Chapter Frédéric Lordon: il lavoro tra desiderio e servitù

Overview & Synopsis

According to Lordon, Spinoza help us to understand the non-rational dimension of social action and, more generally, the ability of capitalism to last over time, despite the continuous creation of inequalities and social injustice. But if Fordism had been able to produce also joyful desires in the workers, neoliberalism is based only on the production of fear, making workers' lives precarious. The main aim of neoliberalism is that the worker comes to love the boss/entrepreneur (or the institution where he works) in a total symbolic, cultural and value identification. To achieve this goal everything that is repressive must be carefully avoided and/or hidden. In fact, neoliberal power does not resort to the use of force but wants its employees in a condition of consensual servitude.