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Capitalist Realism

Definition

Arguably but widely regarded as Mark Fisher's most prolific idea, capitalist realism is a ideological framework for viewing capitalism and its effects on politics, economics, and public thought. The name itself is a play on the term Socialist Realism. Fisher wrote extensively on the subject both under his pseudonym "k-punk" and under his own name, and published a book on the subject entitled Capitalist Realism: Is There no Alternative?. He also frequently gave interviews on the subject that expanded on his definition of the concept with other well known political bloggers and thinkers.

According to Mark Fisher, the quote “it is easier to imagine an end to the world than an end to capitalism,” falsely attributed to both Fredrick Jameson and Slavoj Žižek, encompasses the essence of capitalist realism. Capitalist realism is loosely defined as the dominant conception that capitalism is the only viable economic system and thus, there can be no imaginable alternative. Fisher likens capitalist realism to a “pervasive atmosphere” that affects areas of cultural production, political-economic activity, and general thought.

Capitalist realism propagates an idea of the post-political, in which the fall of the Soviet Union both solidified capitalism as the only effective political-economic system and removed the question of capitalism's dissolution from any political consideration. This has subverted the arena of political discussion from one in which capitalism is one of many potential means of operating an economy, to political considerations operating solely within the confines of the capitalist system. Similarly, within the frame of capitalist realism, mainstream anti-capitalist movements shifted away from targeting the end of capitalism and promoting alternative systems to an aim of mitigating its worst effects.

Capitalist realism does not assert that capitalism is a perfect system, but instead that it is the only system that can operate in a means compatible with human nature and economic law. By promoting the idea that innate human desire is only compatible with capitalism, any other system that is not based on the personal accumulation of wealth and capital is seen as counter to human nature and, by extension, impossible to implement.

Fisher recognized the bank bailouts following the 2008 economic crisis as a quintessential example of capitalist realism in action, reasoning that the bailouts occurred largely because the idea of allowing the banking system to fail was unimaginable to both politicians and the general population. Due to the bank's intrinsic value to the capitalist system, the influence of capitalist realism meant that such a failure was never considered an option. As a consequence, Fisher observes, the neoliberal system survived and capitalist realism was further validated. Mark Fisher classifies the current state of capitalist realism in the neoliberal system in the following terms:

The only powerful agents influencing politicians and managers in education are business interests. It’s become far too easy to ignore workers and, partly because of this, workers feel increasingly helpless and impotent. The concerted attack on unions by neoliberal interest groups, together with the shift from a Fordist to a post-Fordist organisation of the economy – the move towards casualisation, just-in-time production, globalization – has eroded the power base of unions [and thus the labor force].

Emergence

Fisher regards capitalist realism as a emerging from a purposeful push by the Neoliberal right to transform the attitudes of both the general population and the left towards capitalism and specifically the post-Fordist form of capitalism that prevailed throughout the 1980s. The relative inability of the political left to come up with an alternative economic model in response to the rise of neoliberal capitalism and the concurrent Reaganomics era created a vacuum that facilitated the birth of a capitalist realism system. The collapse of the Soviet Union, which represented the only real example of a working non-capitalist system, further cemented the place of capitalist realism both politically and in the general population, and was hailed as the decisive final victory of Capitalism. According to Fisher, in a post-Soviet era, unchecked capitalism was able to reframe history into a capitalist narrative in which neoliberalism was the result of a natural progression of history and even embodied the culmination of human development.

Capitalist Realism and Neoliberalism

Despite the fact that the emergence of Capitalist Realism is tied to the birth of Neoliberalism, Fisher is clear to state that capitalist realism and neoliberalism are separate entities that simply reinforce each other. According to Fisher, capitalist realism has the potential to live past the demise of neoliberal capitalism, though Fisher posits that the opposite would not be true. Capitalist realism is inherently anti-utopian, as it holds that no matter the flaws or externalities, capitalism is the only possible means of operation. Neoliberalism conversely glorifies capitalism by portraying it as providing the means neceassary to pursue and acheive near-utopian socioeconomic conditions. In this way, capitalist realism pacifies opposition to neoliberalism's overly positive projections while neoliberalism counteracts the despair and disillusionment central to capitalist realism with its utopian claims.

Influence on the Public

According to Fisher, capitalist realism has so captured public thought that the idea of anti-capitalism no longer acts as the antithesis to capitalism. Instead it is deployed as a means for reinforcing capitalism. This is done through media such as WALL-E which aims at providing a safe means of consuming anti-capitalism without actually challenging the system. The lack of coherent alternatives, as presented through the lens of capitalist realism, leads many anti-capitalist movements to not target the end of capitalism, but instead to mitigate its worst effects, often through individual consumption-based activities such as Product Red.

With regards to public views on capitalism, Fisher coined the term ‘reflexive impotence’ which describes a phenomenon where people recognize the flawed nature of Capitalisms, but believe there are no means of affecting change. According to Fisher, this inaction leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy as well as a negative toll on their mental health

In one of Fisher's blog posts titled  “Going Overground,” he uses the analogy of music to further explore the reaches of capitalist realism, specifically looking towards the English punk rock bands of the 1970's-80's. Fisher asserts that British punk band The Jam has a form of political and cultural sophistication that is not found elsewhere in the genre. He claims that their music, such as the album “Going Underground,” is a critical response to Margaret Thatcher’s neoliberalist economic policies. Additionally, these policies have beaten down and overworked the labor force to the point of mental exhaustation. The song thus called for a response to neoliberalist policies from the political left as advocates for the working populace. The song itself represents a counter-culture reaction and critique of capitalist realism and though it gained mainstream popularity and airplay, its underlying political message gained little traction.

Fisher identifies a widespread popular desire for a public sphere that operates outside of the state and free from the undesired “add-ons of capital.”. However, he claims that it is the state alone that has been able to maintain public arenas against the capitalist push for mass privatization. Popular neoliberal thought supports the destruction of public spheres in favor of the privatization of public institutions such education and health on the assumption that the market best determines public needs. In this vein, Fisher also raises the idea of ‘business ontology,’ which is the capitalist ideology in which purposes and objectives are understood exclusively in business terms. He further postulates that in the case of uniformly business-oriented social conditions there is no place for the public and its only chance at survival is by means of extinguishing the business framework in public services, adding that “if businesses can’t be run as businesses, why should public services?” Thus a frequent topic of Fisher's writing is the future of the public sphere in the face of neoliberal business ontology and what it might look like in absence of a centralized state-run industry.

Methods of Resistance

The ‘realism’ of capitalist realism and it's inspiration Socialist Realism is based on Jacques Lacan’s distinction between the Real and ‘realities’, such as Capitalism realism, which are an ideologically-based understandings of the world that rejects facts that lie outside of their interpretations. Mark Fisher posits that an appeal to the Real which is suppressed by capitalist realism may begin to deconstruct the pervasiveness of the ideology. Fisher points to several areas such as climate change, mental health, and bureaucracy that can be highlighted to show the weaknesses and gaps in capitalist realism

Throughout Fisher's blog, he provides some suggestions for alternatives to capitalist realism, one of which is communist realism. Fisher puts forth that communist realism is a feasible system that works to subvert capitalist realism by directly singling out those he deems as “the real parasites: ‘entrepreneurs.’” In order to do so, Fisher argues that there must be an assessment of the resources available and distribution of them and that the demonization of individuals living off of benefits must be reversed. Further, under a communist realism system, businesses must pay a livable wage to workers.

In the wake of Fisher's work, capitalist realism as a theoretical framework has been picked up by other critical theorists both in academia and the political blogosphere.