The Consequences of Subjectivism - As Consequências do Subjetivismo

 

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THE CONSEQUENCES OF SUBJECTIVISM

 

Nildo Viana

 

The cultural mutation that took place after the defeat of the social struggles of the late 1960s generated the shift from the hegemony of the reproductive paradigm to the subjectivist paradigm. Since 1945 the reproductivist paradigm, which manifested itself through holistic and objectivist ideologies such as functionalism, structuralism and systems theory, was hegemonic until the emergence of these struggles and their crisis. In its place, the subjectivist paradigm emerges, born after 1968, but only becomes hegemonic after 1980, following the constitution of neoliberalism, which, together with other processes, constitutes the regime of integral accumulation, a new phase of capitalism. In this context, subjectivist ideologies expand, spread, and become hegemonic. The realm of subjectivism is established and takes various forms, encompassing different conceptions (neoliberalism, post-structuralism, multiculturalism, politics of identity, etc.). The subjectivist paradigm condemns holism (totality, metarratives) and objectivism, generating various forms of subjectivism (irrationalism, relativism, etc.). In this context, we ask: what are the consequences of subjectivism?

The overvaluation of the subject and subjectivity is a reality. Undoubtedly, there are several interpretations of what is subject and what is subjectivity, as well as “who is the subject” or “who are the subjects” (in the plural, one of the characteristics of subjectivism is the use and abuse of plurals). The subject can be the rational individual of neoliberalism, the multiple subjects of post-structuralism and multiculturalism, the “gender”, the “race”, etc. To this is associated the strengthening of hedonism, narcissism, sentimentality, which are reinforced by the advent of the expansion of the internet and social networks. This, in turn, is useful and complements neoliberalism, which has civil society accountability as one of its characteristics. Thus, the idea of participationism emerges, “non-governmental organizations” flourish, among several other related phenomena.

The consequences of this process are visible. One of them affects individuals, considered "free" in many subjectivist conceptions, who become responsible for their social failure, generating depression, psychological imbalances, drug use, etc. Another consequence affects the forms of consciousness, generating discredit for knowledge and encouraging presumption, pseudo-criticism, relativism, and, therefore, conspiracy beliefs, ideas such as the "flat earth" or that everything is "cultural construction" or " representations”. A third consequence is revealed in its effects on civil society, especially in social movements, in which its activists start to defend unsustainable ideas such as " life experience" and "place of speech", as well as interpreting the world from antinomies based on groupism and division “us” and “them”.

We could list other consequences of subjectivism, but we will limit ourselves to these. And here the responsibility of intellectuals comes into question, as they were the ones who produced the subjectivist ideologies that spread, in a simplified way, throughout society. Now, once the negative consequences of subjectivism are perceived, it is time to criticize and overcome it, and it is up to intellectuals to take responsibility for contributing to the clarification and resolution of the problem they helped to create.

NILDO VIANA is a university professor at the Federal University of Goiás/Brazil. He is the author of several books, including, “Capitalism in the Age of Integral Accumulation”; “Bourgeois Buguese Hegemony and Hegemonic Renovations”; “The Social Movements”; “The Bourgeois Way of Thinking. Bourgeois Episteme and Marxist Episteme”; “Research in Everyday Representations”; “Karl Marx: The Merciless Critique of the Existing”, among others.