From quietism to emancipation

Individualism and digital collectivism in the era of platforms

Abstract

Contemporary capitalism is in crisis, and with it, the entirety of social life. This assertion is shared by a variety of theorists, among whom are Nancy Fraser, Shoshana Zuboff and Nick Srnicek. Fraser’s conception of an institutionalized social order that is structured around recurring cycles of crisis and mutation allows us to place the current mutation. From Zuboff’s perspective, present capitalism is a vigilant system that feeds off individuals’ experiences, extracting behavioral surplus while simultaneously shaping behavior. For his part, Srnicek helps us to deepen our understanding of the types of current platforms, while also offering a contrast to Zuboff’s more reformist approach. This theoretical horizon is confronted with Yanis Varoufakis’ proposition about the end of capitalism, in an attempt to strengthen the framework through which the possibility of an emancipatory moral action will be analyzed. Discontent with contemporary reality results in the urgency of asking ourselves what possibilities for action are available and what others we are capable of thinking. For this reason, we summon the voice of Sartre’s existentialism, with the intention of problematizing the individualistic ideal of the neoliberal expression of the prevailing social order and its consequences upon the responsibility toward the common world.