The Utopia of the Commodity: Revolution by Proxy

The Utopia of the Commodity: Revolution by Proxy

Dr. Sinthome:

It would seem that what we are consuming when we consume the commodity, is not so much the commodity itself, it’s “use-value”, but rather its symbolic-value. Part of this symbolic-value is … the prestige that it confers. But another part of this symbolic-value is … rather the commodity as a proxy for utopia…

In consuming the product we also give voice to our utopian yearnings by proxy, in absentia, as a supplement or remainder… But in such a way as to not change this present, this world, but in the fullest sense of a supplement: as something that intervenes in this world to render it tolerable without risking the disappointed [sic] of failed attempts to change this world….

Perhaps when Zizek or Jodi Dean evokes the values of sacrifice to revolutionary politics, this sacrifice should not be thought as a necessary sacrifice to throw a wrench into the mechanisms of capitalist production, but rather the sacrifice of a desire based on supplementarity, where the future is always deferred, and desire desires through the surrogate.

I recommend reading the main article, if just for the remarks on the iPhone.