Capital is an abstract parasite that converts our living cooperation into dead labor

Evidence

What is being disavowed in the abjection of evil and ignorance onto fantasmatic Others is our own complicity in planetary networks of oppression. What needs to be kept in mind is both that capitalism is a hyper-abstract impersonal structure and that it would be nothing without our co-operation. The most Gothic description of Capital is also the most accurate. Capital is an abstract parasite, an insatiable vampire and zombie-maker; but the living flesh it converts into dead labor is ours, and the zombies it makes are us. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 33

Categorization

• FICTION: The self-description ‘the vampire and zombie-maker, and the zombies it makes are us’ is a potent image for horror or speculative fiction about people becoming unwitting agents of an impersonal system.
• XREF: The vampire-of-capital image directly evokes Marx’s ‘capital is dead labor which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor.’ — connects to: Capital is a transcendent force that estranges life from itself — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New…, 193; Capital is abstract yet depends entirely on our voluntary cooperation. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 33; Capital is a hyper-abstract structure that runs on our voluntary cooperation — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 33 (+5 more)

Related

• Capital is a hyper-abstract structure that runs on our voluntary cooperation (similarity 0.94)
• Capital depends on our cooperation even as it zombifies us (similarity 0.93)
• Capital is abstract yet depends entirely on our voluntary cooperation. (similarity 0.93)
• Capital depends on us more than we depend on it (similarity 0.91)
• Capital is a hyper-abstract structure that still depends wholly on human cooperation. (similarity 0.89)
• Capital operates as a collective dream sustained by our own desires and energy (similarity 0.82)
• Capital cannot survive without humans even though humans could survive without it. (similarity 0.81)
• Capitalism operates as opportunistic parasitism, not optimal allocation (similarity 0.79)
• Capitalism functions only through our complicity and cooperation (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Capital depends on our cooperation even as it zombifies us #corroborates (0.92) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 33
• Capital is a hyper-abstract structure that runs on our voluntary cooperation #expands (0.85) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 33
• Capital is a hyper-abstract structure that still depends wholly on human cooperation. #expands (0.85)
• Capital operates as a collective dream sustained by our own desires and energy #corroborates (0.80)
• Capitalism operates as opportunistic parasitism, not optimal allocation #corroborates (0.75) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 180
• Automation qualitatively alters dead versus living labor and surplus value #qualifies (0.72) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 179