Mass-production capitalism outpaces individual-conversion modes of labor discipline

Evidence

Missionary conversion is arduous. Until the born again revolution of neoliberally inspired mass evangelism in the past two decades, souls were to be saved largely one by one. Missionary work may have had the stamp of the good Lord’s approval, but it was slow going. Too slow for the temporality of mining minerals or mass production, to be sure. The demands of a secured labor supply for a capitalist political economy required more than just personal discipline and individual loyalty, though these sensibilities would prove productive as well for the cause. It demanded something more than a Protestant economy of enculturated subjects. The serial individualization of saved souls could never deliver on demand for a mass-producing economy. A steady, sturdy, and cheap labor supply demanded a different regime for its reproduction and regulation, one more immediately responsive. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1446

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the serial-individualization vs. group-salvation distinction that the chapter’s core thesis runs on.