As the globalized regime of neoliberal capitalism consolidates its grip
on the world, it refines the micropolitics proper to the capitalist
system and makes it more perverse. This micropolitics involves the
appropriation - what Suely Rolnik calls the "pimping" - of life, as it
turns the life drive itself away from creation and cooperation and
towards the deadening, destructive practice necessary for capital
accumulation. This dynamic is the engine of what Rolnik calls the
colonial-capitalistic unconscious regime. She also identifies the
conditions necessary to fight against this regime - namely, a
reappropriation of the life drive, the energetic basis at the heart of
all life forms, human life included, and the principal source of
extraction for capitalism.
Drawing on examples from across the Americas, including Brazil and the
United States, Rolnik examines the circumstances that have given rise to
regressive, reactionary governments throughout the world. These
circumstances include, at the macro level, an alliance between
neoliberalism and extreme conservatism and, at the micro level, a crisis
of the hegemonic subject in the face of the emergent empowerment of
marginalized communities that practice other modes of subjectivation.
This crucial book by one of the most prominent intellectuals in Latin
America today will be of great value to anyone interested in
contemporary politics and social struggles.
