Chemical well-being can suppress the motivation for political struggle

Evidence

Fukuyama’s Brave New World inspired argument against SSRIs was that, in producing a feeling of well-being, they remove the psychological motivation for action, for proving yourself. Though Fukuyama’s argument is obviously advanced in the services of pro-Kapital enterprise, its logic can also be used by communists. You will not struggle against Kapital — you will not struggle against anything — if you are emolliated by narcotics. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2380

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader Fisher/K-punk theme of depression and mental health as political categories (already in library, — connects to: Political self-consciousness arises through struggling against opposing hegemonies — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1199; Wellness ideals supply the toxic compound that dissolves left-right political boundaries — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror…, 552; Repressed unhappiness can be mobilized as political support for domination — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 337 (+5 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that mood-altering drugs undercut revolutionary motivation cuts both Right and Left is a genuinely dense dialectical point about pharmacology and politics.

Broader Connections

• Wellness ideals supply the toxic compound that dissolves left-right political boundaries #corroborates (0.85) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 552
• Political apathy can be sanctioned as the system’s healthy basis #expands (0.83) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2341
• Chronic illness conditioned Jaspers toward risk-averse caution in politics #exemplifies (0.79) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 316
• Political self-consciousness arises through struggling against opposing hegemonies #complicates (0.78) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1199
• Medicalizing depression blocks political explanation of its systemic causes #expands (0.77) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 46
• Emotionality aids rather than disrupts political reasoning and democratic life. #complicates (0.76) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1660
• Calm functions as a form of political resistance against shock-induced disorientation #complicates (0.75) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 747
• Repressed unhappiness can be mobilized as political support for domination #complicates (0.74) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 337