Just doing it: enjoying commodity fetishism with Lacan

Despite prolonged resistance campaigns against what are regarded as unethical production practices of companies such as Nike, people around the world still seem to be happy to spend a lot of money buying expensive consumer products. Why is this so? In this article we discuss this question through the lens of the concept of fetishism. By discussing texts by Freud and Marx, amongst others, we first explore the genealogy of the concept of fetishism. We then develop a Lacanian reading to understand how processes of fetishization dominate today’s capitalist society, producing a modern subject that constantly desires to consume more in order to constitute itself. We argue—with Lacan—that at the heart of this process of the constitution of the subject through consumption is enjoyment or, what Lacan calls, jouissance. Capitalism—as any other socio-economic regime—can thus be understood as a system of enjoyment. </jats:p

Just Doing It. The Imaginary, the Symbolic and the Real in Nike's Commodity Fetish

Since the mid-1990s Nike has been in the 'bad books' of left-leaning commentators, anti-capitalist movements and other protesters and academics alike because of its production practices in 'third world' sweatshops. The term ?sweatshop? was at some stage so tightly connected to the brand Nike, that it was entirely conceivable that this huge, now 30 billion Dollars worth, company could be brought to its knees. It wasn't to be. Despite a worldwide campaign against Nike (and other sweatshop operating companies), the company responded by introducing 'strict' codes and conducts for outsourcing factories and workers to follow, which, it was hoped, would address and deal with at least the more serious allegations of terrible sweatshop working conditions and child labour in many of the 'third world' factories where Nike products are made. Although at first slow to respond to the massive anti-sweatshop campaign, Nike has learned its lesson fast and it can now proudly say that it takes its 'responsibility' very seriously ? at least the company says so on its sleek website http:??nikeresponsibility.com (note that NikeResponsibility itself seems to have become a brand). But this paper is not proposing to revisit 'old news'. Rather, the starting point for our investigation is our claim that part of the failure of the anti-sweatshop campaign was its inability to conceptualize and understand the concrete workings of the Nike commodity fetish. And to be sure, this failure is ongoing. Recently, War on Want, a UK-based charity that is playing a very active part in exposing the malpractices of multinational companies in the 'third world', has been running a campaign 'Let's clean up Fashion' , to fight against low-price fashion items sold by UK chains such as ASDA, Primark, Tesco, and others. While we very much support this campaign in general, we fear that it doesn't deal with the workings of the commodity fetish head-on. That is, campaigns like this are well intended they appeal to consumers' hearts and minds, to their compassion but what they do not manage to do is to put forward a rigorous analysis of how the commodity fetish works, and how it could be disrupted. In our view, only a rupture of the workings of the commodity fetish ? the act ? would achieve real improvements. That is, campaigns like the anti-sweatshop movement, are well intended, but their compassionate pleas are just that: well intended. Žižek (1997) might go further and say that it is campaigns like these that are actually the kernel of today?s ideological cover up. The anti-sweatshop campaign is not fighting the commodity fetish, but enabling it to continue its destructive work precisely through its work of ?transparency?. We will show in the paper how this double-whammy might work in practice, using the case of Nike. But we are jumping ahead of ourselves. Our paper, then, is a discussion of the workings of commodity fetishism. At work with us is not only Lacan, who will primarily provide input into the workings of enjoyment in today?s consumer culture, but also Marx and Freud who were the early champions of conceptualising fetishism. In Capital, Marx (1976) discusses commodity fetishism as the main ideological structure that keeps capital moving. Freud (1977), in contrast, wasn?t interested in capital but the workings of the human mind, and he saw in fetishism a displacement activity that would enable young boys to get to grips with the apparent castration of their mothers (i.e. the lack of a penis) and the possibilities of their own castration. Although Freud wasn?t a reader of Marx, as far as we know, there have been many attempts to read across Marx?s and Freud?s conceptions of fetishism and somehow integrate their different approaches ? we could name Benjamin?s Arcades Project here. Our paper will review such attempts to integrate Marx and Freud, but will then apply these readings to the burning question of: What actually gets people into NikeTown, and what lets us enjoy our visit to the temple of the commodity? In other words, how is it possible that despite the tremendously bad press Nike has had over the past decade, the company is turning out record profit after record profit, as millions flock to the shops to buy its trainers and T-shirts, i.e. they are enjoying the Nike commodity. Here we will make use of Lacan's (1977, 1998) analysis of enjoyment and jouissance in order to understand the workings of the Nike commodity

The Formation of Rapidly Rotating Black Holes in High Mass X-ray Binaries

High mass X-ray binaries (HMXRBs) like Cygnus X-1, host some of the most rapidly spinning black holes (BHs) known to date, reaching spin parameters $a \gtrsim 0.84$. However, there are several effects that can severely limit the maximum BH spin parameter that could be obtained from direct collapse, such as tidal synchronization, magnetic core-envelope coupling and mass loss. Here we propose an alternative scenario where the BH is produced by a {\it failed} supernova (SN) explosion that is unable to unbind the stellar progenitor. A large amount of fallback material ensues, whose interaction with the secondary naturally increases its overall angular momentum content, and therefore, the spin of the BH when accreted. Through SPH hydrodynamic simulations, we studied the unsuccessful explosion of a $8M_{\odot }$ pre-SN star in a close binary with a $12M_{\odot}$ companion with an orbital period of $\approx1.2$ days, finding that it is possible to obtain a BH with a high spin parameter $a\gtrsim0.8$ even when the expected spin parameter from direct collapse is $a \lesssim 0.3$. This scenario also naturally explains the atmospheric metal pollution observed in HMXRB stellar companions.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Black Hole Formation in Fallback Supernova and the Spins of LIGO Sources

Here we investigate within the context of field binary progenitors how the the spin of LIGO sources vary when the helium star-descendent black hole (BH) is formed in a failed supernova (SN) explosion rather than by direct collapse. To this end, we make use of 3d hydrodynamical simulations of fallback supernova in close binary systems with properties designed to emulate LIGO sources. By systematically varying the explosion energy and the binary properties, we are able to explore the effects that the companion has on redistributing the angular momentum of the system. We find that, unlike the mass, the spin of the newly formed BH varies only slightly with the currently theoretically unconstrained energy of the SN and is primarily determined by the initial binary separation. In contrast, variations in the initial binary separation yield sizable changes on the resultant effective spin of the system. This implies that the formation pathways of LIGO sources leading to a particular effective spin might be far less restrictive than the standard direct collapse scenario suggests.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, submitted to ApJ Letter

Cholecystitis & An Enzyme Study

Cholecystitis is inflammation of the gallbladder that develops in short time usually when gallstone obstructs the cystic duct. Patients over the passage of time land to chronic cholecystitis. They have an abnormal liver function test with clinical features suggestive of gall bladder disease. Therefore, systematic step by step reviews of various investigations are important in diagnosis of gall bladder disease. The first step includes clinical evaluation of the patient followed by estimation of enzyme markers.. The seriousness of disease can be estimated from combined information of clinical examination & specialized biochemical tests. Specialized enzymatic markers are helpful for proper follow-up as delay can be devastating. It can form a platform for malignant & cirrhotic changes of liver: Present study has been undertaken to avoid dreads by simple clinical enzyme study. Serum levels of 5’NT/ALP/AST/ALT/Bilirubin were estimated in sixty cases of clinically diagnosed cholecystitis against forty normal individuals. Purpose was to single out a parameter which is most significant & may help as an endoscope to \ud Surgeon for timely intervention. The study delineates5’NT to be superior to ALP due to its specificity &. Sensitivity. While elevated AST & ALT levels signify extent of hepatic cell damage, 5”NT specifically signifies the bile duct obstruction or cholestasis as well as hepatic cell damage. \u