Yes. Though maybe we should call it “current ultra-virulent stage capitalism” because “late” indicates that capitalism is inexorably going to die.

Which, alas, may not be true.

But in this case I was specifically thinking about the current age of demographic-targeted marketing and product specialization, which is neither actually individual nor local, but is also not the same mass market standardization as capitalism through the 20th century.

We’re in a place where our narrow-band demographic preferences are used as marketed and marketable identities, and both we — and those marketing them to us — sometimes confuse those with actual individuality.

As a result, we get a situation where many of us know the concept of “standard fantasy” but in some combination don’t know quite what it is, identify with it, or reject identifying with it as a passive-aggressive form of still using it as an identity flag in one hand, while actually making counter-political statements on the other.

And while ambivalence has certainly often marked the position of the consumer under capitalism, the ironic re-positioning of the self in terms of micro-market branding is pretty unique to our couple of decades.

… i could go on, but we’re talking about elves and dragons and invisible cities and aztec catholic cannibal lovers, so i won’t.