Acid Communism

Acid Communism
“Capital is an abstract parasite, an insatiable vampire and zombie maker; but the living flesh it converts into dead labor is ours, and the zombies it makes are us.”
Basic Information
Aliases	AcidCom Psychedelic Socialism Psychedelic Corbynism Fisherism Left-Accelerationism Neo-Yippie Freak Left (pejoratively by Ken Goffman) ACIDUS NIHILISMUS!1!!!1
Alignment(s)	LeftUnity to  LibLeft  Accelerationists  Socialists   Communists
Ideological Information
Influenced by:	Accelerationism Autonomism Counterculture CyberFeminism Cyberpunk Deleuzianism Frankfurt School Freudo-Marxism Baudrillardianism Lacanianism Marxism Neo-Marxism Occult Post-Humanism Post-Modernism Situationism Spinozism
Influenced	Soulism
Notable people	Americas Matt Christman (1983?-) USA Commonwealth Realm Mark Fisher (1968-2017) UK Nick Srnicek (1982-) Canada Matt Colquhoun/Xenogothic (?) UK Alex Williams (?-) UK Jeremy Gilbert (?-) UK Mike Watson (?-) UK
Variations
School of Thought	Salvagepunk Post-Apocalypse Satirism Situationism
Character Information
Likes	Drugs Communism Music Counterculture
Dislikes	Capitalist Realism Capitalism
Song	Mark Fisher - 20 Greatest Jungle Records Mix (Part 1) Mark Fisher - 20 Greatest Jungle Records Mix (Part 2) Take Care. It's a desert out there... Strawberry Fields Forever Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds Bell's Theme, Official Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Soundtrack E's are good (absolutely outrageous mate) Orphan Tears Radiohead - No Surprises Have a Nice Life - Waiting for Black Metal Record Come Through the Mail Sleaford Mods -Jobseeker The Kinks - House in the Country The Specials - Rat Race Singers & Players - Too Much Work Load Rhythm & Sound - Boss Man eMMplekz - Tethered to my Hot-Spot The Jam - Smithers-Jones Ann Peebles - I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down Kanye West - Spaceship Spandau Ballet - Chant No. 1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On Burial - U Hurt Me The Supremes - Stoned Love The Temptations - Psychedelic Shack Michael Jackson - Off the Wall Dr Kucho! & Gregor Salt - Can't Stop Playing (Makes Me High) Sister Sledge - List in Music (Nile Rogers Remix On Vanishing Land Chic - At Last I Am Free The Suburbs Morden Man

"The new defines itself in response to what is already established; at the same time, the established has to reconfigure itself in response to the new. Eliot’s claim was that the exhaustion of the future does not even leave us with the past. Tradition counts for nothing when it is no longer contested and modified. A culture that is merely preserved is no culture at all."

Mark Fisher

Acid Communism, clipped to AcidCom and sometimes known as Psychedelic Corbynism, is an economically far-left and culturally ambiguous ideology proposed by Mark Fisher. It believes that leftists should take inspiration from and use elements of the 1960's counterculture and psychedelic movements to imagine future political possibilities (but emphasizes not to repeat those movements.)

Acid Communism is extremely existentialist, with beliefs such as the idea that the future is cancelled, because every idea of the future has been thought of and realized in past interpretations of such future, like in sci-fi movies and novels.

History

Acid Communism, as proposed by Mark Fisher, has origins in Jacques Derrida's book The Spectres of Marx in 1993. All that Fisher had written on it was an introduction for a potential book, which was never finished due to his suicide. The unfinished introduction can be read in K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished Writings of Mark Fisher (2004-2016).

Beliefs And Philosophy

Capitalist Realism

In Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative Mark Fisher articulates and goes into detail about the famous quote from Žižek - "It is easier to imagine the end of the world then the end of capitalism." Fisher shows that this is due to our new Postmodern condition. Capitalism declared itself to be the end of history, there are no contenders to it. Even classical rebels have been used to profit Capitalism by buying merchandise of those such as Guevara or other cold war revolutionaries. Small scale rebellion is to Capitalism's benefit. Along with this proposals for systematic change like those of Social Democrats still stay within the realm of Capitalism. It seems as though after the death of an existing system in opposition to Capitalism in the Soviet Union we are unable to imagine anything different. Even in the post 68 disciplinary societies of the 70's and 80's there was still not a closed plane of ideology. To put the predicament in Deleuzian terms, ideological desire has been territorialized to fit into Capitalism.

Hauntology And Lost Futures

In Ghosts Of My Life Fisher continues the logic of Derrida, arguing that from capitalist realism, futures that where to be have been canceled. Take the end of Dialectical Materialism, that being the stateless, classless, utopia of Communism; Fisher argues that the current present is haunted by that lost future. Capitalist realism has effectively "canceled" this future. Fisher agrees with Derrida that there is a spectre of these lost futures haunting us in everyday life. In the predicament of capitalist realism we may be unable to imagine a future beyond Capitalism yet we are haunted by these futures to be. Fisher argues that these spectres of ideas are the main reason for the current spike in depression, as Psychoanalysis can only handle things on an individual level, never considering large systemic problems that could lead to anguish. In the end Fisher feels as though we are trapped, and that the future is canceled.

Personality

Acid communism is different from his mother in that he emphasizes the idea of capitalist realism, "it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism", the idea that there is no viable alternative to capitalism, yet as he can't stand capitalism, he must use psychoactive drugs in order to try to transcend reality to imagine new futures. He is often perceived as nihilistic and an idealistic doomer, but he is noted for being overemphasized in his depression and less known in his optimism. He may even develop schizophrenia.

How to Draw

Flag of Acid Communism

1. Draw a ball.
2. Draw a spiraling rainbow in the ball from the center (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, magenta, pink).
3. Draw a dark red circle in the center of the ball and fill it in with red.
4. Draw a sickle and bong in yellow inside that smaller ball.
5. Draw two red eyes, and you're done!

Color Name		HEX	RGB
	Red	#EE161F	238, 22, 31
	Orange	#FF8022	255, 128, 34
	Yellow	#FFCA06	255, 202, 6
	Green	#1CB34B	28, 179, 75
	Blue	#3D46CD	61, 70, 205
	Violet	#6900C0	105, 0, 192
	Magenta	#A447A5	164, 71, 165
	Pink	#FF78A5	255, 120, 165
	Dark Red	#89000D	137, 0, 13
	Gold	#FFD800	255, 216, 0

Relationships

Friends

• Marxism - Dad, our futures have been stolen; the material conditions influence postcapitalist desire, but postcapitalist desire wishes beyond the material conditions...
• Neo-Marxism and Frankfurt School - A good modern update to Marxism.
• Deleuzianism - I agree completely! Deterritorialize!
• Situationism - You were very influential to me.
• CyberFeminism - We created great memories together in the 80's... it's a shame that's all we have left now, memories...
• Unconditional Accelerationism - Yes, we must reject orthodoxies of praxis to imagine new futures
• Left-Wing Populism and Libertarian Socialism - The dream that we have lost to Neoliberalism.
• Autonomism - You provide an important critique of authoritarianism while remaining Marxist, even if you are a bit outdated. Your aim was to escape existing institutions and we wish to create new institutions.
• Accelerationism - I am basically this but with more of an influence from classical Marxism.

Frenemies

• Kakistocracy - What is Twitter if not a libidinal economy? And I critiqued call-out culture before it was cool. But please stop making fun of me for being a "boring book nerd"
• Marxism–Leninism - You won't really get past him, even if you pretend you think the end of capitalism is easy to imagine.
• Anarchism - Your opposition to authoritarianism is commendable, but your theory is too rigid, arbitrary, and naive.
• Necrocracy - Why are you looking at me like I'm dead?
• Utopian Socialism - You have good intentions, but if you refuse to break away from your naive bubble and see the reality around you, you will be stuck in a mere delusion. You need to accept there is no hope for the end of capitalism in the future... in order to imagine that hope yourself.
• Anarcho-Nihilism - Nothing really matters, however you just create a self-fulfilling prophecy... We can imagine new futures together!
• Post-Leftism - You make some important critiques of traditional leftism and advocate refusal of work, but you are somehow both too idealistic and too pessimistic.
• Post-Anarchism - We come from similar places, but we must seize power rather than try to separate ourselves from it if we are to have any hope of escaping from capital.
• Existentialist Anarchism - You too have broken the power structure that held you together... even if the futures we imagine are different, we share the same desire to dream them. You are far too individualistic however.
• Libertarian Feminism - Livingston, we obviously did some things together, but you are obviously on Capital's side.

Enemies

• Capitalism - Why must you appear in all my visions? Your greedy evils will eternally remain... There's no hope unless we imagine new futures.
• Neoliberalism - You have canceled the future and forced it down to your path... you have left us with no alternatives but to accept your dominion in the world...
• Authoritarianism - I don't much care for you in any of your forms.
• Stalinism - Your failures have provided a great comparison to those of him.
• Social Democracy and Authoritarian Capitalism - Capitalist realism could transform into either of you to survive, but it will still suck.
• Authoritarian Conservatism - Neoliberalism's most prominent opposition today and not any better.

Further Information

Literature

Core Works

• Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? by Mark Fisher
• K-punk: The Collected and Unpublished Writings of Mark Fisher by Mark Fisher
• Exiting the Vampire Castle by Mark Fisher
• Acid Communism unfinished introduction by Mark Fisher

Other Literature

• Ghosts of My Life: Writing on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures by Mark Fisher
• Libidinal Economy by Jean-François Lyotard
• Specters of Marx by Jacques Derrida
• What is Acid Communism?
• Post-Capitalist Desire by Mark Fisher
• The Weird and the Eerie by Mark Fisher
• The Memeing of Mark Fisher: How the Frankfurt School Foresaw Capitalist Realism and What To Do About It by Mike Watson

Left-Accelerationism

• Inventing the Future by Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams
• Manifesto for an Accelerationist Politics by Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams

Salvagepunk

• Hauntology, Accelerationism, Salvagepunk by Xenogothic
• Mark Fisher on two salvagepunk repurposings of Chris de Burgh by Mark Fisher
• Combined and Uneven Apocalypse by Evan Calder Williams

Psychedelic Corbynism

• What is Acid Corbynism?
• Psychedelic Socialism: The Politics of Consciousness, the Legacy of the Counterculture and the Future of the Left

Wikipedia

• Mark Fisher
  • Acid Communism
• 1960s Counterculture
• Psychadelia

Aesthetics Wiki

• Salvagepunk

Online Communities

• r/Acidcommunism
• r/AcidMarxism
• Mark Fisher Depressive Ghostposting

Websites

• K-Punk
• Salvage
• Zer0 Books

Music

• On Vanishing Land by Mark Fisher and Justin Barton

Gallery

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  Credit: u/BE______________, Source

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  Credit: u/Atzyn Source

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