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37th out of 63 books
—
19 voters
Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?
by
Mark Fisher
After 1989, capitalism has successfully presented itself as the only realistic political-economic system - a situation that the bank crisis of 2008, far from ending, actually compounded. The book analyses the development and principal features of this capitalist realism as a lived ideological framework. Using examples from politics, films, fiction, work and education, it a...more
Paperback, 81 pages
Published
December 16th 2009
by Zero Books
(first published November 27th 2009)
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So, what do you do about capitalism if you live in a world where, as both Jameson & Žižek have noted, it is easier to imagine the end of the world then the end of capitalism, or as Fisher puts it in the short, engaging, and entertaining book, if there is a "widespread sense that not only is capitalism the only viable political and economic system, but also that it is now impossible even to imagine a coherent alternative to it"?
First up, disagree: I can imagine a viable alternative to capital...more
First up, disagree: I can imagine a viable alternative to capital...more
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obviously needs to be updated to take the Occupy Movement into account and especially OCCUPY SANDY, which satisfies many of the demands he makes in his final chapter. Would also like to see an engagement with the grotesque nostalgic Tory fantasy that is Downton Abbey.
A few selected favorites from my notes:
"Walk around the British Museum, where you see objects torn from their lifeworlds and assembled as if on the deck of some Predator spacecraft, and you have a powerful image of this process at w...more
A few selected favorites from my notes:
"Walk around the British Museum, where you see objects torn from their lifeworlds and assembled as if on the deck of some Predator spacecraft, and you have a powerful image of this process at w...more
"Capitalist Realism" is a seminal text for the fading posture that Capitalism posits. It would be a little absurd to say this text is strictly "Zizekian" or a Lacanian exercise on the rules of capitalism. At times, the text is actually a clear inversion from Zizek's POV; often illuminating the Proustian vision of the world. The gaze of capitalism is folding itself upon the horizon of future generations, leaving our memory footprints of the past destroyed because we no longer need memory of the p...more
Fisher's book opens with a chapter entitled, "It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism." And isn't that true? Where could we possibly go from here? Capitalism (and postmodernist philosophy) have left us with no possibility for a meaningful future. The world is organized around the satisfaction of our desires -- no matter how transient or idiosyncratic. And since everything is up for sale, it only makes sense that if something satisfied our desires better, we'd have...more
Good little essayistic book with an intriguing premise that I am sympathetic to. The culture of late capitalism/neoliberalism/postmodernity is what Fisher calls "capitalist realism." Essentially, it is similar to Stalinist "socialist realism" in that it represents an ossification of the ideology that underlies it. This ideology presents itself as historical necessity and the cultural artifacts that it produces are simplistic, crude caricatures of that ideology (think of reality TV shows with Don...more
Accessible, smart, of-the-moment. This is a great overview of the problems with Capital, a call to action, and quite beautifully free of jargon (while still throwing some nourishing food for thought your way).
I've seen this book derided as Zizek-lite, but I disagree. Though some of the concerns are the same, and though Zizek is quoted here and there, Fisher's approach is not just watered-down Slavoj. Zizek is the brilliant-but-temperamental striker who sometimes just wanders around for the full...more
I've seen this book derided as Zizek-lite, but I disagree. Though some of the concerns are the same, and though Zizek is quoted here and there, Fisher's approach is not just watered-down Slavoj. Zizek is the brilliant-but-temperamental striker who sometimes just wanders around for the full...more
I read this one in spurts and didn't get a good idea of how the book reads as a whole. But I liked each portion I read, and am definitely interested in going back through it again. Fisher presents a lot of examples that, while unfamiliar because I'm not familiar with a lot of Britain's bureaucracy, support his points well enough. His central thesis is that there is probably an alternative to contemporary neoliberal capitalism, but that our ability to consider an alternative is curtailed by the h...more
This book talks a lot about thoughts tat I've had, which is kind of sad, because now I'll not be revolutionary by writing them down. It delves into the lived experience of modern corporate bureaucratism, It's a shame it resorts to pop culture references - I'd rather the author found some real people to talk to. There's also a few too many references to other authors such as Zizek, which assumes knowledge that the reader may not possess. Still, a good examine of the Kafqaesque nature of modern wo...more
I could've done without the "the wired society is killing us, get off my lawn" vibe of the chapter on young people and depression -- fisher basically needs to not talk about hip-hop ever, my god, that was cringeworthy. but overall it was good: succinct, super readable, thought-provoking, helpful in organising my thought around a lot of other stuff, and convincing w/r/t its key thesis (though I retain significant reservations about the specifics of fisher's revolutionary program). thanks, max!
I read this for a book review that I never posted, mostly because I felt like I'd need to read it several times (and definitely reread Marx and Engels) to fully grasp it. The fact that about five pages in I started seriously trying to work out the most painless way to commit suicide means, I think, that Fisher did his job.
"Control societies are based on debt rather than enclosure; but here is a way in which the current education system both indebts *and* encloses students. Pay for your own exploitation, the logic insists--get into debt so you can get th same McJob you could have walked into if you'd left school at sixteen." (p.26)
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A smart friend told me I should read this.
He was right. I should listen to him more often.
This is the best critique of the current situation that I've read, in language that you can actually comprehend (mostly), but grounded in the wankiest of theory. I love it.
He was right. I should listen to him more often.
This is the best critique of the current situation that I've read, in language that you can actually comprehend (mostly), but grounded in the wankiest of theory. I love it.
I enjoy reading Fisher's blog 'K-Punk' a lot, and was looking forward to reading this volume. This book reads like a collection of his blog posts which have been rewritten and edited to fit a short book. A disappointment, in that sense.
While Fisher makes good points concerning the capitalization of culture, he spends more time utilizing his poor grasp of economics and history to prove an awkwardly constructed, seemingly conspiratorial thesis about capitalist realism, a task he fails to accomplish.
The broad argument seems absolutely true, though I found myself disagreeing with how he arrived at his conclusion, especially related to the lack of paternalism guiding us.
A lot of the other reviews seem to nail it: this is a clear and engaging book about the ways that capital shapes our experiences and expectations about the world.
I need to read this again really because I only understood about a quarter of it if that. That said I think I agreed with what I did understand.
Interesting ideas, but I was hoping for possibly some more concrete suggestions for an alternative.
If hope was something that could be found in a book, it would be found here.
This excellent book seriously needed a bibliography. Seriously.
A thought provoking essay regarding where we stand at the end of history.
spoiler: capitalism sux
Excellent, but a tad depressing. Anything starting with the quote that 'it's easier to imagien the end of the world than it is to imagine the end of capitalism' (attributed separately to both Zizek and Jameson).
The section on Ofsted had laughing nervously as I recognised what is indeed the 'anxiety that never ends' that education workers face on a daily basis from the Orwellian shit that Ofsted visit upon its victims.
The section on Ofsted had laughing nervously as I recognised what is indeed the 'anxiety that never ends' that education workers face on a daily basis from the Orwellian shit that Ofsted visit upon its victims.
Feb 11, 2013
Mike Thestudent
added it
Quite good fun, good use of popular narratives from films / books / contemp culture really gives life to some theories that can be quite hard work.
read artuad- 'all writing is pigshit.' this is nothing new, he's just re-naming age old concepts, he can hardly go a sentence without referencing zizekbadioulacanjamesonblahblahblah boring!
First rate prose. Really puts things into words that I've felt since the nineteen-eighties but not been able to put into words.
May 21, 2013
Julian Paredes
marked it as to-read
May 19, 2013
Alexander
marked it as to-read
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“In his dreadful lassitude and objectless rage, Cobain seemed to have give wearied voice to the despondency of the generation that had come after history, whose every move was anticipated, tracked, bought and sold before it had even happened. Cobain knew he was just another piece of spectacle, that nothing runs better on MTV than a protest against MTV; knew that his every move was a cliché scripted in advance, knew that even realising it is a cliché. The impasse that paralysed Cobain in precisely the one that Fredric Jameson described: like postmodern culture in general, Cobain found himself in ‘a world in which stylistic innovation is no longer possible, where all that is left is to imitate dead styles in the imaginary museum’.”
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