Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism

A Theory of Capitalist Regulation: The U.S. Experience

Synopsis In 2027, as humankind faces the likelihood of its own extinction, a disillusioned government agent agrees to help transport and protect a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea where her child's birth may help scientists to save the future of mankind.

Children of men

In Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity, Hartmut Rosa offers a new and systematic theory of modernity focusing on the ‘‘dynamization’’ of the world through social acceleration rather than through such usual suspects as rationalization, the division of labor, and the nature of capitalism. While many other theories touch on social acceleration, at least obliquely, no theory has made it its centerpiece; and, more damningly, there is an ‘‘almost total absence of thinking on social acceleration’’ in social theory (p. 55). Rosa seeks to correct this by reflecting deeply on social acceleration and making it the heart of his theory of modernity. To Rosa, acceleration is the real driving force of (modern) history and not, among other things, the unfolding of the forces of production as is the case in Marxian theory. However, Rosa acknowledges that acceleration is, itself, driven by external forces— economic, cultural and socio-structural (e.g., functional differentiation). Acceleration is treated generally, as well as in terms of three sub-types: technological acceleration, the pace of social change, and the pace of life. While these sub-types are distinguished from one another, they are dialectically related in a self-propelling process (see Figure 6.1 for a depiction of this ‘‘circle of acceleration’’). While Rosa’s theory ostensibly centers on social acceleration, it in fact evolves into a more nuanced and satisfying theory of the interrelationship of acceleration and rigidity or inertia. The five types of inertia are natural limits to speed (e.g., the ability of, and speed by which, ecosystems are able to deal with toxic substances; although like all such natural speed limits these can be, and are being, pushed back); ‘‘islands of deceleration’’ (e.g., traditional communities such as the Amish existing partly or entirely outside the processes of acceleration); slowdown as an unintended consequence of acceleration (e.g., more cars in cities leading to more traffic jams); two forms of intentional deceleration: deceleration as ideology (critiques of, and principled protests against, further acceleration as exemplified by the Slow Food and Voluntary Simplicity Movements) and slowdown as an acceleration strategy (slowdowns in one domain in order to enhance acceleration in other domains); and, finally, structural and cultural rigidity. Beyond a discussion of inertia, Rosa also deals with the various ‘‘brakes’’ on acceleration in late modernity. He traces these to the central institutions of society, which can be both accelerators and brakes. For example, the military can be an accelerator, through technical innovation, but it can also be an impediment when its structure becomes too cumbersome and slow. The problem is that in late modernity, many one-time accelerators have become brakes. Having delineated the types of acceleration and their impediments (especially inertia), Rosa turns to the question of the two types of interrelationships possible between them. The first is an equilibrium of acceleration and inertia where both exist but there is no long-term trend in one direction or the other. The second possibility is a shift in the direction of acceleration or ‘‘progressive dynamization.’’ (It is not clear why it is not also possible to shift in the other direction to ‘‘progressive inertia,’’ but this is what he might mean by ‘‘frenetic standstill’’ [see below].) It is Rosa’s view that progressive dynamization characterizes modern society as long as there are no other forms of inertia and that ‘‘none of them embody a structural and/cultural countertrend that could equal the acceleration dynamic of modernity’’ (p. 90). This is a crucial caveat that in many ways undercuts much of Rosa’s thesis. We are an acceleration society as long as strong countertrends do not stop acceleration in its tracks. In fact, the focus of this book—and what defines the current status of modernity— might be more accurately described as ‘‘frenetic standstill’’ (or ‘‘dynamic stabilization’’) rather than acceleration. Rosa derives this term from the work of Paul Virilio, and it describes a state ‘‘of the simultaneous acceleration of social change and halting of social 470 Reviews

Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity

Song of the Open Road

In the post-apocalyptic setting of Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road (2006), a father and his son “push down the road a battered shopping cart, containing their bare provisions, on a thoroughly consumed earth” (Seltzer 189). Despite the fact that the novel seems to be situated in an indistinct no-man’s-land, marked by a curious absence of time and history, this essay argues that it is indeed worthwhile to historicize The Road. By placing the novel in the context of the new capitalism, the article explores the ways in which McCarthy’s treatment of mobility deviates from previous American road narratives, which typically celebrate the pleasures and possibilities of movement and flight. Concentrating on the novel’s dystopian “catastrophism,” the essay will further investigate its relation to temporality, history, and the future.

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Simon Schleusener

Papers

The Dialectics of Mobility: Capitalism and Apocalypse in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road