Instrumental rationalism deepened capitalist anxiety while magic lingered within disenchanted modernity

Evidence

Not only did the means of rational action (e.g., wealth accumulation, calculation, coercive proceduralism, and technical control) not coincide with its aims (e.g., salvation), they pushed modern capitalists deeper into the vortex of anxiety, upending them from the magical routines of their religious, traditionalist past. Magic, however, did not entirely go away alongside such old routines—it lingered on. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 145

Categorization

• XREF: Builds toward the reader’s key mechanism: uncertainty-training persists as a form of divinatory/charismatic practice, relevant to financialized populism as speculative bet.