The Self-Identity Crisis in Accelerated Capitalist Society and Its Political-Economic Critique

The capitalist production process, characterized primarily by the concretization and commodification of time, constitutes the economic engine of capitalist development. Under the driving mechanism of expanded reproduction, accelerating the circulation of capital, and increasing the velocity of capital realization, time is equated with money in the most abstract sense. Saving time and increasing the speed of capital turnover have become the unshakable conviction of the capitalist class, prompting the principle of acceleration to unify into a behavioral logic commonly observed in capitalist society. As Hartmut Rosa states: “The fundamental economic problem in the capitalist economy is not the (static) problem of distribution, but the maintenance of accelerated circulation.” Capitalism sustains the operation of the acceleration principle through innovations in capital forms and technological progress. Especially in the era of digital capitalism, the acceleration of technology, the acceleration of social change, and the acceleration of the pace of life have come to dominate everyday life.

以时间的具体化和商品化为主要特征的资本主义的生产过程，构成了资本主义发展的经济引擎。在扩大再生产、加快资本循环进程、提高资本变现速率的驱动机制下，时间在最抽象的意义上与金钱相等同，对时间的节约与提高资本的运转速度成为了资本家阶级坚不可摧的信念，促使加速原则统一为资本主义社会共同遵守的行为逻辑。正如哈特穆特·罗萨（Hartmut Rosa）所言：“资本主义经济中的经济上的基本难题并不是（静态的）分配问题，而是对加速的循环的维护。”资本主义通过资本形式的创新与科技的进步维持着加速原则的运转，尤其进入数字资本主义时代，技术的加速、社会变迁的加速以及生活节奏的加速占据了整个日常生活。

From the basic standpoint of Marxism, the issue of the free and comprehensive development of real individuals is the most important concern of Marxism. Real individuals are the ensemble of all social relations. In the practice of daily life, through interactions with others and society, individuals establish their subjective self-positioning and a sense of self-identity. However, in accelerated capitalist society, the modern dynamic of acceleration achieves its mechanism of exploiting individuals by increasing the speed of actions within each unit of time. This not only alters the mode of interaction among subjects but also changes their mode of existence. Manifestations such as the uncontrollability of daily life, the capitalization of emotions in communicative activities, and the fragmentation of experiential systems give rise to existential anxiety in individuals, thereby leading to a crisis of self-identity. Therefore, studying the crisis of self-identity in accelerated capitalist society is conducive both to deepening our understanding of the essence of contemporary capitalism and to offering rational proposals for the existential conditions of real individuals, holding significant theoretical and practical importance.

从马克思主义的基本立场来看，现实的人的自由而全面的发展问题是马克思主义最关切的重要议题。现实的人是一切社会关系的总和，个体在日常生活实践中，通过与他人、社会的交往，确定主体的自我定位和自我身份的认同感。然而，在加速资本主义社会，现代的加速动力通过增加每个时间单位中的行为速度来实现对个体剥削的机制，不仅改变了主体的交往方式，也改变了主体的存在方式。日常生活的不受掌控性、交往活动的情感资本化、经验体系的碎片化等表现形式造成了个体的存在性焦虑，从而导向了自我认同危机。因此，对加速资本主义社会的自我认同危机的研究，既有利于深化对当代资本主义本质的认识，也为现实人的生存境遇提出了合理化的建议，具有重要的理论与现实意义。

I. The Crisis of Self-Identity in Accelerated Capitalist Society and Its Causes

一、加速资本主义社会的自我认同危机及其成因

Self-identity refers to an individual’s sense of identity. “Self-identity is not a given—that is, the continuity of the individual’s action system—but something that must be created and sustained through the individual’s reflexive activities according to conventions.” This reflexive activity is constructed in the practice of social daily life. Modern institutional systems, the surrounding environment, material interest relations, and daily lifestyles provide the material foundation for specific narratives of self-identity. Therefore, in simple terms, self-identity is the process of maintaining normal interactions with external things and others through practical means in daily life, thereby continuously shaping a sense of self-identity. It embodies the individual’s understanding and reflection on nature and society, representing an awakening and deliberation of self-consciousness. In his *Theses on Feuerbach*, Marx elucidated the practical view of dialectical materialism, pointing out that the essence of the human being “in its reality is the ensemble of all social relations,” thereby establishing the significance of human subjective initiative and social practice. Moreover, in *The German Ideology*, Marx and Engels, proceeding from the historical materialist standpoint that social being determines social consciousness, revealed that the activities of real individuals and their material living conditions are the premise of a scientific view of history, clarifying the decisive role of material production in the development of human history. Marx and Engels’ thought on the essence of the human being laid the theoretical foundation for the study of self-identity. Under the guidance of this scientific thought, Marxist analysis of self-identity encompasses two dimensions: one is the dimension of social relations, and the other is the dimension of material production.

自我认同指的是一种个体身份感的认同。“自我身份认同不是给定的，即个体行动系统之延续性结果，而是要在个体反思性活动中依据惯例被创造和维持的某种东西。”这种反思性活动是在社会日常生活实践中建构的，现代制度体系、周围的环境、物质利益关系、日常生活方式为特定的自我认同叙事提供了物质基础。因此通俗地讲，自我认同是在日常生活中，通过实践的方式保持与外部事物和他人的正常互动，进而持续不断地塑造自我身份认同感的过程。它体现了个体对自然界与社会的认识与反映，代表着一种自我意识的觉醒和慎思。马克思在《关于费尔巴哈的提纲》中，阐明了辩证唯物主义的实践观，指出了人的本质“在其现实性上，它是一切社会关系的总和”，确立了人的主观能动性和社会实践的重要意义。并且，在《德意志意识形态》中，马克思和恩格斯从社会存在决定社会意识的唯物史观出发，揭示了现实的人的活动和他们的物质生活条件是科学的历史观的前提，阐明了物质生产在人类历史发展中的决定作用。马克思和恩格斯关于人的本质的思想为自我认同问题的研究奠定了理论基础，在这一科学思想的指导下，使马克思主义者对自我认同的分析兼顾了两种维度，一种是社会关系的维度，一种是物质生产的维度。

Self-identity is constructed on the basis of social relations and material production relations. Therefore, under the influence and interaction of these two factors, self-identity is continuously reconstructed. Under certain conditions, it may also lead to a crisis of self-identity. The crisis of self-identity is primarily manifested as a loss of the sense of identity and meaning of the spiritual self; the social self faces concerns about ontological security (trust) and existential anxiety; and, driven by material interests, the self deviates from the actual level, resulting in false identity. These symptoms arise “because capitalist production and distribution constitute the core elements of the modern system.” In terms of general characteristics, acceleration is the dominant mode of modern capitalist society. Because acceleration manifests as the saving of time, it represents the capitalist’s ability to obtain more surplus value in less time. The internal logic of acceleration ultimately achieves unity under the goals of accelerated capital valorization and accelerated capital accumulation, thereby “forming a universal capitalist social acceleration driven by the accelerated desire for capital valorization.” Especially in the era of digital capitalism, the characteristics of acceleration are manifested to the greatest extent. Hartmut Rosa defines modern capitalist society as accelerated capitalist society, characterized by three modern acceleration regimes: technological acceleration, acceleration of social change, and acceleration of the pace of life. Rosa points out that social acceleration changes our relationship with the objective world, the social world, and the subjective world. “For the subjective world, the structure of the social world and cultural changes occur faster than the pace of generational change… This has profound implications for identity models and forms of subjectivity.” The mobility, uncertainty, and fragmentation of modern society increase the risk parameters of individual self-identity crises. “People are finally forced to look at their life situations and their mutual relationships with sober eyes.” The logic of capital and the logic of acceleration in accelerated capitalist society constitute the causes of the self-identity crisis, mainly reflected in the following aspects.

自我认同是在社会关系与物质生产关系的基础上建构起来的，因此，在二者的影响作用下，自我认同会被持续地重构。在一定条件下，也可能造成自我认同危机。自我认同危机主要表现为精神自我的身份感、意义感的缺失，社会自我面临着本体安全（信任感）与存在性焦虑的忧思，甚至在物质利益的驱动下，自我偏离了实际的层面而产生了虚假认同。这些症候的产生是“因为资本主义的生产和分配构成了现代制度的核心要素”。从一般特性来看，加速是现代资本主义社会的主导模式。因为加速表现为对时间的节约，代表了资本家可以用更少的时间获得更多的剩余价值。加速的内在逻辑最终在资本增殖加速和资本积累加速的目标下达成统一，从而“在资本增殖欲望的加速驱动下形成了普遍的资本主义社会加速”。尤其是进入数字资本主义时代，加速的特征更是最大程度地得以彰显。哈特穆特·罗萨（Hartmut Rosa）将现代资本主义社会定义为加速资本主义社会，它表征为科技加速、社会变迁加速和生活步调加速三种现代加速体制。罗萨指出，社会加速改变了我们与客体世界、社会世界和主体世界的关系。“对主体世界来说，社会世界的结构与文化的变化，比世代交替的步调还要快……这对身份认同的模式与主体形式带来深远的影响。”现代社会的流动性、不确定性、碎片化的发展增加了个体自我认同危机的风险参数。“人们终于不得不用冷静的眼光来看他们的生活地位、他们的相互关系。”加速资本主义社会的资本逻辑与加速逻辑构成了自我认同危机的动因，主要体现在以下几个方面。

(1) The “Inversion” of Money Fetishism Causes the Alienation of Self-Social Relations

（一）货币拜物教的“颠倒”性造成了自我社会关系的异化

Accelerated capitalist society is closely linked to money fetishism. The capitalist, as personified capital, has the sole goal of achieving valorization and thereby acquiring more wealth. The excessive worship and intense pursuit of money and currency accelerate the circulation of capital. Under the requirement of accelerating the production of surplus value, the capitalist promotes the development of science and technology, increases labor productivity, and drives the accelerated renewal of commodity production. Under the urgent requirement of realizing surplus value, the capitalist must also demand the simultaneous acceleration of sales and consumption, thereby surpassing the dynamic elements of the production sphere. Consequently, the accelerated development and improvement of commodity circulation tools and consumption tools—such as transportation systems, communication media, digital platforms, and electronic currency—are continuously spurred. The accelerated process of capital circulation already involves the accelerated operation of the entire society, and it simultaneously links all social relations with commodity relations and monetary relations.

加速资本主义社会是与货币拜物教紧密相连的。资本家作为人格化的资本，唯一的目标就是实现价值增殖，进而获取更多的财富。对货币、金钱的过度崇拜与强烈追求加速了资本循环的运转。资本家在剩余价值生产加速的要求下，会促进科学技术的发展，提高劳动生产率，推动商品生产的加速更新。而在剩余价值实现的迫切要求下，资本家又必须要求销售和消费的同时加速，这样才能超越生产领域的动态化的要素。因此，不断地催生交通运输体系、传播媒介、数字平台、电子货币等商品流通工具与消费工具的加速发展与完善。资本循环的加速过程已经关涉到整个社会的加速运转，同时它还将一切社会关系与商品关系、货币关系串联在一起。

The essence of money fetishism lies in its inversion of social relations. Its connection with the capitalist’s practical activities of capital causes the alienation of self-social relations. Once money emerges as the finished form of the commodity world, all commodities must be measured by money for their value, and the exchange of commodities must be completed through this intermediary form of money, thereby endowing money with the magic to purchase all commodities. “What I as a human being cannot do… I can do through money.” The money form conceals the social nature of labor and the social relationship between producers and total labor, inverting people’s own social relations into monetary relations of a certain natural attribute, as if money “from the moment it emerges from the ground is the direct incarnation of all human labor.” The mystery of money arises, and people’s worship of commodities transforms into the worship of money. It is precisely this inversion that fills the entire capitalist society with dazzling commodity forms, consumerist ideology, and the principle of money and profit above all else. Subjects lose themselves in daily life, establishing an internal connection between self-identity and money and consumption, flaunting their status and position through the possession of wealth (money) and excessive consumption. This leads to the loss of a diversified self-character, resulting in a crisis of self-identity.

货币拜物教的本质体现在对社会关系的颠倒性上，它与资本家的资本实践活动的联结造成了自我社会关系的异化。作为商品世界的完成形式货币产生之后，一切商品都必须用货币衡量其自身的价值，商品的交换也必须通过货币这种中介形式来完成，从而使货币具有了购买一切商品的魔力。“凡是我作为人所不能做到的……我凭借货币都能做到。”货币形式掩盖了劳动的社会性质，生产者与总劳动的社会关系，使人们自身的社会关系颠倒成一定自然属性的货币关系，就好像货币“一从地底下出来，就是一切人类劳动的直接化身”。货币的神秘性产生了，人们对商品的崇拜转化为对货币的崇拜。正是这种颠倒性才使琳琅满目商品形式、消费主义意义形态、金钱利益至上的原则充斥着整个资本主义社会，主体在日常生活中迷失了自我，将自我认同与金钱、消费建立起了内在联系，通过财富（金钱）占有、过度消费彰显自己的身份地位，导致多元化自我品格的丧失，造成了自我认同危机。

(2) The Collusion of Capital and Technology Intensifies the Exploitation of Individual Emotions

（二）资本与技术的合谋强化了对个体情感的剥削

The collusion of capital and technology is the internal driving force behind the development of the accelerated capitalist society. In modern capitalist society, the capital-driven model of economic growth increasingly relies on the mode of production of relative surplus value. Through technological innovation, necessary labor time is shortened, surplus labor time is relatively extended, and the acceleration of surplus-value production is promoted. As Marx and Engels stated: “The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society.” [1]1 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, *The Communist Manifesto* (1848). The combination of capital and technology is the form most suited to the capitalist mode of production; it enables the productive forces of capital to develop relatively fully.

资本与技术的合谋是加速资本主义社会发展的内在动力。在现代资本主义社会，资本驱动的经济增长模式越来越依赖于相对剩余价值的生产方式，通过技术的创新，缩短必要劳动时间，相对延长剩余劳动时间，促进剩余价值生产的加速。正如马克思恩格斯所言：“资产阶级除非对生产工具，从而对生产关系，从而对全部社会关系不断地进行革命，否则就不能生存下去。”资本与技术的结合是与资本主义生产方式最相适应的形式，它能够推动资本的生产力得到较为充分的发展。

However, the collusion of capital and technology is built on the exploitation of laborers, an exploitation that encompasses both physical exploitation and emotional exploitation. During the period of industrial capitalism, the development of large-scale machine industry made the factory system the primary form through which capitalists exploited workers. “It mutilates the laborer into a fragment of a man, degrades him to the level of an appendage of a machine.” [2]2 Karl Marx, *Capital*, Volume 1 (1867), Chapter 15, Section 4. In this situation, the physical exploitation of laborers was the main logic of industrial capitalist society, with emotional exploitation as an incidental form, accompanied by “the accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation.” [3]3 Karl Marx, *Capital*, Volume 1 (1867), Chapter 25, Section 4. With capital innovation, technological progress, and the extensive development of immaterial production, entering the era of digital capitalism, emotional exploitation has also become an independent form of exploitation, marking a further intensification of capitalist exploitation. At the same time, certain important human emotions, namely subjective consciousness or feelings, are, under the accelerated capitalist society’s mindset of using data calculation to dominate the world, all reduced to single numerical values in the form of digits. “Our sense of self-efficacy no longer comes from stimulation, but from instrumental manipulation.” [4]4 Byung-Chul Han, *The Burnout Society* (2010), p. 30. The logic driving individual emotional action submits to the logic of capital valorization and acceleration. Hardt and Negri also point out: “Immaterial labor power (engaged in communication, cooperation, and the production and reproduction of various emotions) occupies a central position in the capitalist production schema and the composition of the proletariat… All these forms of labor are in some sense subjected to capitalist norms and capitalist relations of production.” [5]5 Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, *Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire* (2004), p. 109. Therefore, the capitalist exploitation of emotions has also become an important dimension of immaterial production. The existence and further intensification of emotional exploitation cause a crisis of individual self-identity. It deprives individuals of the unity to consciously and actively achieve a “resonant relationship” [6]6 Hartmut Rosa, *Resonance: A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World* (2016). with the external world on an emotional level, thereby preventing the self from being enriched with a sense of meaning and fulfillment.

但是，资本与技术的合谋是建立在对劳动者剥削基础上的，这种剥削既有对身体的剥削也有情感的剥削。在工业资本主义时期，机器大工业的发展使工厂体制成为资本家剥削工人的主要形式。“使工人畸形发展，成为局部的人，把工人贬低为机器的附属品。”在这一情形下，劳动者的身体剥削是工业资本主义社会的主要逻辑，情感剥削是其附带形式，即伴随着“贫困、劳动折磨、受奴役、无知、粗野和道德堕落的积累”。而随着资本创新、科技进步、非物质生产的广泛发展，进入数字资本主义时代，情感剥削也成为了独立的剥削形式，它标志着资本主义剥削的进一步强化。同时，人的一些重要情感，即主体意识或感受，在加速资本主义社会用数据计算来支配世界的思维模式下，全部都简化为以数字为形式的单一数值，“我们的自我效能感不再来自刺激，而是来自工具性的操控”。个体情感驱动行动逻辑服从于资本增殖的提升逻辑、加速逻辑。哈特和奈格里也指出：“非物质性劳动力量（从事通讯交往、合作及各种情感的生产与再生产）在资本主义的生产图式和无产阶级的构成结构中占据了核心位置……所有这一切劳动形式都在某种意义上屈从于资本主义规范和资本主义生产关系”。因此，资本主义对情感的剥削也成为非物质生产的一个重要面向。情感剥削的存在及其进一步强化，造成了个体自我认同的危机。使个体丧失了在情感上自觉、主动地与外部世界达成“共鸣关系”(1)的统一性，进而无法使自我得到意义感与获得感的充实。

(3) Competition Hijacks Emotional Choice as a Legitimate Principle of Distribution

（三）竞争挟持了情感选择成为合法性的分配原则

Competition is the external driving mechanism for the development of the accelerated capitalist society. In the capitalist market economy system, competition is not only the basic law for capital to pursue profit but has also become the norm of modern social life. “In the competition of social relations, we can easily lose our competitiveness.” [7]7 Alain Ehrenberg, *The Weariness of the Self: Diagnosing the History of Depression in the Contemporary Age* (1998), p. 210. Capitalist private property, as the dominant economic system, causes the privatization of social resources and the differentiation of social classes. To obtain more educational resources, higher income, better job opportunities, and enter the upper strata of society, we must constantly compete. Even if we strive to maintain a competitive posture, we still “constantly fear losing in competition, fear being unable to keep pace… It puts pressure on us by making us so afraid.” [8]8 Alain Ehrenberg, *The Weariness of the Self*, p. 211. This forces all people in modern society to be drawn into the competitive logic of the accelerated capitalist society, compelled to continuously involution. [9]9 “Involution” (内卷, *neijuan*) refers to a phenomenon of intensified competition within a closed system that leads to no genuine progress or development, often used in contemporary Chinese social critique.

竞争是加速资本主义社会发展的外部推动机制。在资本主义市场经济体系中，竞争不仅是资本主义经济追逐利润的基本法则，而且也成为了现代社会生活的准则。“在社会关系的竞争中，我们很容易失去我们的竞争力。”资本主义私有制作为主导的经济体制，造成了社会资源的私有化和社会阶层的分化。我们要想获取更多的教育资源、较高的收入、较好的工作机会，进入社会的上层位置就必须不断地竞争。即使我们极力维持着竞争的姿态，但是我们也会“不断害怕会在竞争中输掉，害怕无法维持步调……它通过让我们如此害怕而对我们施加压力”。这使得现代社会所有人被迫卷入加速资本主义社会的竞争逻辑之中，被迫不断内卷。

In fact, the reason for this phenomenon is that when competition becomes the driving mechanism of acceleration and is universally promoted by the bourgeoisie, “in almost all fields, the primary principle of distribution is the logic of competition.” [10]10 Hartmut Rosa, *Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity* (2013), p. 245. Competition hijacks individual emotional choices, internalizing them as a legitimate distribution mechanism, producing an identity crisis. People attempt to gain higher status, honor, and value through competition. However, under the accelerated capitalist system, competition between individuals ultimately falls into the risk of complete devaluation. Competition among laborers only drives down the price of labor power; our constant self-improvement only raises the entry barriers set by capitalists; workers working harder only allows capitalists to extract more surplus labor. Therefore, under accelerated capitalist conditions, competition increasingly becomes a coercion, no longer a promise that can satisfy individual needs and make people’s lives better. “Rather, it is like an apocalyptic, claustrophobic threat, warning us: if we do not become better, faster, more creative, more efficient, we will lose our jobs… If we pause or stop, we will lose our footing in a high-pressure environment where we must constantly compete.” [11]11 Byung-Chul Han, *The Burnout Society*, p. 45.

事实上，产生这一现象的原因在于，当竞争成为加速资本主义的动力机制而被资产阶级普遍化推行时，“几乎所有领域最主要的分配原则，都是竞争逻辑”。竞争裹挟了个人情感选择，将其内化为合法的分配机制，产生了认同危机。人们试图通过竞争获得更高的地位、荣誉、价值，但是在加速资本主义体制下，个体之间竞争最终陷入完全贬值的风险。劳动者之间的竞争，只会让劳动力的价格变得更低；我们不断地提升自己，只会让资本家设置的准入门槛更高；工人更加努力地工作，只会让资本家攫取更多地剩余劳动。因此，在加速资本主义条件下，竞争越来越变成一种胁迫，不再是能够满足个体需要的承诺，来使人们的生活变得越来越好。“而是像是一种末日启示录一般、幽闭恐惧症一般的恫吓、威胁我们：如果我们没有变得更好、更快、更有创造力、更有效率，我们就会失业……如果我们中断或停下了，我们就会在一个我们时刻都须竞争以对的高压环境中失去立足之地。”

II. Manifestations of the Self-Identity Crisis in Accelerated Capitalist Society and Its Political Economy Critique

二、加速资本主义社会自我认同危机的表征及其政治经济学批判

Individual self-identity is a reflexive practical process, involving three levels: the object of practice, the self, and social relations. The institutional order of modernity deeply influences the formation and continuation of self-identity. The logic of enhancement created by accelerated capitalist society, and the growth society under this logic, envelop individuals in a daily living space of constant acceleration, constant change, and “if not advancing, retreating,” so that everything is measured by the pursuit of quantitative increase. This accelerated, changing social structure shatters the protective framework of stability, causing the self to exhibit numerous problems in accelerated capitalist society. This requires revealing and critiquing it from the perspective of Marxist political economy.

个体自我认同是一个反思性的实践过程，它关涉实践的对象物、自我、社会关系三个层面。现代性的制度秩序深深影响着自我认同的形成与延续，加速资本主义社会造就的提升逻辑，以及提升逻辑下的增长社会，将个体笼罩在不断加速、不断变动、不进则退的日常生活空间之中，以至于任何事务都以追求量的提升作为基准。这种加速、变动的社会结构打碎了稳定性的保护框架，使自我在加速资本主义社会呈现出诸多问题。这需要立足于马克思主义政治经济学的视域，对此加以揭示与批判。

(1) The Commodification Strategy Shapes a False Self-Identity Consciousness

（一）商品化战略塑造了虚假自我认同意识

In Marx’s view, contemporary capitalism remains in the stage of human independence based on dependence on things. In this stage, humans achieve a certain degree of independence, but it must be realized and demonstrated through things. Here, things first manifest as private property, as money. Therefore, human independence must be won through the possession and accumulation of more money. Under the guidance of this ideology of money fetishism, capitalism constructs the commodity logic and commodification strategy, relying on commodities to shape the capital accumulation model of “money-commodity-more money,” and constantly promotes the accelerated movement of the entire circulation process.

在马克思看来，当代资本主义仍然处于以物的依赖性为基础的人的独立性阶段。在这一阶段，人实现了一定的独立性，但是需要借助物来实现和彰显，这里的物首先表现为私有财产，表现为货币。因此，人的独立性需要通过更多货币的占有和积累来赢得。在这一货币拜物教意识形态的指导下，资本主义建构起商品逻辑和商品化战略，以商品为依托，塑造了“货币-商品-更多货币”的资本积累模式，并且不断地推动整个循环过程的加速运动。

In the accelerated capitalist society, the dazzling array of commodity forms and consumerist practices have constituted the center of social life. In Anthony Giddens’s view, modern society creates space for self-planning and self-identity, “yet this process must proceed under conditions strongly influenced by the standardizing effects of commodified capitalism.” Therefore, the logic of commodification directly impacts self-planning and the establishment of self-development. On the one hand, the expansion of the capitalist market and the spread of neoliberal ideology elevate consumption to a symbol of the right to freedom, and “self-identity is regarded as an important driving factor of general consumer behavior.” At the same time, capitalists have initiated strategies to induce consumption. They package commodities according to the specific consumption of different groups, catering to consumers’ tastes, and also use methods such as celebrity endorsements and media dissemination to render the symbolic meanings of commodities, inducing the masses to pursue them. The vast array of commodity forms, the visual symbols created by media idols, and the precise targeting of marketing methods cause individuals to gradually lose themselves, weakening their autonomy, and the consumption of commodities gradually becomes an all-encompassing framework for individual free expression and self-realization. As Zygmunt Bauman states: “The individual’s needs for autonomy, self-definition, authentic life, and personal perfection are all transformed into the possession and consumption of commodities provided by the market.” On the other hand, individuals influenced by commodification strategies also develop a pathological form of self-identity, namely narcissistic behavior. Although narcissistic behavior is influenced by various factors, “under the broad context of consumerism, narcissistic traits can become evident only when commodification elevates appearance as the standard of value judgment and treats self-development as a form of display.” In this situation, individual self-identity and self-development are both established under a system of standards based on others’ evaluations. Individuals package themselves with commodities, flaunt their personalities, and measure their status; the appearance of commodities replaces their substance, and symbolic value replaces use value. Therefore, to cater to people’s false identity recognition, various luxury and high-end commodities exhibit premium effects. Various brand-name bags, custom-made clothing, high-end leisure and entertainment venues, etc., fill the commodity market. People pursue them, possess them, and display them to adorn their external characteristics, thereby meeting the expectations of others in social situations.

在加速资本主义社会，琳琅满目的商品形式与消费主义实践方式已经构成了社会生活的中心。在安东尼·吉登斯（Anthony Giddens）看来，现代社会为自我的规划和自我认同创造了空间，“然而这个过程却要在受商品化资本主义标准化效应强烈影响的条件下进行”。因此，商品化逻辑直接冲击着自我的规划以及自我发展的确立。一方面，资本主义市场的扩张和新自由主义思潮的蔓延将消费推捧至自由权利的象征，“自我认同被认为是一般消费者行为的一个重要驱动因素”。与此同时，资本家开启了诱导消费的策略。他们会针对不同群体的具体消费对商品进行包装，迎合消费者的品味，也会通过请偶像代言、媒体传播等方式渲染商品的符号象征，诱导大众追捧。海量的商品形式、媒体偶像打造的视觉符号、营销方式的精准推送让个体逐渐迷失了自我，削弱了自主性，对商品的消费逐渐变成了个体自由表达与自我实现的无所不包的框架。正如齐格蒙特·鲍曼（Zygmunt Bauman）所言：“个体对自主性、自我界定、真实生活以及个人完善之需求都转化成对市场所提供的商品的占有和消费。”另一方面，个体受商品化战略的影响也产生了自我认同的一种病态，即自恋行为。自恋行为虽受各种因素所影响，但是“在消费主义的大背景之下，当且仅当商品化将外表提升为价值判断的标准，并把自我发展视为一种展示的时候，自恋主义特质才有可能变得很明显”。在这种境况下，个体的自我认同及其自我发展都建立在他人评价的标准体系之下，个体用商品包装自己，标榜自我的个性、衡量自身的地位，商品的外表取代了实质，符号价值替代了使用价值。因此，为了迎合人们的虚假身份认同，各种大牌、奢华的商品出现了溢价效应，各种名牌包包、高定服装、高端休闲娱乐会所等充斥着商品市场，人们通过追求它们、占有它们、彰显它们来装扮自我的外在体征，从而符合社会情境中他人的期待。

In summary, the commodification strategy of the accelerated capitalist society constructs a false self-identity consciousness. It overwhelms and obscures the original thoughts and authentic intentions that reflect the individual’s true motives, transforming the plans for self-identity, self-development, and self-realization into plans for realizing capitalist capital accumulation. In essence, the invasion of commodified experience stems from the expansion of the consumerist ideology led by the bourgeoisie. It manipulates and controls consumers’ psychology, intensifying the invasion and colonization of individual experience by capitalist relations of production. “It not only changes individuals’ consumption preferences but also subtly prompts changes in their ideological concepts, cultural views, and political tendencies, turning them into ‘puppets’ manipulated by capital, losing true self-awareness.” Thus, under the domination of the accelerated capitalist logic of commodification, individuals’ seemingly free and conscious consumption activities actually fall into the trap of capitalist materialism, becoming one-dimensional people who one-sidedly pursue commodity symbols. This contradicts the essence of human free and comprehensive development advocated by Marx. It is both a false self-identity and constructs an illusion of freedom.

总之，加速资本主义社会的商品化战略塑造了虚假自我认同意识。它压倒并遮蔽了体现自我真实动机的原初思考和本真意愿，使自我认同、自我发展、自我实现的规划变成了实现资本家资本积累的规划。在本质上看，商品化经验的侵袭来自于资产阶级主导的消费主义意识形态的扩张，它操纵与控制了消费者的心理，加剧了资本主义生产关系对个体化经验的入侵与殖民。“它不仅会改变个体的消费偏好，还会潜移默化地促使个体思想理念、文化观念和政治倾向的改变，使其变成被资本操纵的‘牵线木偶’，失去真正的自我意识。”由此可见，在加速资本主义商品化逻辑的统摄下，个体看似自由自觉的消费活动实际上却跌入了资本主义物质主义的陷阱之中，成为片面追求商品符号的单向度的人。这与马克思所倡导的人的自由而全面发展的本质是相悖的，它既是一种虚假自我认同，又建构起了一种自由的假象。

(II) The Unchecked Expansion of Digital Platforms Increases the Risk of Trust Deficiency

（二）数字平台无序扩张增加了信任缺失的风险

The establishment of trust relationships is the most basic element constituting self-identity. Trust acts like a protective shell, firmly protecting the self in the process of interaction between the self and daily reality. “The establishment of basic trust is the refinement of self-identity, and likewise the condition for the refinement of identity with others and the objective world.” However, in the accelerated capitalist society, the collusion of capital and technology has given rise to digital platforms. These platforms reduce the spatial distance of communication, intrude into the private sphere, expose individuals’ privacy, monitor their information, and mediate interpersonal interactions through digital platforms. This conceals the authentic self, provides space for online violence, increases the risk of trust deficiency, and thereby continuously deconstructs the protective framework constructed by self-identity.

信任关系的建立是构成自我认同所需的最基本的要素。信任如同保护壳一般，在自我与日常现实的互动过程中牢牢保护着自我。“基本信任的建立是自我认同的精致化，同样也是与他人和客观世界身份认同的精致化之条件。”然而，在加速资本主义社会，资本和技术的合谋催生了数字平台的产生，它削减了交流的空间距离，侵入了私人领域，使得个体的隐私被公开、信息被监控，人和人的交往也被数字平台所中介，进而隐藏起本真的面目，为网络行凶提供了空间，增加了信任缺失的风险，进而不断地解构着自我认同构建起的保护框架。

First, the openness of digital platforms leads to the expansion of online violence in a space where authority is weakened. On digital platforms, we are both producers and senders of information. This seems to dissolve the discursive power of all authoritative forces, allowing each of us to speak freely on social media. The individual’s real identity is also concealed by digital platforms, plunging the real other into the vast ocean of digital codes. Accompanying this is the degradation and disappearance of responsibility, and the emergence of online violence. Some individuals, for the sake of traffic effects, spread false information online to defame others, make malicious comments, and create public opinion trends to attract attention. Online violence is a destructive force in society. It labels the victims of online violence with fabricated events. In the tide of online violence, individuals are swallowed up, overwhelmed, and unable to speak out, leading to a serious crisis of trust.

首先，数字平台的开放性导致网络暴力在权威式微的空间里膨胀。在数字平台中，我们既是信息的生产者也是信息的发送者，这似乎消解了一切权威力量的话语权，使得我们每个人都可以在社交媒体畅所欲言。个体的真实身份也被数字平台所隐匿，让真实的对方遁入数字代码的汪洋之中，与之相伴的是责任的退化与消失，网络暴力的产生。有些个体为了流量效应，在网络上散布虚假信息诋毁他人、恶意评论、制造舆论导向，从而博人眼球。网络暴力是社会的破坏性力量，它使被网暴者被子虚乌有的事件所冠名，在网暴大潮中个体被吞噬、湮没，无力发声，产生严重的信任危机。

Second, the monitoring function of digital platforms continuously infringes on individuals’ privacy rights. “Social media may accelerate and intensify a kind of ‘public intimacy,’ but this displayed intimacy often follows the pre-existing logic of the market.” Enterprises like Facebook, Google, and Acxiom in the United States accumulate capital by integrating netizens’ data and information. Driven by economic gains, these digital platforms continuously monitor and spy on the personal information and preferences of online users, establishing vast information databases. According to statistics, Acxiom holds personal data on approximately 300 million U.S. citizens. The Facebook platform frequently changes privacy settings, making users’ photos and conversations public, thereby making the management of personal privacy increasingly difficult. In the era of digital platforms, we live in a digital panopticon. Privacy is leaked, preferences are manipulated, and life is monitored. “In fact, it precisely eliminates trust entirely, replacing it with surveillance.”

其次，数字平台的监控功能，不断触犯个体的隐私权限。“社交媒体可能会加速和强化一种‘公众亲密关系’，但这种显示出来的亲密关系往往遵循市场预先存在的逻辑。”像美国的脸书、谷歌、安客诚这样的企业是以整合网民们的数据信息来获取资本的，在经济获益的驱动下，这些数字平台持续监视、窃探在线用户的个人信息和偏好，建立起庞大的信息库。据统计，安客诚公司拥有大约3亿美国公民的个人数据，脸书平台频繁改变隐私设置，公开用户的照片和对话，从而使管理个人隐私变得越来越困难。在数字平台时代，我们生活在数字全景监狱中，隐私被泄露、喜好被操纵、生活被监视，“实际上，它恰恰全面消灭了信任，取而代之以监控”。

Finally, digital platforms deprive individuals of perceptible authentic communication contexts, giving rise to online fraud. Digital platforms provide spaces for individuals to make friends online, share personal lives and disseminate knowledge through posting pictures and video updates. However, “in the online world, people’s emotions are no longer expressed directly but are mediated by data. Language and text become intense, while emotions become increasingly false.” Some individuals create false personas through image optimization and packaging. Online friendships and romances are a mix of truth and falsehood, difficult to distinguish. Some use the pretext of emotional communication to gain others’ trust, but in essence, they aim to defraud others of money. Various so-called “doctors, health experts, parenting experts,” etc., disseminate popular science knowledge through videos, but the quality of information is uneven. Some even one-sidedly exaggerate the effects of inferior products to promote them for profit. These various chaotic phenomena have long surpassed the true reflection of reality. Through commodification, they have been tamed into symbolic values, losing their authenticity.

最后，数字平台剥夺了可感知的真实交流情境，产生了网络诈骗现象。数字平台为个体提供了网络在线交友，发布图片、视频动态分享个人生活与传播知识的空间。但是，“在网络世界里，人们的情感不再是直接表达，而是被数据所中介。语言、文字变得浓烈，而情感却变得愈加虚假”。有些个体通过图片的优化处理、包装来打造自我的虚假人设，网络交友、网恋有假有真，虚实难辨，有的打着情感交流的幌子，获取他人的信任，实质上则是为了骗取他人钱财。各种各样所谓的“医生、养生专家、育儿专家”等通过视频发布科普知识，信息质量却良莠不齐，甚至为了推销产品获取利润，还片面夸大劣质产品的效果。这种种乱象早已超越了对现实的真实反映，它们通过可消费化处理，已经被驯化成符号价值，失去了真实性。

In essence, digital platforms themselves represent the progress and development of digital technology. From the perspective of their intended developmental goals, they are an important means of promoting human liberation and benefiting humanity. However, in accelerated capitalist society, digital platform technology has become an accomplice of capital, a necessary tool for capital to exploit individual emotions and lives. The promises of technological progress to individuals have become illusions, accompanied by a deeper spiritual alienation and crisis of trust for humanity. This coincides with Marx’s critique of the capitalist “system of machinery.” In the era of industrial capitalism, “science, for labor, appears as an alien, hostile, and ruling power.” [1]1 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, *The Communist Manifesto* (1848). The application of capitalist machinery, while exploiting workers’ physical labor, simultaneously imposes spiritual exploitation, causing individuals to lose their species-being. Entering the era of accelerated capitalism, digital platforms, as an important aspect of the intelligent machinery system, have further alienated spiritual exploitation into an independent domain. Therefore, Marx’s critique of capitalist machinery remains continuously relevant. Only by stripping capital of its control over science and technology can we avoid its power domination over human subjects, thereby enabling science and technology to truly become a real force for promoting the development of productive forces and individual liberation.

质言之，数字平台本身表征着数字技术的进步与发展，从应然的发展目标来看，它是促进人的解放和造福人类的重要手段。但是在加速资本主义社会，数字平台技术却变成了资本的帮凶，成为资本剥削个体情感和生命的必要工具，科技进步对个体的承诺变成了幻象，与之相伴的是人类更深重的精神异化和信任危机。这与马克思对资本主义“机器体系”批判的思想不谋而合，在工业资本主义时代，“科学对于劳动来说，表现为异己的、敌对的和统治的权力。”资本主义机器的应用在对工人体力劳动剥削的同时施加着精神剥削，使个体丧失了人的类本质特性。进入加速资本主义时代，数字平台作为智能化机器体系的重要面向，更是将精神剥削异化为一个独立的领域，因此，马克思对资本主义机器批判的思想持续在场。只有剥离资本对科学技术的控制，才能避免其对人类主体的权力统治，从而使科学技术真正成为推动生产力发展、个体解放的现实力量。

(III) The Totalitarian Logic of Acceleration Causes Individual Existential Anxiety

（三）集权主义式的加速逻辑造成个体存在性焦虑

Anxiety is a core element affecting self-identity. “Because self-cognition related to the constitutive character of the objective world becomes blurred, the gradually increasing sense of anxiety will threaten the cognition of self-identity.” [2]2 Karl Marx, *Capital*, Volume 1 (1867), Chapter 15, Section 4. Rosa proposes that the logic of acceleration in accelerated capitalist society has become a totalitarian force of modern society. It is called totalitarian because: “(a) it exerts pressure on the will and actions of subjects; (b) it is inescapable, and all subjects are affected by it; (c) it is omnipresent, meaning its influence is not limited to one or several areas of social life but extends to all aspects of social life; (d) it is difficult or nearly impossible for people to criticize or resist it.” [3]3 Karl Marx, *Capital*, Volume 1 (1867), Chapter 25, Section 4. Therefore, the logic of acceleration in capitalist society controls every aspect of our lives, and individuals in daily life are inevitably subject to its influence. Oriented by instrumental rationality—that is, the logic of acceleration aimed at maximizing economic efficiency—it ultimately leads to individual existential anxiety, thereby causing a crisis of self-identity.

焦虑是影响自我认同的重要内核。“由于与客观世界之建构性特征相关的自我认知变得模糊不清，逐渐增加的焦虑感便会威胁到对自我身份认同的认知。”罗萨提出，加速资本主义社会的这种加速逻辑已经变成了一种现代社会的集权主义式的力量，将其称之为集权主义式的，是因为：“（a）它对主体的意志与行动施加了压力；（b）它无可挣脱，所有主体都会受其影响；（c）它无处不在，亦即它的影响不局限在社会生活当中某个或某些领域，而是社会生活的所有面向；（d）人们很难或几乎不可能去批评或反抗它。”因此，资本主义社会中加速逻辑控制着我们生活的方方面面，个体在日常生活之中也不可避免地受制于加速逻辑的影响。以工具理性为导向，即以追求经济效益最大化为目标的加速逻辑，最终却导致了个体的存在性焦虑，进而造成了自我认同危机。

On the one hand, individual existential anxiety manifests as the formation of self-exploitation and the loss of autonomy. Accelerated capitalist society is essentially a “performance society” (Leistungsgesellschaft), which pursues economic growth, efficiency improvement, and maximization of performance. Individuals living in a performance society are performance subjects. They are not controlled by external governing institutions; no external force compels them to work or exploits them; they are their own masters and rulers. However, this social form does not lead to freedom but develops into self-exploitation. “Stimulated and summoned by the pursuit of achievement and success, the performance subject constructs itself according to an ideal self rather than an objective superego, spontaneously plunging into the competitive vortex of efficiency creation, smoothly driving the knife of exploitation into its own heart.” [4]4 Byung-Chul Han, *The Burnout Society* (2010), p. 30. For example, no one requires us to work overtime until dawn, but the desire to earn more wages drives us to work; no one forces you to obtain various certificates to enhance your own capabilities, but the pursuit of better job opportunities pushes us to learn; no one even requires you to enroll your children in various tutoring and remedial classes, but the desire to prevent children from losing at the starting line and to achieve better academic results compels parents to do so. The involutional lifestyle is undoubtedly a result of self-enslavement. “This new type of human being, defenselessly plunged into excessive activity, possesses no independence whatsoever.” [5]5 Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, *Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire* (2004), p. 109. Influenced by competition, performance subjects continuously exploit themselves, resulting in overwork and burnout, accompanied by the extraction of individual efforts by the bourgeoisie to feed the accelerating machine.

一方面，个体的存在性焦虑表现为自我剥削的形成与自主性的丧失。加速资本主义社会实际上是一种“功绩社会”，它追求经济增长、效率提升、效绩最大化。在功绩社会生活的个体是功绩主体，他们不受外在统治机构的控制，没有外力强迫他们工作或剥削他们，他们是自身的主人和统治者。但是，这种社会形态却没有导向自由，而发展为一种自我剥削。“功绩主体在功名成就的刺激和召唤下，按照理想性的自我而非对象性的超我建构自身，自发卷进效益创造的竞争漩涡，顺利将剥削的尖刀插向自身心脏。”例如，没有人要求我们加班到凌晨，但是为了赚取更多的工资驱使我们去工作；没有人强迫你考取各种证书提升自身实力，但是为了更好地工作机会推动我们去学习；甚至没有人要求你给孩子报各种辅导班和补习机构，但是为了让孩子不输在起跑线、学习成绩更加优秀，迫使家长为之。内卷化的生活方式无疑都是自我奴役的结果，“这种新型的人类，毫无防御地陷入过度积极性之中，没有任何独立性可言”。功绩主体受竞争的影响不断地自我剥削，造成了过度劳动与倦怠，与之相伴随的却是个体的努力被资产阶级所榨取，用于喂养加速机器。

On the other hand, individual existential anxiety manifests as an uncontrollable life and the destruction of self-efficacy. The increasing technological progress and expansion of the economic sphere in accelerated capitalist society have led to the application of digital, data-driven, and intelligent technologies in daily life, making many aspects of our everyday existence measurable, calculable, and even precise. However, this seemingly controllable life leads to extreme uncontrollability. Accelerated capitalist society, in its single-minded pursuit of economic growth, causes ecological destruction, yet we are powerless in the face of various natural disasters returned by nature; technological progress has also facilitated the production of atomic energy, nuclear weapons, etc., but we cannot control their negative effects; the constant acceleration of society dismantles empirical knowledge, traditional customs, and stable structures, making us increasingly feel that life is out of control. We are like hamsters running on a wheel. Although we face more and more possibilities and options, we also confront unknown outcomes and instability. Although we possess the ability to control, we do not know where we are running or why we must keep running. Therefore, “when we face this uncontrollability brought about by control, we do not feel a sense of self-efficacy, there is no responsive relationship, nor can we generate a relationship of absorption and transformation.” [6]6 Hartmut Rosa, *Resonance: A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World* (2016). All accelerating changes and uncertainties increase the sense of powerlessness in our life experience, leading to the weakening of the authentic self. In Marx’s view, the authentic self should be a free individual with independent consciousness, but the self in accelerated capitalist society faces a lack of freedom, unattainable goals, and more uncertainty.

另一方面，个体存在性焦虑表现为不受掌控的生活与自我效能感的摧毁。加速资本主义社会日益增长的科技进步与经济作用范围的扩展，使数字化、数据化、智能化的技术应用于日常生活中，让我们日常生活所涉及的很多方面变得可测量、可计算，甚至是精准化。但是看似可掌控的生活却导致了极端的不受掌控。加速资本主义社会一味追求经济增长，却导致了生态的破坏，而面对自然回馈的各种自然灾害我们却无能为力；技术的进步也促成了原子能、核武器等的生产，但是面对它的负面效应我们也无法掌控；社会的不断加速瓦解了经验之谈、传统习俗、稳定的结构，让我们越来越感受到生活是失控的。我们像仓鼠一样在滚轮中跑动，虽然我们面临着越来越多的可能性和选项，但是却面临着未知的结果和不稳定性。我们虽然拥有掌控能力，却不知道自己到底要跑向哪里、为什么要一直跑。因此，“我们面对这种由掌控所带来的不受掌控时，不会感觉到自我效能感，没有回应关系，也无法产生吸纳转化关系”。一切加速的变动与不确定性，增加了我们生活体验的无力感，导致本真自我的弱化。在马克思看来，本真的自我应该是一个自由的、有独立意识个体，但是加速资本主义社会的自我面对的却是自由的缺失、无法达至的目标和更多的不确定性。

Overall, accelerated capitalist society is actually a competitive society. Marx critically exposed the “gear” nature of individuals in such a competitive society in *Capital*. As personified capital, “the capitalist is merely a driving wheel in this social mechanism,” [7]7 Alain Ehrenberg, *The Weariness of the Self: Diagnosing the History of Depression in the Contemporary Age* (1998), p. 210. corresponding to a large number of wage laborers who have been reduced to “driven wheels” manipulated and controlled by the capitalist. The capitalist class, as fanatical pursuers of capital valorization, leads to an unbridled chase after capital itself; they only do what is beneficial to capital, even resorting to any means necessary. Therefore, capitalists continuously increase the proportion of constant capital investment to expand the process of capitalist reproduction, even sacrificing the ecological environment, manipulating the political system, and waging wars to plunder resources in pursuit of economic growth. Based on this, the social atmosphere created by the capitalist class as the “driving wheel” in the competitive society brings various existential anxieties and worries of insecurity to the “driven wheels,” as well as the constantly intensifying competitive pressure within the proletariat.

总体而言，加速资本主义社会实际上是一个竞赛社会，马克思曾在《资本论》中批判性地揭露了这种竞赛社会中个体的“齿轮”本质。作为人格化的“资本家不过是这个社会机制中的一个主动轮罢了”，与之相对应的是大批的雇佣劳动者，他们沦为了受资本家操纵支配的“从动轮”。资本家阶级作为资本增殖的狂热追求者，导致了对资本本身的无度追逐，他们只做资本有利的事情，甚至会不择手段。因此资本家会不断增加不变资本投入比例扩大资本主义再生产过程，甚至会牺牲生态环境、操纵政治体系、发动战争掠夺资源等手段寻求经济增长。基于此，资本家阶级作为竞赛社会中的“主动轮”所打造的社会氛围为从动轮带来了各种不安全性的存在性焦虑与忧思，以及不断激增的无产阶级内部的竞争压力。

III. Realistic Paths to Sublate the Self-Identity Crisis of Accelerated Capitalist Society

三、扬弃加速资本主义社会自我认同危机的现实路径

In accelerated capitalist society, the accelerated innovation of technology, the accelerated growth of the economy, and the progress of social development have not liberated people from oppression but have instead deepened this exploitation and oppression, causing a crisis of self-identity. The reason for this is that the logic of acceleration in accelerated capitalism is unified with the process of capital acceleration. It deviates from the attribute of meeting people’s needs and is oriented toward the goal of continuous capital valorization. In this context, “the more capital promotes innovation-driven ‘accelerated upgrading,’ the more it ‘accelerates’ the deterioration of workers’ living conditions, leading to the ‘waste’ of human resources and a crisis of human development.” [8]8 Alain Ehrenberg, *The Weariness of the Self*, p. 211. Avoiding the exploitation of individual emotions by capital and its innovation mechanisms requires a dual construction of the internal self and the external environment. On the internal self side, individuals should enhance their critical reflective ability and construct a rational self-cognition system, so as to restore the subject position of human beings in practice. On the external environment side, it is necessary to supervise and rationally utilize the tool of capital’s domination over people—digital platforms—to prevent them from exerting emotional pressure on people during their operation. At the same time, it is also necessary to start from the origin, insist on the civilized application of capital, sublate the negative effects of capital, and thereby transcend the domination of capital.

在加速资本主义社会，科技的加速创新、经济的加速增长、社会的发展进步非但没有让人从压迫中解放出来，而且进一步加深了这种剥削与压迫，造成了自我认同危机。究其原因，是由于加速资本主义的加速逻辑统一于资本加速的过程，它背离了满足人民需要的属性，导向了资本不断增殖的目标。在这种情境下，“资本越是推动创新驱动‘加速升级’，反而越会‘加速’恶化工人的生存状况，导致人力的‘浪费’和人的发展危机”。规避资本及其创新机制对个体情感的剥削，需要内部自我和外部环境的双重建构。在内部自我方面，个体应该提升自我的批判性反思能力，构建理性的自我认知体系，才能在实践中恢复人的主体性地位。在外部环境方面，既需要对资本统治人的工具——数字平台，加以监管和合理利用，防止其在运行过程中对人的情感施压。与此同时，也需要从本源性出发，坚持资本的文明方面应用，扬弃资本的负面效应，进而超脱资本的宰治。

(I) Enhance the Critical Reflective Ability of the Self and Construct a Rational Self-Cognition System

（一）提升自我的批判性反思能力，构建理性的自我认知体系

The mutual influence and interaction between the subject and the objective world constitute an important mechanism for the formation of self-identity. Self-identity is not determined solely by objective factors; the subject’s own views and understanding of the objective world also affect the outcome of self-identity. Therefore, in the face of the various negative energies brought about by the accelerated capitalist society, we need to enhance our self-reflexivity, cultivate a critical consciousness, avoid being driven by blind desires, and construct a rational system of self-cognition.

主体和客观世界的相互影响、相互作用构成了自我认同产生的重要机制。自我认同并不是由客观因素所决定的，主体自身对客观世界的看法和认识，也影响着自我认同的结果。因此，面对加速资本主义社会所带来的各种负面能量，需要我们增强自我的反思性，培养批判意识，避免被盲目性的欲望所驱使，建构理性的自我认知体系。

First, we must establish a correct view of consumption. One of the great feats of capitalist society’s conquest of the individual is the creation of consumerist ideology, which destroys the individual’s will, plunges the masses into a shopping complex, and thereby enhances false self-identity through continuous consumption. Therefore, individuals should establish a correct view of consumption, cultivate rational consumption concepts, avoid blindly following the propaganda and inducements of capitalists, and fall into the trap of capital profit; improve cognitive ability, recognize that the purpose of consumption is to satisfy one’s own use value, to serve the individual rather than capital; enhance the subject’s sense of agency and self-awareness, so that the will to consume follows the logic of need rather than the logic of desire, and is not confused by the appearance of material forms, thereby losing oneself. Second, strengthen the ability to distinguish right from wrong, and actively respond to the risks and challenges brought by digital platforms. Under the manipulation of capital logic, digital platforms gradually erode the individual’s emotional field, causing individuals to suffer a crisis of self-identity in the era of digital platforms. Therefore, we should improve our ability to distinguish right from wrong, fully consider the various risks contained in social media, enhance risk awareness, and prevent being drawn into online fraud schemes. The internet is not a lawless place; individuals should engage in positive and healthy online communication activities, refrain from aimlessly attacking others or engaging in cyberbullying, and jointly create a clean and upright cyberspace. At the same time, in the process of using digital platforms, we must also protect personal privacy, prevent the leakage of important information, and thereby avoid the extraction and abuse of private data by digital platforms. Third, avoid blind involution [21]21 “Involution” (内卷, *neijuan*) refers to a phenomenon of intensified competition within a closed system that leads to no genuine progress or qualitative improvement, often resulting in burnout and anxiety. and focus on satisfying one’s own needs. Individuals should rationally allocate their work time and life time, rather than converting life time into work time, making themselves busy and anxious. They must draw a clear boundary between work time and leisure time. Define work time as the process of obtaining material means of subsistence, and turn life time into a process of leisure, entertainment, and spiritual and cultural enrichment, taking into account the developmental needs of both the material and spiritual levels. At the same time, enhance individual autonomy, proceed from the level of need, strive to improve the quality of life, work hard to realize personal dreams, and avoid pointless self-consumption and mental oppression. “The goals, values, models, and practices of a good life should, as far as possible, be free from external oppression and restriction.”

一是要树立正确的消费观。资本主义社会对个体征服的伟大事迹之一就是创造了消费主义意识形态，它摧毁个体的意志，使大众陷入欲购情结之中，从而通过不断地消费提高自我的虚假认同。因此，个体应该树立正确的消费观，培育理性的消费观念，避免盲从资本家的宣传与诱导，跌入资本盈利的圈套之中；提高认知能力，认清消费的目的是满足自我的使用价值，是为个体服务而不是为资本服务；增强自我的主体意识和自觉意识，才能将消费的意愿遵从需要的逻辑而不是欲望的逻辑，才能不被物质形态的外表所迷惑，从而迷失自我。二是增强辨别是非的能力，积极应对数字平台带来的风险挑战。数字平台在资本逻辑的操控下逐渐侵蚀了个体的情感领域，使个体在数字平台时代遭受自我认同的危机。因此，我们应该提高辨别是非的能力，充分考量社交媒体包含的各种风险，增强风险意识，防止卷入网络诈骗的骗局。网络不是法外之地，个体应该参与积极健康的网络交往活动，杜绝漫无目的地攻击他人、网暴他人，共同营造风清气正的网络空间。同时，在数字平台的使用过程中，我们也要保护好个人隐私，防止重要信息的泄露，以此避免隐私数据被数字平台攫取与滥用。三是避免盲从性内卷，注重自我需要的满足。个体应该合理分配自己的工作时间与生活时间，而不是将生活时间转化为工作时间，使自己变得忙碌与焦虑。要划清工作时间与休闲时间的界限。将工作时间定义为物质生活资料的获取过程，将生活时间变为休闲、娱乐、精神文化充实的过程，兼顾物质层面和精神层面的发展需要。同时，增强个体的自主性，从需要的层面出发，为提升生活质量而奋斗，为实现个人梦想而努力，不做无谓的自我消耗和精神压迫，“要将美好生活的目标、价值、典范，以及实践，都尽可能免于外在的压迫和限制”。

(II) Strengthen the regulation of digital platforms and create a good cyberspace environment

（二）加强数字平台的监管，创造良好的网络空间环境

The information transmitted by digital platforms plays an important role in individuals’ self-cognition and self-judgment. It creates a trust mechanism for self-identity for individuals through the social resources it possesses and the important role it plays. However, driven by economic interests, digital platforms also exhibit problems such as spying on user privacy, spreading false and deceptive information, cyberbullying, and online fraud, endangering the information security, personal safety, and property safety of network users. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the regulation of digital platforms, standardize the operational mechanisms of digital platforms, prevent the proliferation of false information, and create a good cyberspace environment. This is an important path for constructing self-identity.

数字平台传输的信息对个体的自我认知、自我判断发挥着重要的作用，它通过占有的社会资源和发挥的重要作用为个体创建了自我认同的信任机制。但是，在经济利益的驱使下，数字平台也呈现出窥探用户隐私、传播虚假和诱骗信息、网暴、网络诈骗等问题，危害了网络用户的信息安全、人身安全和财产安全，因此必须加强对数字平台的监管，规范数字平台的运行机制，防止虚假信息的泛滥化发展，创建良好的网络空间环境，是建构自我认同的重要路径。

First, improve the laws and regulations for digital platforms and strengthen their regulation. A restraint system should be perfected from the legal and regulatory perspective, prohibiting digital platforms from privately enabling access permissions, stealing and leaking personal privacy to seek economic benefits, and ensuring user data security. Prevent personal information from being stolen or misappropriated for illegal and criminal activities, ensuring that the activities of digital platforms operate orderly within the scope prescribed by law. This protects the individual rights of platform users and consumers, safeguards users’ online activities, and enhances netizens’ sense of trust. Second, regulate online communication behavior and establish a mechanism for supervising, reviewing, and managing information dissemination on digital platforms. Implement a real-name system for the internet to form behavioral constraints on online subjects. Severely crack down on illegal acts such as spreading false information, selling counterfeit products, and online fraud, so that cyberspace has laws to follow, laws are enforced, and violations are prosecuted, building an effective network governance system and enhancing netizens’ trust. Finally, strengthen the responsibility of digital platforms, balancing economic and social benefits. The operation of digital platforms pursuing only economic benefits while neglecting social benefits is an important factor leading to the mixed quality of digital platform content, which develops in the direction of pan-entertainment, commercialization, and vulgarization. This is not conducive to individuals shaping a good sense of self-identity. Therefore, through the construction of an institutional system, the responsibilities and obligations of digital platforms should be clarified, advocating that while platforms pursue economic interests, they actively guide correct value orientations, strengthen the construction of online content, and improve the quality and level of information dissemination. Establish a platform convention supervision mechanism, pay attention to the accuracy and positivity of information input and output, resist the entry of undesirable users into digital platforms, promote the healthy operation of digital platforms, and safeguard netizens’ spiritual home.

首先，健全数字平台的法律法规，加强数字平台的监管。应该从法律规范方面完善制约体系，禁止数字平台私自开启访问权限，窃取与泄露个人隐私以谋求经济利益的行为，保障用户的数据安全。防止个人信息被盗用、占用实施违法犯罪行为，确保数字平台的行为活动在法律规定的范围内有序运行。从而保护平台用户和消费者的个体权益，为用户的网络在线活动保驾护航，提升网民的信任感。其次，规范网络传播行为，建立数字平台信息传播的监督、审核、管理机制。实行网络实名制，形成对网络主体的行为制约。严厉打击各种宣传虚假信息、售卖虚假产品、网络诈骗等违法行为，让网络空间有法可依，有法必依，违法必究，构建有效的网络治理体系，增强网民的信赖度。最后，强化数字平台的责任，兼顾经济效益与社会效益。数字平台的运行只追求经济效益而忽视社会效益，是导致数字平台内容良莠不齐，朝着泛娱乐化、商业化、低俗化方向发展的重要因素，它不利于个体塑造良好的自我认同意识。因此，应该通过制度体系的建设厘清数字平台应尽的责任及其履行的义务，倡导平台在追求经济利益的同时，积极引导正确的价值导向，加强网络内容建设，提高信息传播的质量与水平。树立平台公约监管机制，注重信息进入与输出的准确性与正向性，抵制不良用户进入数字平台，促进数字平台的良性运转，维护网民的精神家园。

(III) Dialectically understand the characteristics of capital and transcend the domination of capital logic

（三）辩证认识资本的特性，超越资本逻辑的宰制

In Marx’s view, capital has a dual character. On the one hand, it has a civilizing aspect that promotes the development and progress of social productive forces; on the other hand, it has an exploitative aspect that extracts the surplus labor of workers and obtains surplus value. Especially with the combination of capital and technology, this dual character of capital is further exerted. The application of technology and capital can greatly improve production efficiency and raise the level of productive forces. At the same time, the invention and creation of new technologies constantly change our way of life, making our lives more convenient and efficient. However, at the same time, in the accelerated capitalist society, the combination of the two is always based on the exploitation of workers, and with the development and changes of the times, the forms of exploitation have been further innovated, causing the alienation of self-emotion and producing a crisis of self-identity. Therefore, we should dialectically understand the characteristics of capital, adhere to the civilizing application of capital, and transcend the exploitative domination of capital logic.

在马克思看来，资本具有双面性的特征。一方面具有促进社会生产力发展与进步的文明的一面；另一方面又具有榨取劳动者的剩余劳动，获取剩余价值的剥削的一面。尤其是资本与技术的结合，使资本的这种双面性进一步得到发挥，技术和资本的应用能够极大地提高生产效率，提升生产力的水平。同时新技术的发明和创造，也不断地改变我们的生活方式，使我们的生活变得更加便利与高效。但与此同时，在加速资本主义社会，二者的结合始终建立在对劳动者剥削的基础之上，并且随着时代的发展变化，剥削的形式也进一步得以创新，造成了自我情感的异化，产生了自我认同危机。因此，我们应该辩证地认识资本的特性，坚持资本的文明方面的应用，超越资本逻辑剥削性的宰制。

To truly and fundamentally transcend the domination of capital logic, it is necessary to sublate the capitalist relations of production. In Marx’s view, both capitalist relations of production and capital are historical products; they are not eternal. Under the dominance of capital logic, the nature of capital’s constant self-expansion leads to the relative overproduction of capitalist production, which in turn leads to the contradictions and crises of capitalism. And the contradictions and crises of capitalism, under the reinforcement of capital logic, exhibit an insurmountable nature. The deepening of capitalist contradictions and the outbreak of each crisis deal a heavy blow to capitalist relations of production. As Marx said: “No social formation is ever destroyed before all the productive forces for which it is sufficient have been developed.” [22]22 This is a quotation from Karl Marx’s 1859 Preface to *A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy*. Therefore, the demise of capitalism and the transformation of capitalist relations of production will take a certain period of time. Thus, every innovation and progress in capitalist productive forces represents a strategic means adopted by capitalism to mitigate contradictions and crises. But with the immense development of productive forces and the continuous increase in the degree of large-scale socialized production, while wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a very small number of private owners, the antagonism between the two will become more intense. Capitalist relations of production will eventually exhaust all the means they can sustain to survive, lose their vitality for existence, and the capitalist integument will be burst asunder. Only then will capital, along with its negative effects, be dissolved; only then will the individual’s living conditions truly change, the all-round development of the self be guaranteed, and self-identity become more authentic.

真正从根本上超越资本逻辑的宰制需要扬弃资本主义生产关系。在马克思看来，无论是资本主义生产关系，还是资本都是历史的产物，它们都不具有永恒性。在资本逻辑主导下，资本不断增殖的本性，会导向资本主义生产的相对过剩，进而导致资本主义的矛盾和危机。而资本主义的矛盾和危机又在资本逻辑的加持下呈现出不可克服的本性，资本主义矛盾的不断加深与每一次危机的爆发都会沉重地打击着资本主义生产关系。正如马克思所言：“无论哪一个社会形态，在它所能容纳的全部生产力发挥出来以前，是决不会灭亡的。”因此，资本主义的灭亡与资本主义生产关系的变革会经历一定时期，所以资本主义每一次生产力的创新与进步，都代表着资本主义为缓和矛盾和危机所采取的策略手段。但是伴随着生产力的极大发展，以及社会化大生产程度的不断提高，而财富却越来越被极少数的私人占有时，二者的矛盾对抗也会变得愈加激烈。资本主义生产关系最终会耗尽它所能维持幸存的全部手段，而变得失去生存的活力，资本主义的外壳也就炸毁了。只有到那时，资本连同它所具有的负面效应一并消解，个体的生存境遇才会真正得到改变，自我的全面发展才得以保障，自我认同才变得更加真实。

Online editor: Paul

网络编辑：保罗