Stagnat temporality an analysis of the temporal dynamics of the 21st century from Mark Fisher, Franco Berardi and Jonathan Crary

Abstract

This article seeks to make a diagnosis of our present situation from three thinkers: Mark Fisher, Franco 'Bifo' Berardi and Jonathan Crary. It is our hypothesis that these three authors, each in his own way, compose a picture that helps to understand a sense of stagnation that would prevail in contemporary capitalism - and which Fisher will call capitalist realism. In Fisher's thought we see an analysis of the sensation of stagnation that is extracted from the analysis of the atmosphere of the cultural realm. In Bifo Berardi's work we find an analysis of how our subjectivity is affected by the demands of contemporary capitalism and ends up generating an exhausted subject. Finally, Crary will allow us to see the entire technical network that composes and intensifies the sense of stagnation. From the diagnosis of these authors, we can speak of a sensation of stagnation in time. What is compromised is not, however, the capacity for change and political transformation. What these authors circumscribe is precisely a sensation that our capacity to aspire to some transformation would be blocked.