The discourse of creativity masks real needs that capitalism cannot actually satisfy

Evidence

I concluded that chapter by suggesting that, though a fraught, tired cliché, the idea of creativity functions so effectively precisely because it is made to hold the place for all those capacities and powers that are otherwise denied, constrained, enclosed or exploited under neoliberal financialized capitalism: autonomy, agency, freedom, meaningful individuality, imagination and cooperation. As with a politics to counter financialization, a politics of creativity cannot solely be based on critique and deconstruction but must, instead or in addition, seek to show that the real, serious needs and desires encrypted within words like “creativity” cannot be met within the current economic and political structures. Rather, they can only be realized in a very different society and by very different subjects. — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 572

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: the ‘creativity’ discourse as ideological placeholder — an essay unpacking how every creative-economy pitch encrypts unsatisfiable longings for autonomy and cooperation.
• XREF: connects to: Capitalist need-satisfaction depends on suppressing needs — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 383; Creativity’s vagueness makes it effective for financialization while hiding utopian potential — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 51; Creative work rhetoric shifted capitalism’s promises even where work stayed mundane — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 441 (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• Capitalism requires perpetually unsatiated desire to maintain civilizational growth #expands (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3420