Totalled
Salvaging the Future from the Wreckage of Capitalism
Have you ever felt totalled?
This book provides a utopian vision which could replace the overbearing truth that capitalism encompasses the entirety of our lives, weaving deep into the fabric of all that it means to be human.
Through industrialised warfare, surveillance and commodification, deepening crises and ecological catastrophes, capitalism threatens the total destruction of human civilisation. But in amongst this wreckage there are still functioning parts which can be salvaged through the collective force of the human imagination and the mobilisation of the masses. To do so, we must realise a different future to the apocalypticism forewarned by scientists, prescribed by economists, accommodated by politicians and made spectacle by the entertainment industry.
This book asks how a utopian possibility is discernible through the power of human creation. Can it be realised when as a society we are in different ways materially, ideologically and libidinally bound to the capitalist machine of destruction?
This book provides a utopian vision which could replace the overbearing truth that capitalism encompasses the entirety of our lives, weaving deep into the fabric of all that it means to be human.
Through industrialised warfare, surveillance and commodification, deepening crises and ecological catastrophes, capitalism threatens the total destruction of human civilisation. But in amongst this wreckage there are still functioning parts which can be salvaged through the collective force of the human imagination and the mobilisation of the masses. To do so, we must realise a different future to the apocalypticism forewarned by scientists, prescribed by economists, accommodated by politicians and made spectacle by the entertainment industry.
This book asks how a utopian possibility is discernible through the power of human creation. Can it be realised when as a society we are in different ways materially, ideologically and libidinally bound to the capitalist machine of destruction?
Ciara Cremin is Senior Lecturer in the Sociology Department at the University of Auckland. She is author of several books, including Man-Made Woman, Totalled and Capitalism's New Clothes.
'A compass allowing us to orient ourselves in our obscure and confused time' - Slavoj Zizek, author of Living in The End Times (Verso, 2010)
'An intriguing and original exercise in Lacanian and materialist political theory, and a significant contribution to the great collective project of working to overcome contemporary forms of exploitation, inequality and oppression' - Jeremy Gilbert, Professor of Cultural and Political Theory, University of East London, and author of Common Ground: Democracy and Collectivity in an Age of Individualism (Pluto Press, 2013)
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Year Zero
1. Materially Determined Apocalypse
2. The Three Orders of Apocalypse
3. The Double Helix of Dissatisfaction
4. Production Spiral
5. Consumption Spiral
6. Banquets of Worlds
7. Clash of Axioms
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Introduction: Year Zero
1. Materially Determined Apocalypse
2. The Three Orders of Apocalypse
3. The Double Helix of Dissatisfaction
4. Production Spiral
5. Consumption Spiral
6. Banquets of Worlds
7. Clash of Axioms
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Published by Pluto Press in Jan 2015
Paperback ISBN: 9780745334370
eBook ISBN: 9781783712663
eBook ISBN: 9781783712663
135mm x 215mm