Capitalism needs people who can quickly jump from one identity to the next
Capitalism destroys sources of stable identity so that it can market new ones, and we are constantly being scrambled, deidentified and made to feel isolated, and thus better subjects to be sold new identities and new relations. Consumer capitalism needs subjects who continually reenact the infantile drama of mirror stage identifications. These subjects must oscillate quickly between schizophrenic consciousness and idealized ego formations. Capitalism needs schizophrenia, but it also needs egos. The contradiction is resolved through the acceleration of the rhythm of late capitalist visual culture. The more capitalism wants us to feel scrambled so that we’re isolated, automatonized, and susceptible to replacing our own needs with the needs of capital, the more quickly capitalism needs to sell us an ever-wider array of identities to feel secure and logical within.
References
- Moskowitz, P. E. (2021). The BuzzFeedification of Mental Health. Mental Health: https://mentalhellth.xyz/p/the-buzzfeed-ification-of-mental.
Metadata
Type:🔴 Tags: Politics / Psychology Status:☀️