Right now I'm reading:

Bullshit Jobs (2018) by David Graeber - I loved Debt but had low expectations for this one and was reluctant to read it (I expected it would just be an extremely padded out version of the essay, which I liked). I'm enjoying it a lot more than I expected, and I'm reminded how skillful graeber was at gently taking a reader along and path that is unambiguously radical, yet each individual step on the path seems casual and reasonable.

Western Marxism (2017) by Domenico Losurdo - it's good. It's Losurdo, if you've read him before this is about the same - very rigorous and orderly arguments that lead to some very powerful insights. I'm only 100 pages in so far but liking it and feel that this new English text might become a vital text once it gets read more widely

Exhalation (2019) by Ted Chiang. Science fiction short stories by one of the best to do it rn. I'm about halfway through, so far I enjoyed his first collection more (Story of Your Life and Others). I liked the first story quite a lot (The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate) but most of the rest of what I've read so has been dominated by one 100 page novella that felt kind of weak for the amount of real estate it takes up. I've heard a few of the later stories are real bangers though so maybe it will balance out.

As for what I'm excited to read next, I'm kind of spinning my wheels a bit. Might do Washington Bullets by Vijay Prishad, or maybe some Strugatsky Brothers. Open to suggestions!

  • RedWizard [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    1 month ago

    Capitalist Realism, into chapter 3 so far. I think chapter 3 is a bit of a reactionary position unfortunately. Fisher tries to make a point about pervasiveness of the "digital matrix" and its connections to mental health and implying ADHD is a kind of manifestation of this relationship. However, and maybe it's because the book is from 2013, its very clear now that ADHD is hereditary, so this idea that ADHD is some kind of manifestation of Capitalist Realism is just bunk.

    Regardless, this neurodivergence can be found in figures throughout history, their descriptions of their mannerisms and behaviors make it clear. A real investigation into the material history of mental health should have exposed this to him.

    I think a more apt description of how Capitalist Realism manifests in the sphere of health and mental health is the way in which it convinces you that these are all personal failings, which was Fishers opening point, the "privatization of stress" but more so, I argue, the "privatization of wellness".

    If you search the collective experience of those with neurodivergence you find this shared thread of abuse from authorities in their life culminating in the belief that they are personally at fault for all their failings, and that all those failings are inherently moral failings. This starts early and is reinforced often by the education system itself. Designed to creat productive and obedient workers, those with neurodivergence rub against this structure.

    The class Fisher is discussing, those born in the 80s such as myself, were plunged into a system pervasive with this thought that children with my brain wrinkles were simply lazy, stupid, or didn't apply themselves. The entire typical/divergent relationship is itself a manifestation of Capitalist Realism, as this atmosphere of productivity naturally separates people into these categories, and the ADA was forged on the red hot anvil of this contradiction.

    Capitalist society demands a kind of uniformity that doesn't exist within the human population. This demand creates this pervasive atmosphere of harsh and damning critique of the individual by the collective. It is no wonder that within capitalist society there almost no concept of collective wellness.