Capitalist realism individualizes people and focuses on replicable, transferable experiences. To the extent that an experience cannot be shared or recreated by someone else it is not scalable and monetizable, so capitalist realism will discount it. This leads us to shut down any emotional judgment (or any judgment that could be rejected as “non-rational”) that might arise in the form of nostalgia or unexpected joy.

Interpreted as callings from the past, these feelings give access to a legacy of a community or ideology or way of being that has been hidden under layers of realism but is still available as a resource of common understanding and visions for a better future.

To reflect on those callings, think of your own behaviours that you can’t quite explain or might even be challenged for being at odds with your stated beliefs. It might be an activity at work you find yourself spending an undue amount of time on or a friendship you foster even though the person doesn’t fit into your usual social circle.

It might also be a community or hobby you never really make time for but often come back to when you do have a few hours free on a weekend. Maybe you think that this time you really get into micro-blogging, but then always stop again because it seems so noisy and like nobody would ever read what you write anyway.

Taking serious these urges as callings from the past means recognizing that there’s more going on than just occasionally thinking of a fad again and remembering that it doesn’t work. Usually, when we decide that something isn’t worth doing, we do not repeatedly come back to it. The coming-back to Twitter or Livejournal or a blog or something else could be an expression of a longing to be heard, or a wish for a smaller community that shares a discourse, or an idea that’s formed in your head about the world that is important to change that world. As such, it is not just a fleeting desire akin to feeling like watching a movie, but a part of an identity and a legacy that comes to the surface, and engaging it will not just mean meeting that desire in the moment but bringing that identity to the forefront against the capitalist realism that’s been suppressing it.

References

For a discussion of emotions as judgment, have a look at Martha Nussbaum’s “Emotions as Judgment of Value” in her book “Upheavals of Thought” or available as a stand-alone paper here: https://sci-hub.se/10.1017/CBO9780511840715.002