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For lack of time, I have to be brief. The cause of this disappearance is without doubt an effect of neoliberalism. A couple of decades ago, Margaret Thatcher proclaimed “that there is no such thing as society.” Well, there used to be one, but now, it is gone. Its disappearance means that the traditional basis for identity formation, drive regulation and meaning has disappeared as well, meaning that we are left with huge problems on these respects. Just think about the identity disorders in borderline patients and the loss of identity in cases of depression. In matters of drive regulation, we are facing today a very perverse super ego, because it obliges every one of us to enjoy ourselves until we drop dead, without regard for the others.
This is an effect of 25 years of ‘new capitalism’ – the term is from Richard Sennett, an MIT sociologist. Because of the dominating power of the economy, this discourse was soon enough taken over by the state administration, especially in matters of health care and education. Its combined effects on society, family life and finally the individual are enormous and illustrate perfectly how economy, politics and subjectivity are intermixed. I will give you a few examples of this mixture.
Contemporary management aims at short term profits, just like our politicians are only thinking in terms of one legislative period. This means that short term fluctuations on the stock market have the same effect on economics as pop polls on politics: fast and drastic interventions in function of the “market”. It won’t take long before continuity and stability become dirty words, indicating what you shouldn’t aim for. On the individual level, this creates insecurity and exhaustion. Everybody has to keep growing, every evaluation interview has to result in ever higher aims and it is specifically forbidden to stay at the previous level. ADHD has become the norm and flexibility its credo.
This explains why such an economy cannot cherish experience and knowledge; such assets cause too much stagnation and resistance to change. Instead of that, the accent shifts towards so-called competences and skills. The combination between a tendency towards short term profits and a decreasing appreciation of knowledge results in the dissolution of the glue that held groups together, i.e., loyalty and solidarity. In the light of what is happening today, the previous generations knew a far reaching loyalty between “upstairs” and “downstairs”. A worker was more or less assured of a life long job with the same boss, and consequently he was prepared to engage in that job and for “his” boss – indeed, he was part of it. This boss would engage himself for “his” people, because that was to the best of his interests. This has almost disappeared today, together with the company and the boss. A multinational company is invisible, has no contact with its workers and will displace, cut down, increase jobs in function of the stock market. Consequently the workers don’t have any feeling of loyalty anymore, and the relationship between upstairs and downstairs is one of distrust. And that of course creates a necessity for continuous control and evaluation.