The shift from subject to project intensifies capitalism rather than escaping it
Evidence
The mole moves through predetermined spaces; as such, it subordinates itself to spatial restrictions. The mole is a subjugated subject. But the snake is a project inasmuch as it creates space through the course it steers. The passage from the mole to the snake – from subject to project – does not amount to setting out for an entirely new way of life; instead, it represents a mutation, indeed an intensification, of capitalism, which remains one and the same. The mole’s restricted movements impose limits on productivity. Even when it labours in disciplined fashion, it cannot exceed a certain level of productivity. The snake eliminates such limitations through new forms of movement. Accordingly, the capitalist system is switching from the mole-model to the snake-model in order to generate more productivity. — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics, 52
Categorization
- XREF: The claim that the snake-model is not a new way of life but an intensification of the same capitalism foreshadows Han’s central point in later sections that the achievement-subject is more thoroughly exploited than the disciplinary subject. This is the contradiction that runs through the whole book.