Capitalism cannot function without its ideological disguises and myths

Evidence

Yet capitalism cannot be ‘purified’ in this way; strip away the forces of anti-production and capitalism disappears with them. Similarly, there is no progressive tendency towards an ‘unsheathing’ of capitalism, no gradual unmasking of Capital as it ‘really’ is: rapacious, indifferent, inhuman. On the contrary, the essential role of the ‘incorporeal transformations’ effectuated by PR, branding and advertising in capitalism suggests that, in order to operate effectively, capitalism’s rapacity depends upon various forms of sheathing. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 96

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: A dense, paradigm-level claim: it rejects any ‘pure’ capitalism critique, arguing that capitalism’s PR-sheathing is constitutive rather than a deviation to be stripped away. Anticipates and forecloses a whole genre of naive unmasking critiques.
• XREF: Rebuts Nick Land’s accelerationism and calls back to Fisher’s earlier claims (ch.3) that capitalism metabolites all prior codes. — connects to: Capital depends on our cooperation even as it zombifies us — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 33; Corporations depend on a fiction that nobody individually believes; Unregulated capitalism with amoral science converts the Eden myth into its obverse — Marianne DeKoven, Utopia Limited: The Sixties and the…, 931 (+13 more)

Related

• Capitalism’s rapacity depends on branding and PR sheathing rather than existing nakedly (similarity 0.88)
• Capitalism functions without anyone believing in it, unlike fascism (similarity 0.87)
• Capitalism functions on performed belief rather than sincere conviction (similarity 0.86)
• Capitalism differs from fascism in requiring no propaganda or subjectively assumed belief (similarity 0.83)
• Capitalist realism is belief in capital’s invincibility, not belief in its merits (similarity 0.82)
• Capitalist ideology works by concealment, not persuasion, and needs no advocates (similarity 0.82)
• Capitalism’s supposed pragmatism masks credulous fantasies of its own exceptional survival (similarity 0.81)
• Capitalist realism reflects social decomposition, not just individual persuasion. (similarity 0.81)
• Capitalism functions only through our complicity and cooperation (similarity 0.80)
• Capitalist realism falls only to internal inconsistency, not moral critique (similarity 0.80)
• Corporate anti-capitalism strengthens capitalist realism rather than challenging it. (similarity 0.80)
• Unregulated capitalism with amoral science converts the Eden myth into its obverse (similarity 0.80)
• Capitalist realism is a pervasive atmosphere that constrains thinking itself, not just culture (similarity 0.80)
• Capitalist realism’s debunking pose masks its own myth of choice (similarity 0.79)
• Moral critiques of capitalism only strengthen its realism (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Capitalism differs from fascism in requiring no propaganda or subjectively assumed belief #contradicts (0.90) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 29
• Market-centered accounts of capitalism function as ideology masking production #exemplifies (0.85) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 475
• Capitalist economic laws are both real and socially necessary illusions #expands (0.85) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1343
• Capitalism’s naturalness and eternity are a hoax #exemplifies (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 26