Marx's project to demonstrate that capital is the result of exploitation was essential precisely because of the inherent mystification of capital that is rooted in the buying and selling of labour-power. In the absence of the demystification of capital, there is no going-beyond capital. Crises, stagnation, destruction of the natural environment (indeed, all purely economic movements) do not lead beyond capital because so long as capital appears necessary to workers, they will be dependent upon it. The passivity of workers and its corollary, the durability of capitalism, cannot be considered anomalies for the Marx who understood that capitalism itself produces workers who look upon its requirements "as self-evident natural laws". Rather than anomalies, these are the essence of the problem.