Critical Thought in Global Capitalism: Gelatinization, Subjectivization, Hyperobjectivity and the Future of Vectorized Reality

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the status of critical thought in global capitalism, which will be shown in three stages. First, I will shed light on the phenomenon of gelatinization, as developed by Santiago López Petit, which I understand as one of the central social processes of contemporary social reality. Building on this line of argument, I will point to transformations within global capitalism associated with subjectivization, developing the latter via an analysis of the imaginary within global neoliberal capitalism. I believe that this approach operates almost as a revolt against global neoliberal capitalism, which has, precisely via gelatinization, appropriated the imaginary. I will conclude by rethinking the status of critical thought in global capitalism via Timothy Morton’s concept of hyperobject, but in relation to the vectorized power of contemporary capitalism, which, following McKenzie Wark, presents a radical rethinking of the conditions of production themselves, even in the face of the fact that information/data has become the dominant force of production.