Capitalism is an infinitely plastic entity metabolizing all prior codes and social systems

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. Capital, Deleuze and Guattari says, is a ‘motley painting of everything that ever was’; a strange hybrid of the ultra-modern and the archaic. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 19

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Deleuze and Guattari’s conception of capitalism as an unnatural ‘thing’ that dismantles transcendent codes and re-installs them ad hoc.
• XREF: connects to: Capitalism subsumes all prior history by converting beliefs into monetized aesthetic objects — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 13; Capitalism is an infinitely plastic system that dismantles all transcendent codes; Capitalism’s resilience comes from its plasticity in adopting new social forms — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1647 (+1 more)

Related

• Capitalism dissolves fixed moral codes and absorbs every outside force (similarity 0.93)
• Capitalism’s resilience comes from its plasticity in adopting new social forms (similarity 0.85)
• Capitalism is an infinitely plastic system that dismantles all transcendent codes (similarity 0.82)
• Capitalism transforms itself as a survival strategy yet can undergo epoch-changing change (similarity 0.81)
• Capitalism periodically renews itself through new organizational forms rather than fixed ones (similarity 0.80)
• Capitalism subsumes all prior history by converting beliefs into monetized aesthetic objects (similarity 0.79)
• Capitalism sustains itself by recycling readymade archaisms, never creating the new (similarity 0.78)
• Capitalism’s permanent contradiction enables endless mutation instead of revolution (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Capitalism is an infinitely plastic system that dismantles all transcendent codes #corroborates (0.90)
• Capitalism’s resilience comes from its plasticity in adopting new social forms #corroborates (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1647