Fame and wealth are resources the left can exploit

Evidence

Brand functions as a figure of identification who intensifies and links together already existing struggles, and incites us to breach the invisible thresholds that lock us into atomised impotence. We can do what we want… Having passed through what on Tuesday he memorably called the “fame paddock” of contemporary celebrity, Brand is now in a practically unique position. Instead of remaining in the condition of hedonic melancholia typical of those with unlimited access to late capitalism’s pleasure gardens, he’s come out the other side, laughing his trickster laugh, with more resources and an invaluable insiderknowledge of how the media machine constructs what counts as reality. His gleeful performance of de-subordination reminds us of the countercultural lesson: if you gain money and success, there’s only one thing to do with the hand that feeds you, and that’s bite it. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1778

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to the book’s recurring theme that celebrity functions as a ‘fantasy light’ (ch12) and the question of whether fame can be repurposed. — connects to: Fame now precedes wealth in the attention economy — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 139

Broader Connections

• Fame now precedes wealth in the attention economy #expands (0.75) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 139