Jetsetting is now not the privilege of the elite so much as a veritiginous mundanity for a permanently dispossessed global workforce.
Identitarianism assumes that people are condemned to identify with the positive (ethnic/ gender/ nationalistic) predicates they possess, as if their subjectivity were exhausted by those properties. Exactly the opposite is the case: the authentic dimension of subjectivity consists not in any positive identity but in that which makes identifications.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote argues against the idea that our identities are limited to specific traits, suggesting instead that true subjectivity transcends these identifications.
Mark Fisher's quote critiques the notion of identitarianism, which posits that individuals are defined solely by their inherent characteristics such as ethnicity, gender, or nationality. Fisher emphasizes that real subjectivity goes beyond these limiting labels; it is found in the very act of identification, which allows individuals to relate to a wider range of identities and experiences rather than being confined by predetermined attributes.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the limitations of identity politics.
More from Mark Fisher
All quotes βIf it is true, for instance, that depression is constituted by low serotonin levels, what still needs to be explained is why particular individuals have low levels of serotonin. This requires a social and political explanation.
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If people dying as a consequence of the implementation of measures cannot count as evidence that the legislation has detrimental effects, what would?
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Listening to a news broadcast is like smoking a cigarette and crushing the butt in the ashtray.
The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life comes when dreams are surrendered to reality.
In every heart there is an inner room, where we can hold our greatest treasures and our deepest pain.
We talk about predestination because the Bible talks about predestination. If we desire to build our theology on the Bible, we run head on into this concept. We soon discover that John Calvin did not invent it.