People’s desire for generic homogeneity is a communist longing, not consumer conformity.

Evidence

MF: I don’t think we have to see things in that way. What interests me is almost the opposite — the way we see elements of communism erupting in capitalism, at the point of highest capitalist triumph. Like I always say about Starbucks — Starbucks shows the desire for communism because everything attributed to Starbucks is everything that was said about communism — that it is homogenous, it’s generic, etc., etc. What do people want from Starbucks? Not the coffee — well, I hope not because it’s horrible. They want from it something that is familiar, that’s generic — that is a form of public space, kind of homogenous public space. We can argue that post-capitalism can deliver this better and cheaper than Starbucks does. The desire for public space, the desire for the homogenous and replicated can be synonymous. But all we’ve got at the moment is degraded versions of it, such as Starbucks. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2201

Categorization

• SEED: An essay angle: rebrand the ‘generic’ and ‘homogeneous’ as suppressed socialist desires, reading Starbucks and identical chain spaces as degraded communes rather than mere corporate monotony.
• DEEPTHINKING: Turns a standard Marxist-consumption critique upside down: the very sameness critics deride in chains is evidence of an unmet collective desire capitalism can express but never satisfy.
• XREF: connects to: Desire for capitalism is constructed, not natural, hence alterable — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1744; Cultural homogeneity has a material basis, not an essentialist one. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 405; Consumer choice produces homogeneity, not the innovation it claims — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 2169 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Most people prefer shared mass culture over individual niche preferences. #expands (0.82) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 711
• Culture consumed as consumer goods manipulates people rather than liberating them. #complicates (0.78)
• Consumer choice produces homogeneity, not the innovation it claims #complicates (0.76) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2169
• Capitalist realism operates through resignation, not ideological conversion to neoliberal ideas. #complicates (0.75) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2219
• Cultural homogeneity has a material basis, not an essentialist one. #expands (0.74) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 405
• Working-class individuals often fear equality rather than desire it. #complicates (0.73)
• Desire for capitalism is constructed, not natural, hence alterable #qualifies (0.72) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1744
• Postmodern ethnicity is an optional consumer choice rather than an imposed identity. #qualifies (0.71) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 738