Revisiting the liberation dilemma in the context of semiocapitalism: Berardi’s breakthroughs and limits on the predicament of post-operaismo

In addressing the liberation dilemma in post-operaismo theory, Berardi transforms radical political action into his politics of therapy. He emphasizes the reinforcement of capitalist domination and the impotence of political rationality enhanced by information technology. He critiques the inevitability of liberation in Negri’s immanent liberation theory, arguing that the possibility of cognitariat’ liberation requires potentiality and must consider the negative impacts of capitalist logic on subject liberation. This critique reveals the predicament faced by post-operaist autonomy movements. In terms of coping strategies, Berardi reduces the conflict between semiocapitalism and the cognitariat to a conflict between the form of capital and the content of life. By reactivating the cognitariat’s sensitivity through therapeutic measures, he aims to reconstruct the new collective subjectivity and help us disentangle from the capitalist paradigm, through continuing the autonomy movement. However, when re-examining his political and economic contexts using the method of political economy critique, it becomes evident that Berardi overemphasizes the subjective agency of workers in the liberation issue, neglecting the abstract domination brought by capitalist production relations. To enhance the practical force of the politics of subjectivity, we advocate for a communist political will that combines the critical perspectives of objective political economy with subjective politics.