worker-owned companies. Shared digital wealth. A society where the government actually belong to the people. A future that didn’t feel like a boot pressing down on the backs of our necks, but a handheld out, promising something bigger. It was democratic socialism in a way that works, it was thought out and rounded, it was genuinely beautiful.

And it wasn’t just about the economics. It was the tone. Varoufakis doesn’t tell you that he knows best. He invites you in to a world he built, to take a look around. He builds this alternate timeline like an architect who still believes the world is worth rebuilding, even after the crippling realisation of what it has become. I remember closing the book and sitting in silence for over a hour.

The next thing I did was email Yanis. I asked him for some clarifications and to express my admiration for his work. God I remember it, I just wanted to change everything immediately, Not like grabbing a placard, marching the streets and shout at the sky, but in that quieter, more dangerous way: I started to dream up what my business would look like in Another Now, who I would run it with, how the bonus system would work. Who I would and wouldn’t want to be a part of it. It was liberating - electrifying. 

So to have it now – signed – is a joy. To take my copy to the charity shop ad replace it with a version the author is written in feels brilliant, I know its just a silly collectable, but to me its something else. we can do better. This book, to me, is a reminder that real thinkers still exist. That people are still out there challenging the system not just with anger or social media posts, but with real fucking design. With alternatives. With intelligence. There’s nothing I hate more than that one person you talk to who just stone walls every idea for change with some shitty excuse of a roadblock that even they don’t fully understand. This book is the anti-that guy.

In a world obsessed with power and profit, Another Now puts community back on the map and I am an avid community person. This book reimagined the economy like it actually belonged to people, not just algorithms and quarterly reports and cunts in suits who care more about money than people. To say this book stuck with me is an understatement.

So, cheers, Yanis. For the book, the signature, for returning my email, but most importantly, for the vision. And for reminding me that the fight for a just world doesn’t start in parliament or on social media - it starts in the imagination.

Let's get to work.