The Ontology of Crisis:  The sublimity of objet petit a and the Master-Signifier

Simon Rajbar

The Ontology of Crisis: The sublimity of objet petit a and the Master-Signifier

Simon Rajbar

Abstract

This paper explores how capitalism solidifies its power through Lacanian understanding of subjectivity. The inquiry intervenes in the capitalist ideological fantasy and its inherent antagonisms in order to analyse the way it strives to fill or erase the ruptures it produces in the social order. This is achieved by focusing on the particular proliferation of objects-commodities, which subjectivity transforms into the objects of desire in the framework of capitalist ideology. Furthermore, I focus on the establishment and signification of meaning within the capitalist matrix, as well as its dialectical overlap with the objects proliferated by the socio-economic system in question. The overlap of objects and meaning seems to produce ideological enjoyment, which solidifies capitalist ideology through subjectivity. Therein appears to lie the strength of capitalist ideology and its appropriation of even social phenomena into consumerist categories. This paper therefore tries to understand how capitalism manipulates ideological enjoyment in its quest to create social reality seemingly devoid of its antagonisms. It leans on the much-neglected Lacanian discourse of the Capitalist, revealing how the daily reality of subjects is driven by unconscious fantasy in its dogmatic ideological circle. The text also hints at the homology between Lacan's surplus-jouissance and Marx's surplus-value.

Keywords

Capitalism, ideology, crisis, ontology, Lacan, Capitalist discourse

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