The political, ethical, social, philosophical problem of our day is not to try to liberate the individual from the state and from the state's institutions but to liberate us both from the state and from the type of individualization which is linked to the state. We have to promote new forms of subjectivity through the refusal of this kind of individuality which has been imposed on us for several centuries.
Under capitalism, subjectivity can only exist antagonistically, in opposition to its own objectification. To treat the subject as already emancipated, as most mainstream theory does, is to endorse the present objectification of the subject as subjectivity, as freedom.
Subjectivity includes the possibility, for example, that some elements or impulses are subjectively active — they move us — without being consciously known.... It focuses on the "who I am" or, as important, the "who we are" of culture. ... Consciousness embraces the notion of a consciousness of self and an active mental and moral self-production.