Meddling with Monkey Metaphors: Capitalism and the Threat of Impulsive Desires
Author(s)
Heinz, Andreas; Rothenberg, Julia
Abstract
We are currently witnessing how a set of disturbing discourses is formed that concern the origin of, and the “cure” for, crime and deviance. This constellation is part of a conservative worldview, that, while thoroughly contemporary, harkens back to an idealized past when social order reigned and everyone knew their place. On a more ominous note, it harkens back as well to another constellation of concepts that many had assumed were buried along with their victims, i.e., a call for a return to a homogeneous Gemeinschaft, expulsion from society of an “Other” that embodies all social pathology, and biologistic or hereditary explanations of human behavior contingently labeled deviant. This article discusses capitalism and the threat of impulsive desires.
