Capitalism's New Clothes

In broadsheet newspapers, television shows and Hollywood films, capitalism is increasingly recognised as a system detrimental to human existence. Colin Cremin investigates why, despite this de-robing, capitalism remains a powerful and seductive force. Using materialist, psychoanalytic and linguistic approaches, Cremin shows how capitalism, anxiety and desire enter into a productive/destructive relationship. He identifies three related kinds of social engagement. These are enterprise and employment, ethics and left-oriented social action, and enjoyment and consumption. As these ideological strands overlap and reinforce one another, the exploitation, violence, injustice, alienation and ecological destruction the system breeds is revealed, but not necessarily identified or addressed as a failure of capitalism. The nuanced and sophisticated argument in Capitalism's New Clothes goes a long way to explaining the contradictions of contemporary existence under a system that has been revealed as damaging and regressive, but is more dominant than ever.