Private anti-capitalist belief licenses continued capitalist participation

Evidence

Capitalist ideology in general, Žižek maintains, consists precisely in the overvaluing of belief – in the sense of inner subjective attitude – at the expense of the beliefs we exhibit and externalize in our behavior. So long as we believe (in our hearts) that capitalism is bad, we are free to continue to participate in capitalist exchange. According to Žižek, capitalism in general relies on this structure of disavowal. We believe that money is only a meaningless token of no intrinsic worth, yet we act as if it has a holy value. Moreover, this behavior precisely depends upon the prior disavowal – we are able to fetishize money in our actions only because we have already taken an ironic distance towards money in our heads. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 31

Categorization

• XREF: Extends the Live 8 / Wall-E discussion into the ruling structure of disavowal; echoes the earlier point about capitalism needing no belief and connects to the money-fetish idea from Marx. — connects to: Inner anti-capitalist belief licenses continued capitalist participation. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 31; Believing capitalism is bad licenses continued participation in it — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 31; Capitalism functions on performed belief rather than sincere conviction (+4 more)

Related

• Inner anti-capitalist belief licenses continued capitalist participation. (similarity 0.95)
• Believing capitalism is bad licenses continued participation in it (similarity 0.93)
• Capitalism functions on performed belief rather than sincere conviction (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Believing capitalism is bad licenses continued participation in it #corroborates (1.00) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 31
• Capitalism functions on performed belief rather than sincere conviction #expands (0.85)
• Capitalism differs from fascism in requiring no propaganda or subjectively assumed belief #contradicts (0.80) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 29
• Capitalism’s ideology is now itself anti-capitalist in content #expands (0.75) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 582
• Liberated capitalist subjects may use their freedom to dismantle capitalism itself #complicates (0.75)
• Anti-state rhetoric across the spectrum now sustains capitalist realism #complicates (0.70) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1580