Capitalist accumulation obeys law-like principles yet produces only illusory novelty
Evidence
Exact configurations cannot be predicted in ad vance, even though the law-like behaviour of the transformative force can. Put more concretely, the degree of Fordism and modernism, or of flexibility and postmodernism, is bound to vary from time to time and from place to place, depending on which configuration is profitable and which is not. Behind all the ferment of modernity and postmodernity, we can discern some simple generative principles that shape an immense diversity of outcomes. Yet the latter strikingly fail (as in the case of the serially produced downtown renewals) to create unpredictable novelty, even though the seemingly infinite capacity to engender products feeds all the illusions of freedom and of open paths for personal fulfilment. — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 2145
Categorization
- DEEPTHINKING: This is the core of the rival-periodization argument: law-like transformative force, unpredictable configurations, yet systemic failure to produce genuine novelty — dense, paradigm-level analysis for the reader’s stated purpose.
- XREF: Directly connects to the Jameson-periodization debate the reader is comparing against; also resonates with Milgrom’s institutional-economics reading of capitalist markets. — connects to: Capitalist economic laws are both real and socially necessary illusions — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1343; The modern pursuit of novelty destabilizes fixed social and legal boundaries; Bourgeois ascendancy turned novelty from by-product into an end pursued for its own sake — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 61
Broader Connections
- Capitalist economic laws are both real and socially necessary illusions
#corroborates(0.90) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1343 - The modern pursuit of novelty destabilizes fixed social and legal boundaries
#qualifies(0.70)