Cybernetic Society and the Demise of Democracy

Abstract

I argue in this paper that capitalism has taken on a new social formation characterized by an absorption of the self into the matrix of social patterning and control that has led to the diminution of the cultural and psychic foundations for democratic citizenship and politics. The increased expansion of capital into new realms of human experience and development has rendered modern society prone to anxiety and fragile forms of social security as the arbitrary powers of elites expands in scope. I trace the features of what I call the ‘cybernetic society’ before pointing to a radical republicanism as a response for progressive politics to the anti-democratic tendencies of late capitalism.