The Agora Pnyx Paradox

Abstract

The avatars of the new capitalism are decreeing how the larger economy should evolve, and follow their efficient reconfigurations of human, technological and physical resources, because it adds up to more freedom. This presented the political space with the opportunity to converge with the economic space. The result was the corporatisation of government that is inherently neo-liberal (or neo-conservative) that often produced analysis-free policies. Coupled with that, was the evolution of the passive consumer-citizen. These three challenges facing our transparent society bring into question the legitimacy of a democratic process, that seems to be driven by cultural forms which celebrate personal change and indifference, but not collective progress. This paper concludes that freedom is not just an individual matter, given the complexity of the issues, such as with surveillance and privacy, so a collective response backed by intellectual analysis can effectively confront the totalising discourse of the powerful, and force its own version of reality on the public agenda.