Ebook: Capitalism and the Limits of Desire

Addressing Spinoza’s perennial question: “why do the masses fight for their servitude as if it was salvation?” Capitalism and the Limits of Desire examines the ways in which self-love has become intertwined with a love of capitalism.
With ongoing austerity and misery for so many, why does capitalism seem to be so insurmountable, so impossible to move beyond? John Roberts offers a scandalous and intriguing response: It is because we love capitalism more than we love ourselves. Capitalism in the form of commodities, and, more importantly, the online platforms through which we express ourselves, has become so much of who we are, of how we love ourselves that it is difficult to imagine ourselves outside of it.
Roberts contends that disentangling ourselves from this collapsing of self into capitalism is possible and that understanding the insidious nature of capitalist thinking even when it comes to our deepest desires is the starting point. Using Marx, Lacan and Spinoza as his guides, Roberts lays out a way for individuals to move forward and forge a sense of self outside the oppressive demands of platform capitalism.