Stories exposing systemic corruption can inadvertently reinforce resignation to it

Evidence

If, as I argued in my last post, the scenes we’re now living through resemble the denouement of The Wire or one of David Peace’s novels, then we must confront the political ambivalence of those fictions again. For what they show, after all, is the System as a Schopenhauerian monstrosity, impersonal and implacable, remorselessly reproducing itself, no matter how many local victories are achieved, no matter how many individuals die or are exposed. Is this an analysis of capitalist realism, or a contribution to it? It’s possible now to see both Peace and The Wire as symptomatic of a political impasse; Peace’s novels show the defeat of collective politics, and The Wire anatomises the consequences of that defeat. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1574

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the Frankfurt School debate (Wiggershaus book) over whether critique of instrumental reason contributes to the cynicism it names. — connects to: The scale and momentum of bureaucratic machinery enables resignation to evil. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3907; Institutional scandals are reframed as isolated individual failures to deflect systemic blame.
• DEEPTHINKING: The question ‘Is this an analysis of capitalist realism, or a contribution to it?’ sits atop a dense reflexive paradox about anti-system fiction under capitalism.

Broader Connections

• The scale and momentum of bureaucratic machinery enables resignation to evil. #expands (0.82) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3907
• Institutional scandals are reframed as isolated individual failures to deflect systemic blame. #exemplifies (0.75)