Category: post-capitalism
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Excess as Resistance: The Panacea of Collective Joy in an Age of Fascism
The spectre of fascism that once loomed with unsettling persistence, has now firmly taken root in the American heartland. While it was always present for some, it is now the politics for all. The question of how to resist it is not merely academic but essential. Fascism, as history and…
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2098: Regeneration Day for King Elon
This year’s ceremony was not going to be like the rest. 125 years old is a big milestone after all. To celebrate, King Elon was going to address Fiefdom Terra and rumours were swirling he was going to offer some gifts to mark the occasion. The excitement was palpable. So,…
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Fredric Jameson (1934 – 2024)
Over the weekend, while many of us were undoubtedly enjoying the fruits of the cultural conditions of late capitalism (be that at a theme park, out with friends not seen for years, or simply sat in front of the TV or social media), the main architect of our nuanced understanding…
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Bubblegum Dystopia: The Sweet Decay of Late-Stage Capitalism
I recently came across the term ‘bubblegum dystopia’ (this video explains that it comes from a quip about Terry Gilliam’s 2014 film The Zero Theorem) and oh yes, it’s a *chefs kiss* description of the current conjuncture of late-stage palliative capitalism we find ourselves in… Because while the world boils,…
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Capitalism & Schizophrenia: A contemporary reading
It will not be a surprise to anyone who has attempted to read it, but Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s ‘Capitalism and Schizophrenia’ duology is a labyrinthine experience (to put it mildly). I have picked it up again recently after several years, and despite being wiser and grumpier in my…
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Hauntology: The Persistent Echoes of Lost Futures and Unfulfilled Promises
I sat down over the weekend to watch a Muppet’s Christmas Carol with the kids, and despite it being a tale a about a super-rich oligarch that is essentially guilt tripped into being a charitable entrepreneur, yet maintains his exploitative corporate enterprise but with just slightly higher wages in lieu…
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Juxtaposition in the Capitalocene
One of the fundamental epistemological tenants of the Capitalocene can be analysed via a rather old-fashioned motif: a geographical, specifically, a scalar narrative. That is because our current conjuncture compels us to confront a stark and often discordant juxtaposition: one that chaotically zooms from the cosmological, the planetary, the national,…
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From Le Guin to Afrofuturism via Fisher: Decolonising revolutionary futures
The late, great American science fiction and anti-capitalist novelist, Ursula K. Le Guin said in 2014 these now oft-quoted words: “Books aren’t just commodities; the profit motive is often in conflict with the aims of art. We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable — but then, so did the…
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Advertising, Desire and post-capitalism
Kylie Jenner’s infamous Pepsi ad, that was pulled after a public outcry that it trivialised the Black Live Matter protests in 2017 Advertising shits in your head. It permeates every aspect of our waking (and perhaps soon, non-waking) lives, manipulating our innermost desires, and shaping our perception of what we…
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