Franco ''Bifo'' Berardi - The Soul at Work From Alienation to Autonomy

"The peculiarity of the schizophrenic is not thatmetaphors, but that he uses unlabeled metaphors.""In the universe of digital simulation the metaphor and theless and less distinct: the thing becomes metaphor and the m"tar>hthing. Representation teplaces life, and life tepresentation.flows and the circulation of goods overlap their codes, b«;onlinlpart of that same constellation defined by Baudrillatd asreal." Therefore the schizophrenic register becomes the"Fast delivery rates intimidate listeners [,. . J. There is evidencethat globalization has resulted in increased delivery tempos inareas of the world where Western broadcasting styles havereplaced traditional authoritative styles. In the former SovietUnion, fo r example, delivery as measured in syllables persecond has nearly doubled since the fall of communism fromthree to about six syllables per second (Robin, 1991). Casualcomparisons for news broadcasts in places such as the MiddleEast and China lead to similar conclusions.""interpretative code. The collective cognitive system loses itscompetence, which consisted in being able to distinguish thefalse value of enunciations sequentially presented to its more orconscious attention. In the proliferating universe of fastinterpretation occurs according to spirals of associations andnections without signification, and no longer accordingsequential lines.In an essay entitled "Learner-Based Listening and Techtlol,ogi,caAuthenticity," Richard Robin, a researcher at the George Washi'ngt,olUniversity, studies the effects produced in listening co>mp'ret,ensiotby an acceleration in vocal emission. Robin founds his researchthe calculation of how many syllables per second are uttered bytransmitter. The more accelerated the emission, the more syl!lablesare pronounced, the least successful is the lisrening coJmr>reiilettsitlnThe faster the emission, the less time is left for the listener'selaboration of the message. Emission's velocity and the quantitysemiotic impulses sent in a time unit are a function of theavailable to the receiver for elaborating consciously.According to Robin:Robin's remarks have stunningly interesting implications, helping usunderstand the passage from a form of authoritarian power of a'ersuasive" kind (as was the case of twentieth century totalitarianregimes) to a form of biopolitical power of a "pervasive" kind (as incontemporary Info-cracy). The first is based on consent: citizensneed to understand well the reaSOns of their President, General,Fahrer, Secretary or Duce. Only one source of information is authorized.Dissident voices are censured.The infocratic regime of Semiocapital founds instead its poweron overloading: accelerating semiotic flows which let sources ofinformation proliferate until they become the white noise of theindistinguishable, of the irrelevant, of the unintelligible.This is why we repeat that if in modern sociery the vastly prevalentpathology was repression-induced neurosis, today the most widelyspread pathologies assume a psychotic, panic-driven character. Thehyper-stimulation of attention reduces me capaciry for criticalsequential interpretation, but also the time available for the emotionalelaboration of the other, of his or her body and voice, thattries to be understood without ever succeeding.182 / Tile Soul at WorkThe Poisoned Soul I 183