Capitalism now pre-formats desires before they can even emerge as subversive
Evidence
What we are dealing with now is not the incorporation of materials that previously seemed to possess subversive potentials, but instead, their precorporation: the pre-emptive formatting and shaping of desires, aspirations and hopes by capitalist culture. … In his dreadful lassitude and objectless rage, Cobain seemed to give wearied voice to the despondency of the generation that had come after history, whose every move was anticipated, tracked, bought and sold before it had even happened. Cobain knew that he was just another piece of spectacle, that nothing runs better on MTV than a protest against MTV; knew that his every move was a cliché scripted in advance, knew that even realizing it is a cliché. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 24
Categorization
- DEFINE: Introduces and defines the book’s key neologism ‘precorporation’ as distinct from incorporation.
- XREF: Parallels Debord’s spectacle and the Frankfurt School treatment of pseudo-individuality; Cobain’s MTV bind relates to Adorno on how ‘to be different’ gets manufactured. — connects to: Capitalist realism makes alternatives to capitalism unthinkable — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 8; Capitalism is an infinitely plastic system that dismantles all transcendent codes; Capitalism subsumes all prior history by converting beliefs into monetized aesthetic objects — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 13 (+7 more)
Related
- Desire for capitalism is constructed, not natural, hence alterable (similarity 0.88)
- Desire is composed, so capitalism owns no natural claim on it (similarity 0.83)
- Capitalism subsumes all prior history by converting beliefs into monetized aesthetic objects (similarity 0.80)
- Late capitalism collapses the distinction between desire and interest that duty once maintained (similarity 0.79)
- Nothing inherently resists incorporation into capital; the enemy is creative capitalism (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Desire is composed, so capitalism owns no natural claim on it
#expands(0.85) - Capitalism co-opts opposition and must be escaped rather than confronted
#corroborates(0.80) — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, 468 - Capitalism requires perpetually unsatiated desire to maintain civilizational growth
#expands(0.80) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3420 - Under capitalism consumption targets abstract value rather than bodily need
#complicates(0.75) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 753 - Capitalism’s material system is interwoven with cultural reproduction
#corroborates(0.75) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 122