Revenge Capitalism : The Ghosts of Empire, the Demons of Capital, and the Settling of Unpayable Debts

Capitalism is in a profound state of crisis. Beyond the mere dispassionate cruelty of 'ordinary' structural violence, it appears today as a global system bent on reckless economic revenge; its expression found in mass incarceration, climate chaos, unpayable debt, pharmaceutical violence and the relentless degradation of common life. In Revenge Capitalism, Max Haiven argues that this economic vengeance helps us explain the culture and politics of revenge we see in society more broadly. Moving from the history of colonialism and its continuing effects today, he examines the opioid crisis in the US, the growth of 'surplus populations' worldwide and unpacks the central paradigm of unpayable debts - both as reparations owed, and as a methodology of oppression. Revenge Capitalism offers no easy answers, but is a powerful call to the radical imagination.

Capitalism is in a profound state of crisis. Beyond the mere dispassionate cruelty of 'ordinary' structural violence, it appears today as a global system bent on reckless economic revenge; its expression found in mass incarceration, climate chaos, unpayable debt, pharmaceutical violence and the relentless degradation of common life.

In Revenge Capitalism, Max Haiven argues that this economic vengeance helps us explain the culture and politics of revenge we see in society more broadly. Moving from the history of colonialism and its continuing effects today, he examines the opioid crisis in the US, the growth of 'surplus populations' worldwide and unpacks the central paradigm of unpayable debts - both as reparations owed, and as a methodology of oppression.

Revenge Capitalism offers no easy answers, but is a powerful call to the radical imagination.

Capitalism is in a profound state of crisis. Beyond the mere dispassionate cruelty of 'ordinary' structural violence, it appears today as a global system bent on reckless economic revenge; its expression found in mass incarceration, climate chaos, unpayable debt, pharmaceutical violence and the relentless degradation of common life. In Revenge Capitalism, Max Haiven argues that this economic vengeance helps us explain the culture and politics of revenge we see in society more broadly. Moving from the history of colonialism and its continuing effects today, he examines the opioid crisis in the US, the growth of 'surplus populations' worldwide and unpacks the central paradigm of unpayable debts - both as reparations owed, and as a methodology of oppression. -- Provided by publisher Cover 1 Contents 6 Figures 8 Acknowledgements 10 Preface 12 Introduction: We want revenge 16 1. Toward a materialist theory of revenge 31 Interlude: Shylock's vindication or Venice's bonds? 59 2. The work of art in an age of unpayable debts 63 Interlude: Ahab's coin, or Moby Dick's currencies? 90 3. Money as a medium of vengeance 100 Interlude: Khloe Kardashian's revenge body, or the Zapatista nobody? 124 4. Our Opium Wars 134 Interlude: V's vendetta, or Joker's retribution? 156 5. The dead zone 163 Conclusion 192 Coda 217 Postscript 219 Notes 224 Index 270 Capitalism has become a system of economic revenge, meted out against oppressed populations around the globe.