International money homogenizes social life into an undifferentiated present
Evidence
The first part of the film examines Berlin through the mono chromatic eyes of a pair of angels. Outside the human time of becoming, they exist in the realm of pure spirit, in infinite and eternal time. They can also move effortlessly and instantaneously in space. For them, time and space just are, an infinite present in an infinite space which reduces the whole world to a monochromatic state. Everything seems to float in the same undifferentiated present, much as contemporary social life floats in the undifferentiated and homogenizing stream of international money. The angels cannot, however, get inside the problem of human decision-making. They cannot resonate with ‘here’ and ‘now’ precisely because they live in a world of ‘always’ and ‘forever.’ — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 1994
Categorization
- XREF: Links the film’s eternal present to the later Jameson-periodization argument Harvey builds toward — the homogenizing money stream anticipates flexible accumulation’s annihilation of distinct temporalities. — connects to: Individual subjects are inserted into discontinuous realities from private life to global capital — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 884; Money economy reduces persons to quantitative exchange value — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 750; The cash economy correlates social expansion with individual differentiation — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 663 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Money economy reduces persons to quantitative exchange value
#corroborates(0.90) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 750 - Money erases qualitative distinctions by reducing everything to quantity
#corroborates(0.90) — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 9785 - Commodity exchange reduces difference to identity through endless novelty
#corroborates(0.80) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 548 - The cash economy correlates social expansion with individual differentiation
#corroborates(0.78) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 663 - Individual subjects are inserted into discontinuous realities from private life to global capital
#complicates(0.75) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 884