Capitalism dissolves fixed moral codes and absorbs every outside force

Evidence

In their account of capitalism, surely the most impressive since Marx’s, Deleuze and Guattari describe capitalism as a kind of dark potentiality which haunted all previous social systems. Capital, they argue, is the ‘unnamable Thing’, the abomination, which primitive and feudal societies ‘warded off in advance’. When it actually arrives, capitalism brings with it a massive desacralization of culture. It is a system which is no longer governed by any transcendent Law; on the contrary, it dismantles all such codes, only to re-install them on an ad hoc basis. The limits of capitalism are not fixed by fiat, but defined (and redefined) pragmatically and improvisationally. This makes capitalism very much like the Thing in John Carpenter’s film of the same name: a monstrous, infinitely plastic entity, capable of metabolizing and absorbing anything with which it comes into contact. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 19

Categorization

• FICTION: The Carpenter’s Thing analogy — an infinitely plastic absorber of all it contacts — is a vivid worldbuilding image for any shapeshifter or assimilating alien entity in fiction.
• DEFINE: Clarifies the Deleuze–Guattari model of capitalism as deterritorializing absorber of all prior codes.
• XREF: connects to: Capitalism is an infinitely plastic system that dismantles all transcendent codes; Capitalism is an infinitely plastic entity metabolizing all prior codes and social systems — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 19; Capitalism depends on moral capital from the very traditions it displaced — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 529 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Capitalism is an infinitely plastic system that dismantles all transcendent codes #corroborates (0.95)
• Capitalism is an infinitely plastic entity metabolizing all prior codes and social systems #corroborates (0.95) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 19
• Capitalism depends on moral capital from the very traditions it displaced #qualifies (0.85) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 529
• Capitalism reproduces itself by drawing civil and cultural life into conformity with its needs #expands (0.85)
• Bourgeois law and state aim to absorb the whole of society into itself #expands (0.80)