This text of Political Theory seeks to bind together the thought of Theador Adorno and Michel de Certeau by re-visiting Marx's Capital: Vol. 1. In doing so, the paper arrives at a central question of political thought: what is essence? I constellate an understanding of essence from Marx, seeking to apply it both to de Certeau and contemporary political phenomena. Essence becomes a useful tool to understand the relationship between the capitalist subject and object, and their ultimate formation of the capitalist everyday life. It displays that imbedded within each object of capital is a static and dynamic dialectical moment where both oppression and liberation are harbored as potential energy. How each moment is actually realized, however, is grim.