Breakdown of Capitalism: K-vs-K and Critical Aff's

1. Lecture by Clark, Roll Red Capitalism K vs K aff’s

2. Break down of K affs • For the purpose of this lecture, we’ll discuss the categories of: • High Theory Aff’s • Identity type aff’s

3. What we mean by a Critical Aff? • -Kritiks indirectly challenge the other side's arguments by attacking their assumptions • -Problem solving theory: takes the world as it is, aims to promote efficiency/smooth functioning • -Critical theory: stands apart from the existing world and asks "for whom?" and "for what purpose?" • -Concepts/ideas are "contingent"

4. Part II: Vocabulary • Capitalism • Neoliberalism • Modernism • Postmodernism • Structuralism • Post-structuralism

5. Capitalism is… • Capitalism: An economic system characterized by • -ownership of private property • -a free market of exchange • -belief in rational actor model

6. Neoliberalism is… • What is Neoliberalism? • -attempts to explain currently existing capitalism in this moment: capital mobility • -challenges assumptions behind capitalism as an economic system 

8. Postmodernism is… • Postmodernism is a concept which appears in a wide variety of disciplines or areas of study including art, music, film, literature, architecture, and technology and nowadays has burst into popular usage as a term for everything from rock music to the whole cultural style and mood of society

11. What does this have to do with politics?

16. And this guys… • Interest in semiotics • Systems of signs = Difference, not power • Signifies vs object • Minutia of human life, hyperreality • Globalization and symbolic acts • Simulation in a state of simulacrum • End of history – Fukuyama, dustbin of society

17. And this one… • Difference causes identity, instead of identity causing different • Transcendental imperialism – Experience produces new ways of thinking, challenges status quo knowledge • Origami cosmos – where experience continually changes or folds our understanding of being • Society of control, instead of disciplinary society • Arborescent versus rhizomatic thoughts

18. And this one… • Base Materialism- challenges causality and actuality • Spending without reserve • The Accursed Share – Prioritize the spending of excess energy, value in luxury • Sovereignty -- which he defines as “life beyond utility” or “the use of resources for non -productive ends.” • Spirit of the Machine

19. Part III: Cap K vs high theory K affs

20. With the dissolution of art into a commodity or rather with the social reality commodified, what actually happens is that reality becomes the aesthetic. Now what does aesthetic signify? Aesthetic signifies texturedness, packaging, fetishizing, libidinalizing, etc. Terry Eagleton

22. Eagleton on Culture • Culture has existed as critique of policy, government and religion • Culture becomes aestheticized, intensifying culture , hardening it, defining it, commodifiying it, and forcing difference as its key signifier • Culture stops functioning as K, the distance narrows between culture and society, Critique is blunted • Culture now divides– Culture was the function where we could all meet together, despite minor differences • Literature gave a deep consensus of values, from the mid 20th century, literature ceases to be helpful • Revolution that was most successful, was revolutionary nationalism, and now culture sought to divide rather than, an attempt to share humanity • Culture and politics came together, culture couldn’t take the high ground • Culture was now, and is today what people are ready to kill or die for.

23. Generic Link Arguments 1. Question of interests: Focus on the Individual vs the welfare of the collective - the freedom of the subject under capitalism is always the freedom that enhances the economic interests of the owners of the means of production. 2. Identities/culture based on difference - Splinters movements 3. Hot Topic – Che Guevara on your shirt. Commodifies and incorporates postmodern/structuralist dissent by opening up markets for it

24. Generic Link Arguments 4. Horizontalism – An example is Occupy Wall street. 5. Alienation versus Fragmentation – Identity based. Collectivity necessary. 6. Historical Misdiagnosis – Colonialism? Power Politics? Marxism takes it’s history seriously, with a narrow lens 7. Commodification of identity/suffering – Similar to to ‘hot topic’ criticism

25. Alternatives and losing to the perm • Boring Politics – direct engagement with the state that prioritizes material changes in government to decrease capitalism/develop socialism - Good versus State Bad Aff’s – Provides point of competition • Historical Materialism – This engages in revolutionary social humanism, that specifically sees dialectical materialism as the correct form of history – Follow the Money Trail - Unrelenting and historical accuracy key to competition

26. Or, you could go with the DA… • The REVOLUTION IS COMING….we must act like we’re in it at all times… • Always have new evidence, marxists always think it’s coming • Is the K team cutting uniqueness updates for the rev? • Provides uniqueness and takes away the permutation

27. Impact Arguments • Easy to control the root cause, but not always necessary… • Use link arguments to turn case claims • Multiple potential value to life claims • Alienation • Commodification • Rich vs Poor Disparity And….

30. Capitalism is Crisis Ridden • Resource Depletion • Externalized Costs • Competition for scarce resources • Lack of satisfaction with class difference • Democratic limits/failures • Commodification of resistance

31. Baudrillard Specific links • The Symbolic versus Materialism • Consumption vs Production focus • Politics Struggle versus Discursive

32. Bataille Specific Links • Apology- chimera of capitalism – Already Imbued with gift giving. Moved to a postmodern, consumerist economy that ignores production and utility. Protestant ethics of Accumulation of wealth is not ethic •  Peacemaker with Capitalism – Bataille embraces capitalism for its contradictions, relies on hyper-individuality to “challenge it”, but embraces it’s destructive post-modern form – Over-identification with capitalism has the admitted potential of leading to facism, rather than socialism – if it could overturn it. • Consumption as Aesthetics- Under Bataille, expenditure still underlies aesthetics – TO expend excess, you must earn excess • Excess means hyper capitalism- the sort of excess he fantasizes about, that gets rid of utility, is the sort of thing that makes a capitalist foam at the mouth. Buy for the sake of buying, Indulge. Buy some drugs, a video game, more liquor. It’s the type of philosophical justification for the excesses of capitalism that they live for. • The plentitude of resources – Bourgeois perspective

33. Identity Aff Links 1. Identity splinters collectivity -- Already discussed 2. Identity Recognition, means integration into the system • Professor Reed uses the example of Selma and the Oscars 3. Commodification of Suffering/Identity – Specifically in Academia

34. Alternative • Class Collectivism – Reed, supplemented by Hooks – Focus on similarities over difference • Historical Materialism • Boring Politics vs Pessimism affs • Post ID Politics Alternatives like Butler/Brown