24/7. Late Capitalism and the Goals of Sleep

Jonathan Crary explores some of the destructive consequences of the continuous and expanding processes characteristic of 21st-century capitalism, where the market operates incessantly in 24/7 mode, pushing us towards constant activity and undermining many forms of social and political self-expression. The author traces how relentless non-time blurs the boundaries between ubiquitous and unrestrained consumption and the emerging strategies of control and surveillance today; he describes the constant management of human attention and the distortion of perception within the frameworks of the coercive practices of modern technological culture. At the same time, he notes that human sleep, being a healing respite, is intrinsically incompatible with 24/7 capitalism, pointing us towards other, more ominous and collective ways of rejecting the destructive models of growth and accumulation in the world.