Modern individuals demand self-determination while being treated as invisible ciphers

Evidence

This is the existential contradiction of the second modernity that defines our conditions of existence: we want to exercise control over our own lives, but everywhere that control is thwarted. Individualization has sent each one of us on the prowl for the resources we need to ensure effective life, but at each turn we are forced to do battle with an economics and politics from whose vantage point we are but ciphers. We live in the knowledge that our lives have unique value, but we are treated as invisible. As the rewards of late-stage financial capitalism slip beyond our grasp, we are left to contemplate the future in a bewilderment that erupts into violence with increasing frequency. Our expectations of psychological self-determination are the grounds upon which our dreams unfold, so the losses we experience in the slow burn of rising inequality, exclusion, pervasive competition, and degrading stratification are not only economic. They slice us to the quick in dismay and bitterness because we know ourselves to be worthy of individual dignity and the right to a life on our own terms. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 140

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the core ‘existential contradiction of the second modernity’ — a foundational concept framing the social condition surveillance capitalism emerges from.
• XREF: Dovetails with Beck’s ‘risk society’/second modernity concept and with Whyte’s ‘slow burn’ of status loss; Zuboff is synthesizing these into a psychological picture. — connects to: The right to the future tense frames collective self-determination against surveillance — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1698; The autonomous-citizen ideal renders group-based injustice and reparations invisible — Sherene Razack, Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims…, 381; Compliance with surveillance regimes can threaten the minimal integrity of selfhood — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 501 (+3 more)
• SEED: Angle for an essay: the gap between felt individual worth and systemic invisibility as the emotional substrate that makes behavioral surplus harvesting feel inevitable.

Broader Connections

• Surveillance capitalism exploits the human hunger for recognition #expands (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 797
• The right to the future tense frames collective self-determination against surveillance #expands (0.78) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1698
• The autonomous-citizen ideal renders group-based injustice and reparations invisible #corroborates (0.75) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 381
• Compliance with surveillance regimes can threaten the minimal integrity of selfhood #complicates (0.72) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 501
• Tech-idealized self-improvement lifestyles assume a solitary, unencumbered individual #exemplifies (0.72) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 453