Il Gigante e la Bambina. L’Apocalisse tra immaginari e iconoclastia

Abstract

The Giant and the Child. The Apocalypse between imaginaries and iconoclasm. 

Donald Trump's and Greta Thunberg's perspectives on the climate apocalypse seem to symbolize the conflict between two antithetical forms of imaginary, delineating a contraposition between capitalist hypersubjects and hyposubjects of the new ecological class.

Young activists act through a particular form of iconoclasm, metaphorically destroying the symbols of neoliberalism. In this way, they oppose a more serious form of devastation, that of the planet.

Two forms of Hyperstition emerge from such guerrilla warfare for imaginary: that of unconditional trust in the manipulative abilities of the human species with a view to its endless empowerment, and that which sees such manipulation as an instrument of the sphere of cure.

Finally, the risk of a strategic use of the apocalyptic emergency arises, with the hypersubjects appropriating the language of the hyposubjects, allowing the neoliberal logic to survive by simply adapting to the crisis.