Theme of Capitalism in What Happened To Monday

The movie What Happened to Monday there is an overarching theme of capitalism, as stated prior these sisters have to work together to live. From reading the book a concept that has stuck with me from chapter 3 there is no other option than capitalism; that capitalism has limitless resources; and that capitalism has infinite affective ability to withstand the pressures of capitalism, including individualization and the privatization of tension, in the absence of the kinds of societies that capitalism despises. Then in chapter 4 Fisher calls this ‘depressive hedonia:’ wherein constant distraction and stimulation is the only solution to hopelessness. 

This concept of being hopeless to capitalism because we do not know any other way is just like the movie What Happened to Monday. They have to risk their lives to have the ability to live, and the society does not know any other way they go along with population control because they believe the kids are being frozen for a better society. The seven sisters are having to defend and out smart the authority to change the system and live a better life. The only way to see a change in a flawed system is to take a risk. But how can we end capitalism when there is so much uncertainty of what it really is stated from the article How Will Capitalism End. “Yet the end of capitalism is doubly ambiguous, for uncertainty about how capitalism might end reflects a deeper uncertainty about what exactly capitalism is. It’s sometimes suggested that this uncertainty is not accidental, that abstraction and opacity are central characteristics of the system, which if true would make the common injunction to “smash capitalism” less than self-evident: Is capitalism even the sort of thing that could be smashed, like a vase or a VCR? If it isn’t, should we expect its demise to come by self-destruction, stagnation, or mutation?” (Luban). This is the uncertainties that come with how to end capitalism and if that is even a possibility or will it fade out on its own.

After reading Capitalist Realism is There No Alternative? There have been many overlapping themes, along with that the idea of individuality has come up after watching the movie. Once they leave their apartment they no longer have their own individual identities, personality, or life, everything about them is identical. But behind closed doors they have the opportunity to create and imagine and be their own person. In the book Fisher States “In line with James’s claims, I want to argue that it is necessary to reframe the growing problem of stress (and distress) in capitalist societies. Instead of treating it as incumbent on individuals to resolve their own psychological distress, instead, that is, of accepting the vast privatization of stress that has taken place over the last thirty years, we need to ask: how has it become acceptable that so many people, and especially so many young people, are ill?”(Fisher 19). This goes along with the movie because in a capitalist society individuality gets pushed to the side, in the movie they can not show their individual self otherwise they will be caught and killed and like Fisher said each mental illness is different for everyone so if they continue to treat them all the same it will not work for everyone. 

Luban, Daniel. End Notes The long history of forecasting capitalism’s demise., The Nation, 26 Jan. 2021, www.thenation.com/article/society/francesco-boldizzoni-foretelling-end-capitalism/.