I read an anarchist book a while back that said something along the lines of:
"the greater the spectacle the more devious the deception"
What they were trying to say in that, is something that all lefties have bemoaned atleast once in their life. Capitalism's ability to distract humans from the issues that surround them.
We can all see how it happens, inane youtube videos, facebook feeds, computer games. They are all part of the spectacle that justifies Late Capitalism.
What the anarchists wanted to put across was the more absorbed our culture becomes in chasing pleasure the less cognicient we become to things more pressing that our attention should be directed towards. Its the same old bread and circuses thing thats been going on since states began existing.
However much that that may be true it simplifies the greater evil that comes with Late Capitalism's consumer culture. Namely that it rewires us towards addiction.
As a culture we look down on drug addicts. Perhaps this is because of the leftover moralising of a christian past, maybe it is the inability of addicts to pursue Capitalist virtue (excessive wealth), or perhaps it is the drug war that convinced us that drug addicts were flawed, broken human beings.
In reality, the answer to most things is pieces of all possibilities. Such as it is with this.
There is however, one thing that most people don't talk about in regards to addiction. All the above place the negative characteristics on the addict in contrast to the "normal" civilian. The Civilian who maybe lightly (or explicitly) holds christian values, works for a living to buy comfort where they can and never, never breaks the rules of the State.
But like most blind social moralizing, there is no introspection and no examination of the structures that give rise to such Addicts. It is far simpler, and safer for the cohesion and continuance of our current regime to consider the addict immoral and leave it at that.
Unfortunately, we can't just leave it at that.
In Late Capitalist society, most of us are addicts to one thing or another. Its almost a cliche to point out the fact that some addictions are treated far more softly than others. Contrasting the housewife and her valium, the old man and his whisky to the teenage heroin addict and the blacktoothed smoker.
The two former being the butt of jokes in sit-coms the latter two a serious health risk and therefore a risk our countries financial well-being.
And herein lies the root of Addiction.
Here, it becomes necessary to distinguish between two different views of addiction from a mainstream capitalist mindset. One is "Positive Addiction" and one is "Negative Addiction".
Negative Addictions are the ones we all know as Addictions. Heroin abuse, Alcoholism, Addiction to Videogames and every addiction/substance that could land the individual in Jail.
Why call these Negative Addictions? Well, it is because the overuse of these substances leads to a loss of status in society. These are the "addicts" of society, complete with all the social degradation that comes with that label. I name them Negative because of how society views those addicted to them.
Why do look down on those negatively addicted? we will address that after we explain is counterpart. Positive Addictions.
Positive Addictions do not get talked about as much because they are not considered addictions by the mainstream. Rather than addictions, they are socially accepted abuses that are so widespread that no one bats an eye when someone suffers withdrawal symptoms from it. Examples of this are things like, Coffee, Sugar, but most of all, the one positive addiction above all else, Instant Gratification.
The first thing that must be said about Positive Addictions is an answer to the question, How exactly are these addictions? What do you mean by Instant Gratification?
We'll get to Instant Gratification later (referred to as IG from here on out)
The answer comes first with another question. What makes addictions bad?
For this we must look at the negative addictions to find a common link that is unique to Negative Addictions.
The first argument is probably that Addiction destroys the body. True enough to anyone this statement may be, it is hardly unique to Negative Addictions. Workaholics push themselves over the brink of physical destruction as a matter of course. Some jobs explicitly demand this of people. Truckers, by virtue of the excessive speed demanded of them and lack of breaks, often fall asleep at the wheel, killing themselves. White collar workers, due to the stress of their life styles find themselves with heart issues. Sportspeople through their bodies through endless stress to find their bodies breaking down on them halfway through their life.
Sugar and hugely fatty foods have been shown to be quite addictive. Those trying to lose weight by cutting down on sugary drinks find themselves compelled to go back to consuming sugar to mediate their pounding headaches. I hardly have to tell you about the massive weight of health complications obesity has.
The second would probably be that it stops you being a productive member of society.
One can hardly work when drunk or stoned. This is both bad for society and the individual. The society then has to work to care for its fallen member at its own expense. The Individual ends out not being able to pursue its ambition or live a life past its addictions.
It is important for an individual in Late Capitalist society to not partake in Negative Addictions lest they become an unproductive member of society. Lose of productivity may lead to loss of work, loss of work means
So yet again, that requires us to go deeper down the rabbit hole and ask yet another question.
What is productivity?
The typical answer to this question might be something like these answers:
The efficiency with which one turns time into products (Factory workers, hospitality staff etc)
The efficiency with which one uses their time to provide services ( white collar work, construction, most trades)
The efficiency with which a business creates products over a certain period of time. (Inner-business productivity)
How much capital a business can create over certain period of time. (Statistical business productivity)
Productivity is not the same for all classes or all jobs. Productivity is based, by class, like this:
Lower classes: By products over time
Middle Classes: By services/work over time
Managerial Classes: By workplace capital production over time
Capitalist Classes: By Business/Corporate capital Production over time
So, productivity means a different thing according to your class. Accordingly, what you are expected to do in society to become "productive" depends entirely on your class.
A example of this is
It seems that "Addiction" is a term reserved only for those things that do not contribute to Capitalist social virtue. Whereas other things that have every hallmark of being products of an addictive mindset are considered normal and healthy.
Selling laziness. Laziness as the ultimate goal. The better citizens we are, the worse people we are.
Sexism
Old age and a refusal of death
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