Why are we so polarized in our time? Is it because polarization has become big business?

Since the financial crisis in 2008, the German philosopher Joseph Vogl has been studying the changes in capitalism and their consequences for politics, society, and individuals. In his latest book "Capital and Ressentiment," he analyzes the connections between the rise of tech-dominated platform capitalism and the culture wars and democratic crises of our time.

In barely two decades, platform capitalism has given rise to some of the largest and most powerful companies of all time, such as Google and Meta. They are based on a business model where users create what the companies sell, namely traceable behavior patterns such as clicks and shares. Data is the commodity of these companies, produced through our activity, attention, and "engagement."

With the platform giants, we have also gained new public spheres and social media, which claim to strengthen freedom of speech and democracy. But according to Vogl, the companies providing the "infrastructure" of the digital public sphere have made a groundbreaking discovery: They have found out how negative emotional reactions such as anger, paranoia, and ressentiment can be transformed into economic productive forces. Instead of serving democracy, social media pave the way for forces that seek to undermine it by fueling hostility and vindictiveness.

Lecture by Joseph Vogl, philosopher, literature and media researcher, and professor emeritus at Humboldt University in Berlin. He is particularly known for his books on financial capitalism: "The Specter of Capital" (2009, translated into Norwegian in 2018), "The Sovereignty Effect" (2015), and "Capital and Ressentiment" (2021/22).

Commentators:

Kjetil Ansgar Jacobsen, writer, commentator and professor of Intellectual History at Nord University, Bodø.

Alan Finlayson, professor of Political & Social Theory at the University of East Anglia, with particular expertise in the theoretical and practical study of political rhetoric. He oversees the website British Political Speech.

The host is Eirik Høyer Leivestad, philosopher, lecturer, and researcher at the Kulturakademiet in Berlin. He has translated Joseph Vogl's book "The Specter of Capital" into Norwegian for the publisher H//O//F, and published the books "Fear and Loathing in Democracy" (Vagant, 2020) and "Crystal Palace" (Lord Jim Publishing, 2024), the latter being part of this year's festival program.