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this post was submitted on 12 May 2024
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askchapo
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I don't think there's really a non atomized society. I think various societies are going through this process of atomization and are at different stages, which reflects capitalism's global reach.
I assume from reading the modlog that this person isn't genuinely interested in learning our perspective on the problems facing human civilization. It's a shame because I wanted to attempt to give an honest answer but. On the other hand, my responses tend to read like logorrhea. Nevertheless.
I guess I can say to liberals: The only thing they have left to appeal to people, after shearing themselves of all their progressive features in a desperate attempt to protect the status quo of capitalism, is this atomizing individualism that makes any kind of political organizing impossible to do. We do indeed live in the future of Margaret Thatcher, where only individuals competing in markets against one another exist. This even applies to technologies that are supposedly made to promote socializing (ie the ubiquitous "social" media), where the pursuit of status amongst peers prevents any meaningful collaboration on political projects meant to build a just society. There are plenty of factors related to technology that I guess could be lumped into a broader category of changing material conditions, with most of it being linked back to a capitalist drive for greater efficiency for the pursuit of profit.
This atomization is to our detriment, as such a perilous time in human history requires international cooperation to prevent the sort of suffering we are seeing unfold over the course of this 21st century polycrisis, with anthropogenic climate change being the chiefest of those concerns.
My concern for the future is that in this atomized society, as conditions of this polycrisis spread, with the most vulnerable parts of society being jettisoned as "unnecessary" by those who manage capital. Those on the left who criticize these actions will be stigmatized as "fascists" and "terrorists" by the liberal and far right defenders of capitalism. In some ways we see this with the current attacks on those protesting the ongoing genocide in Gaza, which is one of the places where the West develops the technology used in controlling its own restive vulnerable populations near the heart of empire.