A trace of destruction follows the reign of financial markets, the new internet giants, the opinion-making industry. What loses out are democracy, freedom and social responsibility. In his analysis, Joseph Vogl reconstructs how in the digital age entirely new forms of corporate power were created, which overwrite our known political universe with their own logic of evaluation and massively intervene across borders into decision making processes of governments, societies and national economies. Vogl puts forward three theses on our current age. First: the internet and platform capitalism of today (from Amazon to Google) is the most recent metamorphosis of a financial regime which was developed in the 1970s and recognized the economisation of information as a source of profits. Second: the fusion of the financial economy and communication technologies has established new paradigms of power whose results are a fragmented public sphere, social schisms and a loss of democracy. Third: affective economies powered by the fuel of resentment stabilise the dominance of this new platform capitalism at the expense of the common good.

Joseph Vogl teaches contemporary German Literature, Literary and Cultural/Media Studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin. He is a Regular Visiting Professor at Princeton University.

Moderated by: Stipe Ćurković