The liberal individual was destroyed by capital, not by dictators
Evidence
One need not be a radical critic of our society to see that the right to a bit of time each day when one is not for sale has all but vanished. The irony is that the liberal individual was snuffed out neither by fascist Brownshirts nor by Stalinist guards. It was killed off when a new form of capital began to instruct youngsters to do that most liberal of things: be yourself! (And be successful at it!) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 659
Categorization
- SEED: Angle: the injunction to ‘be yourself’ as a form of self-surrendering to surveillance, a piece on authenticity as compliance.
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 659
- XREF: connects to: Liberalism was born from market governmentality rather than capital’s dominance — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 99; The bourgeoisie won by capturing the State, not by winning wars. — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 250; Crises of liberalism are not deducible from crises of capitalism. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 492 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Crises of liberalism are not deducible from crises of capitalism.
#complicates(0.85) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 492 - Liberalism was born from market governmentality rather than capital’s dominance
#qualifies(0.80) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 99 - Liberal governments voluntarily ceded power to Mussolini rather than face a capitalist crisis
#contradicts(0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 354 - The individual survives capitalism not through emancipation but as dead, monumentalized ballast.
#expands(0.80) — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 159 - The bourgeoisie won by capturing the State, not by winning wars.
#complicates(0.75) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 250 - Liberalism is a culture that won, not a culture beyond cultures.
#expands(0.75) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 357