Abstract

What drives people to go to work every day, even when the conditions in which they do so are unsatisfactory? More broadly, what is the mechanism within the context of contemporary neoliberal capitalism that ensures surplus labor is performed while simultaneously masking the relationship of domination it entails? The aim of this contribution is to revisit these questions, along with Spinoza’s argumentative framework, through the original interpretation that Frédéric Lordon offers on wage domination and its capacity to engage with the social sciences. Lordon’s thesis posits that there are two «objective» truths about work: the truth of the wage relationship (objective) and the truth of the production of the subjective realities that accompany it. It is within this dichotomy that the neoliberal model produces a condition of consensual servitude among workers, «enlisting» them to the will of the dominant master-desire by activating joyful passions.