Genealogia immaginale del capitalismo. Dal “cosmo sacro” alla “volta” spirituale e retecnologica

Abstract

Genealogy of the capitalistic imagery. From the « sacred cosmos » to the spiritual and Net echnological « canopy ». The promises of capitalism seem to have produced a world that escapes more and more from the control of human beings because of the disintegration of the collective and individual matrix of meanings. The capitalist imagery, however, offers its inhabitants symbolic roofs under which they can shelter. In the first part of the paper I will analyze the imagery of premodern society, focusing on the sacred dimension of social existence, understood as a brake on the affirmation of capitalism. In the second, I will show the sociological reasons behind the huge change of the imagery that has allowed the triumph of the logic of capitalism. In the fourth, I will discuss the Net echnological and spiritual « canopy » – recalling the title of a famous book by Peter Berger – intended as imaginal reactions against the fragmentation of stable universes of meaning caused by the development and radicalization of capitalism.