Global capitalism’s opacity requires continuous depiction of the barbarous to justify itself

Evidence

But more importantly, the “benign opacity” of the global economic system, which seems to lie beyond the functioning and therefore the power of the state, is a system whose very operation relies upon the continual depiction of the abject limits of the civilized social body, the barbarous and uncivilized, which both justify and motivate the operation of capital. The ideology of global capitalism reveals itself as an almost seamless extension of the rhetoric of empire. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3422 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Advanced capitalism needs two contradictory legitimating discourses at once — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 275; Global capitalism depends on depicting abject others to justify its operation — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3422; Capitalism’s total subsumption paradoxically requires unsublated exteriors to exploit — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory: A Marxist…, 353

Broader Connections

• Global capitalism depends on depicting abject others to justify its operation #expands (0.96) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3422