Emotionality replaces rationality when disciplinary reason hits a productivity limit
Evidence
Clearly, Illouz has failed to notice that the boom of emotion in our times ultimately derives from neoliberalism. The neoliberal regime deploys emotions as resources in order to bring about heightened productivity and achievement. Starting at a certain level of production, rationality – which is the medium of disciplinary society – hits a limit. Henceforth, it is experienced as a constraint, an inhibition. Suddenly, it seems rigid and inflexible. At this point, emotionality takes its place, which is attended by the feeling of liberty – the free unfolding of personality. After all, being free means giving free rein to emotions. Emotional capitalism banks on freedom. It hails emotion as the expression of unbridled subjectivity. Neoliberal technologies of power exploit this same subjectivity mercilessly. — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics, 104
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
Related
- Neoliberalism deploys emotion as a productivity resource once rationality hits its limits (similarity 0.93)
- Disciplinary society suppresses emotion while achievement society exploits it (similarity 0.80)
- Power steers emotions to govern action below conscious awareness (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- Suppressing the affective origins of thought yields intellectual sterility
#complicates(0.75) - Taylorism deliberately breaks up skilled workers’ psycho-physical nexus
#responds-to(0.72)