Freedom from Time: The Illusion of the Present in Postmodern Capitalism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64718/ciklus/2026-02-02Keywords:
temporality, postmodernism, presentism, acceleration, capitalist realism, very long momentAbstract
From the very beginning, capital has viewed time as a source of profit, and by the mid-19th century, its central role in the functioning of capitalism had become evident. In 21st-century postmodern capitalism, however, we encounter a new situation: time is no longer merely a resource or a culturally malleable framework, but an obstacle to capital’s unlimited accumulation efforts. As an introduction to a broader theoretical study, this paper examines the political and ideological struggles surrounding time in the interest of sustaining contemporary capitalism. I argue that a defining feature of the current era is the marginalization, fragmentation, or elimination of time, as a cultural-ideological context and social practice. The essay analyzes how the contemporary capitalist order seeks to free itself from the constraints of temporality. In doing so, a new form of temporality places not the present time but the moment at the center of cultural-ideological practices.
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