Market imperatives coerce a capitalist-consumerist mode of life like a state would.

Evidence

Yet this can distract us from structural conditions that both transcend (though they naturally also involve) the state and constitute something approaching a functional equivalent for the coercive enforcement of a particular (capitalist-consumerist) mode of life. The real and observable impact of these factors on the freedom, autonomy, and modes of well-being, flourishing, or happiness available to human beings surely also demands the attention of theorists pursuing the emancipatory aims that critical theory has claimed as its own from the beginning. But while the inherently accelerating dynamics of capitalist competition for profitability are certainly a powerful influence on the types and extent of good realized in human lives in modern society, cultural factors like the aforementioned secularization of the promise of eternal life under the guise of an accelerated exhaustion of experiential options and social-structural factors like the intensifying need for synchronization and coordination that results from the differentiation of social subsystems must also be taken into account. — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 45

Categorization

• DEFINE: States the book’s thesis that social acceleration functions as an impersonal form of coercion (a functional equivalent of state enforcement).
• SHARE: Good for a friend working on critical theory or degrowth: the framing of competitive profitability as a justice-transcending coercive structure.
• XREF: connects to: Neutral liberal states channel citizens toward one homogeneous capitalist form of life. — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 44; Capitalism’s coercion is impersonal market dependence rather than personal domination. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 77; Capitalism’s coercion is impersonal, operating through economic need rather than direct command — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 77 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Capitalism’s coercion is impersonal market dependence rather than personal domination. #expands (0.90) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 77
• Neutral liberal states channel citizens toward one homogeneous capitalist form of life. #corroborates (0.85) — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 44
• Capitalism’s coercion is impersonal, operating through economic need rather than direct command #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 77
• Capitalism reproduces itself by drawing civil and cultural life into conformity with its needs #complicates (0.75)