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Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? (Zero Books) Paperback – December 16, 2009

by Mark Fisher (Author)

42 customer reviews

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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 argues that capitalist realism colours all areas of contemporary experience. But it will also show that, because of a number of inconsistencies and glitches internal to the capitalist reality program capitalism in fact is anything but realistic.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Let's not beat around the bush: Fisher's compulsively readable book is simply the best diagnosis of our predicament that we have! Through examples from daily life and popular culture, but without sacrificing theoretical stringency, he provides a ruthless portrait of our ideological misery. Although the book is written from a radically Left perspective, Fisher offers no easy solutions. Capitalist Realism is a sobering call for patient theoretical and political work. It enables us to breathe freely in our sticky atmosphere. -- Slavoj Zizek

What happened to our future? Mark Fisher is a master cultural diagnostician, and in Capitalist Realism he surveys the symptoms of our current cultural malaise. We live in a world in which we have been told, again and again, that There Is No Alternative. The harsh demands of the 'just-in-time' marketplace have drained us of all hope and all belief. Living in an endless Eternal Now, we no longer seem able to imagine a future that might be different from the present. This book offers a brilliant analysis of the pervasive cynicism in which we seem to be mired, and even holds out the prospect of an antidote. -- Steven Shaviro, Author of Connected and Doom Patrols

About the Author

Mark Fisher is highly respected both as a music writer and a theorist. He writes regularly for The Wire, frieze, New Statesman, and Sight & Sound. He is a Visiting Fellow at Goldsmiths, University Of London, and maintains one of the most successful weblogs on cultural theory, k-punk (http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org)

Product details

Series: Zero Books
Paperback: 81 pages
Publisher: Zero Books (December 16, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1846943175
ISBN-13: 978-1846943171
Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 0.3 x 8.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 3.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 42 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,694 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #41 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Political
- #796 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences

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A book to think about

January 22, 2014

Verified Purchase

It took me a fairly long time and a second read to come up with an view on Fisher 's brief but fairly deep book. With good engagement with some of the major theorists of postmodern thought Fisher casts a picture of Capital as that which cannot be thought beyond. With deference to a number of the other reviewers, I think it is dismissive of his argument to say there are lots of alternatives. If one believes that, one should confront the argument directly. It seems to me that Capitalism does have an inherent blocking function.

The provisional space Fisher opens is in the development of full blown alternatives to Capitalism that grow out of the promises Capitalism makes and not only does not but cannot keep. Towards the end of this book Fisher gives a number of examples. Capitalism promises an end of bureaucracy, but we live in the most standardised world imaginable. Capitalism promises joy for the individual, but we live in a world of increasing affective disorder. We approach catastrophic ecological collapse. In this space alternatives can be developed.

Again, with respect to other reviewers, I really do not care whether this is Zizek lite or otherwise. There is a well thought out argument here that deserves more engagement and less branding. A good book and heartily recommended.

39 people found this helpful

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Jennifer Rehberg

A remarkable piece of work. Instantly on my list ...

March 20, 2017

Verified Purchase

A remarkable piece of work. Instantly on my list of books everyone should read. A tad bit short (81 pages) for the price of $12 in my opinion, but I have no regrets about the purchase, and no regrets about supporting the estate of Mark Fisher and his publisher, Zero Books.

I wish Mark to rest in the peace he never seemed to have found in life.

8 people found this helpful

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Lather, Rinse, Repeat

September 1, 2018

Verified Purchase

"Capitalism be bad and stuff." The number of these little diatribes written, ever since Marx relied on second/third hand accounts of factory working conditions in his moral crusade, would fill the world's canyons. How can they be anything but absolutely tiresome by now?

Fisher discusses Kurt Cobain within the first ten pages, trapped within a capitalist appropriation trap which always seems one step ahead of any attempt at subversion, swallowing it into itself. We've come a long way since then and even extinctionism, the ultimate manifestation of alienation and disgust with life, has been catabolized and shunted towards yet another "alternative cultural zone." It always seemed a bit contradictory to me that Fisher would liken capitalism to Carpenter's 'The Thing' while simultaneously rejecting Land's account of capitalism, the only limits of which are external. For a man who jumped ship on life, perhaps after Cobain, the tragic hero aware of the destructive forces of disintegration and unable to escape, the sobering possibility is that he wasn't, at least from the territory of tattered humanist remains, pessimistic enough. If it turns out 'anti-production' and reterritorialization are simply features of a self propagating system (capitalism) short circuiting potential avenues of exit, the phenomenon in question is even more alien in its camouflaging than here imagined.

Moreover, like so many from the disgruntled Left, Fisher makes the mistake of dreaming that if only capitalism could be defeated, a series of ills would find resolution. The most glaring example is his pointless use of Lacan and 'the Real' relative to environmental catastrophe. First, as if were capitalism to fail to suppress or appropriate its destructiveness of complex life's very possibility conditions, human beings would set aside all the pain any program of correction would entail and 'do the right thing.' This is laughably naïve. Kaczynski has been criticized on exactly this point: his failing to locate the gist of the problem in capitalism. But again, another case of helpless optimism- Kaczynski knows the problem exceeds mere capitalism and is an evolutionary feature of complex self propagating systems and competitive advantage.

Fisher laments the instability and capitalist value generation not conducive to the sustainability of the family, as the early reactionaries did, and as you might expect today's conservatives to do had their souls not been sold to the cult of GDP, but here again, this has all been said before a million times and a million times more forcefully and eloquently. And, one is naturally cynical of any leftist attempts, given the decades and decades of attacking the family as vestige of patriarchalism, as an oppressive institution quelling more robustly voluntary human relationships, as a concept needing massive expansion in order to be more 'inclusive,' etc, to assuage the stubbornly conservative working classes on this account.

Interestingly, Fisher actually holds that we've technologically decelerated, but of course, locates the problem in capitalism's creation of an ecology of instability. There is, undoubtedly, some truth in this, but the more directly and importantly causal factor of human capital is far too dangerous territory for Fisher, who could be quoted at your diversity office parties without any uneasiness.

There's very little of value in this short work.

Comment

Short and profound

August 20, 2017

Verified Purchase

This was a fantastic read. If you are interested in how the systems of our world shape art this is for you. Its short and to the point. I wish a professor made me read it years ago.

4 people found this helpful

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Eye opening but no punch line

May 2, 2018

Verified Purchase

Both beautifully argued and written, (although often dense in references that the weekend philosopher will not get - i.e. me) and awakening. However, I was hoping for the glimmer of the contemporary alternative, and in not finding one fear that the author couldn't quite break free of capital realism either

3 people found this helpful

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November 23, 2017

Verified Purchase

Now back to my regularly scheduled hedonistic apathy. Seriously, if it was possible to intoxicate our way to prosperity, we'd be there already. Something has to be done besides acting like nothing needs to be done.

4 people found this helpful

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Fantastic book on the current state of Capitalism

July 1, 2018

Verified Purchase

A powerful and insightful description of the mafia-capitalism that we presently live with, in the US and its roots. Fisher is a thorough and erudite writer who draws from leading contemporary philosophers to support his insights such as Slavoj Zizek. I highly recommend this book if you want to understand how we have adulterated Capitalism to serve the narrow needs of the very rich and how we might fix it.

Comment

The beginning of a worthwhile alternative

January 25, 2017

Verified Purchase

Great, short read that begins a conversation we need to have about a life in common. There is an alternative.

2 people found this helpful

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