Under late capitalism, utopian thought reversed its function and now serves as negation

Evidence

For where in the older society (as in Marx’s classic analysis) Utopian thought represented a diversion of revolutionary energy into idle wish-fulfillments and imaginary satisfactions, in our own time the very nature of the Utopian concept has undergone a dialectical reversal. Now it is practical thinking which everywhere represents a capitulation to the system itself, and stands as a testimony to the power of that system to transform even its adversaries into its own mirror image. The Utopian idea, on the contrary, keeps alive the possibility of a world qualitatively distinct from this one and takes the form of a stubborn negation of all that is. — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 222

Categorization

• XREF: The dialectical reversal of utopia’s function echoes Jameson’s own later argument in ‘The Political Unconscious’ about utopian and ideological functions being inseparable - and reverses Marx’s classic dismissal of utopian socialism. — connects to: In late capitalism, perception-renewing defamiliarization has lost its critical function — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 312; Commodified modernism collapses the distinction between real and imaginary negation.; Technofeudalism displaces capitalism by substituting cloud capital for terrestrial capital. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 849 (+2 more)
• DEFINE: Clarifies the Marcusan sense of the Utopian impulse as the revival of negation under postindustrial capitalism, not wish-fulfillment.

Broader Connections

• In late capitalism, perception-renewing defamiliarization has lost its critical function #complicates (0.85) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 312
• Commodified modernism collapses the distinction between real and imaginary negation. #corroborates (0.80)