Capitalism – We want what wants us and want to be how we are wanted

But isn’t this all in the nature of things? A standard common sense objection is that people always want to make themselves beautiful, i.e. more beautiful. Aside from the fact that beauty is not an immutable or objective quantity, what does that say? There is a fundamental difference whether one makes oneself beautiful for oneself or others, or whether the market obliges one to adhere to the prevailing ideal of beauty (dieted, styled, costumed, tied, eroticized).

A person who is getting ready for a job interview puts on what they expect will resonate with the other person and, in short, be sellable. Such performances are not individual affairs, but rather regulated and uniformed ones. When a woman puts on a costume or a man puts on a suit, it can mean many different things, but it often means conforming to a certain standard, namely a market-oriented standard that imposes itself as a style and species-appropriate convention on a market-shaped species.

Capital advertising

Let’s take a quick look at a brochure from Wiener Wifi (economic development institute of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce): »The perfect application. This is how you stand out.« Let’s recap: If everyone succeeds in the perfect application, nothing is gained, so it is necessary that some succeed and many fail. In order to survive, others have to be surpassed or pushed away, in short, outdone: “Stand out from the crowd!” is what it says on page 3. If you want to stand out, you have to be able to outdo others. This is nothing more than a crude appeal to the capital killer instinct that is commonly decried as healthy competition: Him or me? You or me? The compulsion is not elevating, but standardizing and ultimately leveling. The clever thing is that standardization succeeds precisely because people are persuaded that they have to stand out from the average.

The aestheticization of the self is not identical to the aesthetic norms that are specified and demanded today, but they are largely synchronized. It is important to set the appropriate signals in the respective performance. It’s not that “I want” and “I have to” can always be strictly separated, but the aim is to open up and point out differences, especially here. Even if subject and individual are decidedly not one, they still reside in one body and belong to the same person.

In order to survive, others have to be lapped or pushed away, in short, outdone.

Identity is present and again not. These contradictions within oneself are felt, but they can rarely be described, let alone understood. The search for yourself is like running the gauntlet. On the one hand, it is difficult to find something, but on the other hand, the questioning search is a special act against the acceptance of the way things are, that is, the social constraints under which we all find ourselves. It should not be claimed that the ego comes to itself in such moments, but it does feel that it is within its possibilities. At least to some extent.

Capital vision

Of course, we look at people through the eyes of the market. The visual impression is the first, fastest and most obvious. He is not just fleeting. This, that or the other is the first thing that catches our eye when we look at it. The sense of sight may not be extremely sensitive, but it has evolved into the most calculating cultural technique when it comes to attributions. In any case, sensory impressions are not immediate certainties, but also, and primarily, impressions mediated by the market. The market shapes ways of seeing and listening; it is based on the taste and intuition that it has configured. We are largely his product.

Although the centers have often succeeded in increasing industrial output immensely and securing the sale of products through purchasing power, this also happens through a reduction in quality. Serial products reduce quality. Due to the quantification of the world, the qualities suffer in many ways. Capital operates a comprehensive flavor fulfillment program. The lack of good taste manifests itself in all areas associated with mass consumption. Distinguishing good food from bad, good reading from bad, good music from bad, not many people are blessed with that, most people are hopelessly overwhelmed. All of this can neither be achieved nor maintained, let alone expanded, without reflection and criticism, but also without practice and care. It often fails less because of the will than because of the pre-occupied time, which is mainly taken up by everyday life, its various errands and business.

Capital desire

The will thing is not at all as simple as free will claims. We are unable to recognize what we really want in the matrix described because the effort required to determine it at all is simply not there. That’s how we want what we want. This is also a fundamental problem of emancipation. Anyone who eats shit and neither tastes it, feels it nor even recognizes it, how can they even think of a different menu and demand and promote it?

What is given is not just accepted. It has the immense advantage of simply being there. So it’s superior. The advantage of common reproduction over critical reflection is obvious: the former is a condition of existence, the latter is not, or better: just a condition (not: that) of a successful life. Without the former nothing works, without the latter many things. Experience and routine, in short know-how, are sufficient for survival and adaptation. Through our everyday actions, we constantly operate the social machinery. We don’t even have to be in favor of it, as long as we do everything we can. We are the junkies of commerce. We drive what drives us. But why and where?