Bryan Patrick Garcia

This paper seeks to articulate the theoretical development of Marxism to post-Marxism by examining Louis Althusser’s influence on post-Marxist theory. I divide this paper into three parts and ask the following question: how did Althusser’s “return to Marx” conceptually prepare the rupture with Marx found in Laclau and Mouffe’s post-Marxism? The first part contextualizes the debate between economic determinism and Marxist humanism by elaborating on their main positions through Marx’s texts and his interpreters. The second part provides a discussion of Althusser’s critiques of both economic determinism and humanism with the concept of “overdetermination” and thesis of the subject’s constitution through interpellation. The third part explores the Leninist and Gramscian backgrounds of the notion of “hegemony” and its reconfiguration through Althusser’s theoretical framework as found in the works of Laclau and Mouffe. I show that Althusser laid the groundwork for post-Marxism to develop out of Marxism through anti-essentialism that disputes the primacy of the forces of production and repudiates the constitutive subject’s alienated labor as an underlying principle of critique.

The study focuses its lens on achievement society and the achievement-subject. The study aims to understand the negative effects of social media on the individual through the positivity of achievement society. It is a different path of analysis on two relevant and heavily researched issues, social media and mental health, strongly influenced by a philosophical lens. Furthermore, this paper also intends to answer the question: “How does modern-day social media shape the achievement-subject, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic?” The paper begins with an analysis on achievement society and contrasts it with Michel Foucault’s disciplinary society. I do this by explicating Michel Foucault’s conception of disciplinary society and Han’s method of distinction by accentuating the modal verb of compulsion such as “may not” and “should” contra the positivized verb of “can” found in achievement societies. Using psychoanalytic concepts of the super-ego and its positivized version, the ego-ideal, Han borrowed from Sigmund Freud, the obedience-subject and achievement-subject of disciplinary and achievement society, respectively, are explored. Focus is then shifted to a discussion of the impacts of social media and its capitalization of positivized spaces on the achievement-subject and how achievement society utilizes the romanticization of overwork and exploitation as a means of furthering the productivity of achievement-subjects and in reinforcing the neoliberal paradigm in the socio-political and economic landscape. These are further related to the ideas of Mark Fisher in his elaboration of reflexive impotence by citing a few examples. The study then takes a brief detour to revisit how Byung-Chul Han’s conception of the achievement-subject compares to Karl Marx’s theory of alienation, and how Han’s theory rethinks the Marxian notion of alienation. Lastly, the study posits that social media in achievement society negatively affects people through the positivity it proliferates and leads to achievement-subjects exploiting themselves in the name of productivity and achievement and those who are pressured or expected to be productive tend to face exhaustive depression. The study contextualizes its discussions within the COVID-19 pandemic.