MODERNITY AS A PSYCHOPOLITICAL MORAL PROJECT: THE CULT OF DEVELOPMENT AS REDEMPTION IN CAPITALISM

Abstract

Modernity, with its ontological and epistemological bases, sought to create a solid moral basis to legitimize the primitive accumulation of capital, transforming practices that were previously reprehensible (usury, exploitation, colonial genocide) into virtues necessary for "progress". By analyzing the transition from feudal morality — which condemned accumulation — to capitalist morality, the article demonstrates how modernity operated an inversion of values, justifying violence as a civilizational stage. From Marx, Weber and decolonial thinkers, it is discussed how modern rationality has sacralized development, turning it into a religious totem (Benjamin) that redeems the guilt of exploitation. Modernity acted on the psychopolitical level to sustain capitalist exploitation, and should therefore be understood not only as a historical period marked by profound economic, political, and social transformations, but also by psychopolitical devices that allowed for the moralization of practices of dispossession, pauperization, extermination, and even genocide.