And The Internet Said, Let Us Make Netocracy in Our Image, After Our Likeness. A Critical View on the Concept of Post-Capitalism by А. Bard and J. Söderqvist

The article considers the concept of post-capitalism by A. Bard and J. Söderqvist. According to this concept, the most important resources of the post-capitalist future are information, trust, attention, as well as belonging to one or another virtual "tribe". The new ruling elite will be the netocracy consisting of those who filter out and sort information, and the new "lower" class will be the consumtariat as a social stratum of consumers. Nevertheless, the desire to build an image of the post-capitalist future in the image and after the likeness of the Network leads Bard and Söderqvist to naive hopes for the Internet assuch. By discarding democracy, nation-states, and humanism/individualism as bourgeois relics, they end up offering no credible and realistic alternatives. The researchers associate individualization, turning politics into clowning, and media information pollution with the obsolete institutions of capitalism, but do not see that the Internet only strengthens these trends. As a result, instead of an attractive image of the future, they try to make their concept consistent, presenting the reader with a dystopia: mysterious netocrats become world conspirators and manipulators of public opinion. According to the author of the article, the main vulnerability of the ideas of Bard and Söderqvist is the transformation of the Network into a fetish. In this regard, it is proposed not to get away from reality, but to strive for more worthy versions of post-capitalism, when social unity, the welfare state, comprehensive personal development, quality education, high-tech industry, labor, and democracy will become the main goals and priorities and, notably, will be effective tools to combat various "network" Masonic lodges of "information sorters".