The future is atomized

The article Influencerism is the highest form of capitalist realism by Yasha Levine (Nefarious Russians) makes many interesting points, many of which have been made before, in other ways—perhaps most famously and thoroughly in Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent—but it almost always bears repeating because the lessons are so often and easily forgotten.

“[…] these technologies, while they have thrown off the old masters, have acquired a new one. And this new master is harder to see. It’s not a person who tells you what you can and cannot do. The new master doing the talking is a market force — nudging, pushing, rewarding, penalizing… On the surface, these new platforms have shaken up the way the media operates, made it more democratic. But deeper down, in reality, what they have done instead is to bring the media — and the people who produce it — closer in line with market forces. In that sense, they’re just another manifestation of the slow grind of neoliberalism — bringing everything into the market, commodifying every little bit of human life that hasn’t been commodified yet.”

“[…] alongside it was another truth: There’s no editor telling us what to do, but there was something equally powerful: the market. It pushes and nudges, it regiments…It’s all very subtle, too. The control is basically invisible. And lack of success can be explained as your own personal failure, rather than the censorious nature of what the market wants.”

“[…] working overtime, blasting through production goals, working for the collective good…but the collective doesn’t care about me nor does it even care about the collective. […]”

That is an unfortunate modern truth: community is either dead, dying, or being hunted down for sport. For many people in so-called modern societies, they are encouraged to evince no compassion, no empathy, no sympathy, no solidarity. The watchword of the 21st century is atomization.

Physically together but mentally apartThe elites see that balkanizing people into individual islets is incredibly useful. Alone, they are uncertain. People yearn to join groups. The market gives them groups to join. When that purpose is served, they will be atomized again, only to be invited to another, more politically useful group. Hate these immigrants, hate those other people, hate Chinese, hate Latinos, hate the poor, hate the unemployed, hate unions—hate everyone except for billionaires.