This article is my response to Andrzej Szahaj's review of my most recent book, Harmony and Dissonance. Szahaj's polemic is focused on my defense of Friedrich Hayek against accusations of being responsible for the emergence of the capitalism of surveillance. This was the charge made against him in his famous book by Shoshana Zuboff, as well as by Szahaj himself in one of his essays. I completely disagree with both authors and demonstrate that if the US authorities had taken seriously the properly interpreted Hayek's doctrine of freedom under the rule of law, this dangerous variant of capitalism would not have arisen. I also point out that, paradoxically, it is precisely in Hayek's thought that we find suggestions for curbing the digital monopoly that is most dangerous for the whole of humanity.
The article describes the phenomenon of instrumental power in the third modernity. The work aims to define the theoretical framework of the third modernity and the new paradigm of exercising social control through instrumentalism. These concepts come from the works of Shoshan Zuboff and raise the issue of contemporary social relations in a globalised society.
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