Screaming into the void

This forum contribution reads Currency of Nihilism through the lens of John Holloway’s concept of ‘the scream’. It identifies a common thread between Samman’s conception of postmodern nihilism and Marxism’s concern with alienation in capitalism, which poses the question: what space is there for hope? I argue that, in its carefully crafted critique of the nihilistic structures and moods of modern finance, Currency of Nihilism bears no hallmarks of resignation: it is a powerful reminder of our ability to take control of our ‘doing’, of our ‘power-to’, and thus a significant example of ‘negation-and-creation’. Currency of Nihilism is a scream into the void which, perhaps counterintuitively, can be read as an act of hope.