Capitalism functions only through our complicity and cooperation

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. As I will never tire of insisting, the most Gothic description of capital is also the most literal. Capital is an abstract parasite, an insatiable vampire and zombie-maker; but the living flesh it converts into dead labour is ours, and the zombies it makes are us. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1418

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that the most Gothic description of capital is also the most literal — that we are the zombies capital makes, that its abstractness depends on our complicity — condenses a whole theory of agency and structure resistant to one-line summary.
• XREF: Connects to the old debate between structuralist and voluntarist readings of capitalism; the author’s own determinism critique links to Milgrom and trust scholars on how co-operation undergirds systems. — connects to: Capitalism functions by redirecting social reproduction toward its own ends — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 347; Capitalism operates as opportunistic parasitism, not optimal allocation — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 180; Capitalism cannot function without its ideological disguises and myths — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 96 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Capitalism cannot function without its ideological disguises and myths #corroborates (0.88) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 96
• Capitalism functions by redirecting social reproduction toward its own ends #expands (0.86) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 347
• Capitalism operates as opportunistic parasitism, not optimal allocation #expands (0.82) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 180
• Capitalism functions without anyone believing in it, unlike fascism #complicates (0.80) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 29
• Capitalism structurally requires collective mood swings to function #expands (0.78) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 75
• Moral critiques of capitalism only strengthen its realism #expands (0.75) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 36