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Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? Paperback – December 16, 2009

by Mark Fisher (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 3,005 ratings
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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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  1. Print length
    81 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Zero Books
  4. Publication date
    December 16, 2009
  5. Dimensions
    5.71 x 0.32 x 8.6 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1846943175
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1846943171
  8. See all details
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From the Publisher

anti-capitalism, anti-capitalist, cultural theory, political philosophy, postmodernity, politics
anti-capitalism, anti-capitalist, cultural theory, political philosophy, postmodernity, politics
anti-capitalism, anti-capitalist, cultural theory, political philosophy, postmodernity, politics
anti-capitalism, anti-capitalist, cultural theory, political philosophy, postmodernity, politics

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

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Zero Books (December 16, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 81 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1846943175
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1846943171
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.99 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.71 x 0.32 x 8.6 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 3,005 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
3,005 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the book's content powerful, insightful, and awakening. They also describe the content as beautifully argued and written, excellent, and easy to read. Readers also find the intellectual level highly stimulating and the reading experience great.

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ContentReadabilityReading experienceIntellectual level
33 customers mention "Content"29 positive4 negative

Customers find the book's content powerful, insightful, and fascinating. They also say it weaves a depressing and informative net around their minds. Readers say it's addressing the cultural malaise and outlines the anxiety and trepidation of being a 21st century human being. However, some readers find the content dense and bleak.

"...It's pretty dense for a relatively short read, and it's rather bleak, brutal, and eye-opening, though it's clearly a late-2000s UK work, based on..." Read more

"Capitalist Realism is a fantastic book, weaving a depressing and informative net around your mind...." Read more

"...of happiness that capitalism promises: freedom from bureaucracy, a healthy mind, and a life full of liberty...." Read more

"...and a second read to come up with an view on Fisher 's brief but fairly deep book...." Read more

20 customers mention "Readability"16 positive4 negative

Customers find the book beautifully argued, understandable, and easy to read. They also say it provides a clear, distilled analysis of the neoliberal.

"This one was a doozy. Effectively, it's a philosophical and critical breakdown of capitalism, the way capitalism is envisioned and "supposed to" work..." Read more

"Fisher provides a short, clearly distilled analysis of the neoliberal (i.e. consumerist) superstructure that alienates people in capitalist societies..." Read more

"Finished Fisher's short but excellent analysis of capitalist realism – in essence a mode of cultural thinking that forms our society, through which..." Read more

"...It’s certainly a lot easier to read than zizek, and I like that it may inspire readers to explore this kind of literature more deeply." Read more

8 customers mention "Reading experience"8 positive0 negative

Customers find the book a great, short read that begins a conversation they need to have.

"This is a very brief book to read, and it tells truths that all of us should hear...." Read more

"Great read, highly stimulating despite being only 80 pages or so. A fascinating frame of modern life that's led me to hunt down like-minded work" Read more

"...Its short and to the point. I wish a professor made me read it years ago." Read more

"It's a good book. It's also short. You should buy it. Mark is dead. There is no future left. Bye bye" Read more

7 customers mention "Intellectual level"7 positive0 negative

Customers find the book highly stimulating, interesting, and novel.

"...find the idea of mental illness as a social disease interesting and novel, and even when other ideas didn’t feel entirely original, I enjoyed the..." Read more

"...cultures effectively, but it does it in a way that is engaging and entertaining. A highly recommended read for anyone looking to read leftist theory." Read more

"...If you’d like to read well-developed, interesting, well-written critiques of capitalism and capitalist bureaucracy, stick to the late great David..." Read more

"Great read, highly stimulating despite being only 80 pages or so. A fascinating frame of modern life that's led me to hunt down like-minded work" Read more

Good read but my copy came in poor condition
3 out of 5 stars

Good read but my copy came in poor condition

This book was a easy, quick, and informative read. I’m giving three stars because my copy came with some ink or graphite splotches that made some pages difficult to read
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Top reviews from the United States

Bongo
5.0 out of 5 stars A short book but chock full of information and ideas
Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2024
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This short book lead me to so many other books, writers/thinkers. One tiny criticism: I wish there was an index and bibliography. However a book that one can go back to again and again.
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Andrew S
5.0 out of 5 stars Dense for a short book, but eye-opening; prepare for an existential crisis after reading
Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2021
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This one was a doozy. Effectively, it's a philosophical and critical breakdown of capitalism, the way capitalism is envisioned and "supposed to" work, and the reality of our entrapment in capitalism as an institution and ideology.
It's pretty dense for a relatively short read, and it's rather bleak, brutal, and eye-opening, though it's clearly a late-2000s UK work, based on some of its references.

It shines a spotlight on our own hypocrisies and humanity's cyclical nature, showing how even anti-capitalist thought has been confined to a capitalist structure - i.e. me complaining about capitalism using Facebook or an Amazon review page, or how Wall-E criticizes capitalism but is ultimately produced by Disney, an enormous corporation.

Our distrust for capitalism and our thirst for an alternative has been itself been used to create capital and market to us - your Facebook feed probably uses algorithms to pitch socialist meme pages and T-shirts to you after all, does it not? And this, among other ideas posited by the book, is rough to reckon with.

This is a solid book that uses plenty of modern media/pop culture allegories to get its point across, but be prepared for at least a mild existential crisis afterwards.
5 people found this helpful
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Arkveveen
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book... But...
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2021
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Capitalist Realism is a fantastic book, weaving a depressing and informative net around your mind.

I'm a leftist myself, but I can't help but disagree with a few points here.

Like, who is this man to say what the "true" state of a person is under the socialist utopia we wish for ( or rather, insisting that everything we enjoy today is just an "intoxicant" )? Freedom from yourself is an awfully conservative argument ( and vaguely fascist, as if there is some kind of "pure" or "natural" state to enjoy things ), which assumes that "negative freedoms" exist. It contradicts socialism's goal of full emancipation.

Not to mention frighteningly ableist notions of mental illness as if only capitalism has caused them. This idea that no one truly knows what they want under capitalism is fair, but radical to the point of being beyond the pale ( this is some very far left stuff ).

Yes, I'm aware Mark hasn't necessarily said anything in particular was wrong ( such as video games, I love them and think play is very important for human beings and for overall joy ), or that you or me are bad for living or engaging in things a certain way, but for me full freedom means the destruction of social expectations of what men and women are expected to do. There is a certain deep sexism when Mark says that "duty" is paternal, which is of the father, and that seeking enjoyment/allowing enjoyment is maternal, of the mother. Like, it is possible to seek a post-capitalist world while dealing with various intersecting forms of oppression.

Mark contradicts himself by employing the emancipating prescription of socialism while accidentally reinforcing notions of purity, as if there is some "natural state", that can only be brought about by destroying the "intoxicants" around us. There is this underlying notion that everything we do must be for the "greater good" and for the "duty" of humanity.

Such grand narratives are what have led us astray in the past ( nationalism and neoliberal narratives of personal responsibility and hardwork ), a better moral framework model is "selfish altruism" which stipulates that if everyone is happy, productive, and taken care of... then YOU get what you want AND it is sustainable. This is an even better way of winning over neoliberals or people who are selfish and "intoxicated" by the supposedly intoxicating entertainment around us.

If you want to win more people over to socialism, you need to tell them that there is no reason to get rid of movies, video games, music, art, or literature... because they assume these things are products under capitalism, tell them that they can still get what they want under socialism instead of painting this reductionist view that everything we consume is somehow evil or harming us. Like just stop it with this condescending nonsense, Mark. If anything, this almost sounds "boomer-esque", if you will. How old is Mark again? I wouldn't be surprised if the only art and entertainment he enjoys is the oldest stuff from a bygone era.

That is the core of the problems with this otherwise fantastic book, it is bereft of joy and humor, it is way too fatalistic. Even if said intoxicants ( such as social media, the internet, or video games ) have brought me such joy, loving friends who support me, and a community that makes life worth living, Mark is the type that would step all over that in pursuit of a materialist analysis. I'm a freelance digital artist, and I'm lucky to have found the niche community that has basically allowed me to survive under the horrors of capitalism. What, my friends aren't real because they aren't face to face with me? Mark, I don't value human interaction as much as you do ( I'm an introvert and AUTISTIC by the way ), I have free will and I don't care what a human being is "supposed" to do ( really, you can't claim that a human is a "social animal", you are just ascribing your personal values onto all of us ). I am not "humanity", I am me, and that applies to you or the rest of us.

Like, I am all for a post-capitalist world, but even I identify as a libertarian market socialist. Seize the means of production, get rid of bosses or CEOs, remove the stupid auditing nonsense that Mark brilliantly takes down ( I agree with him on plenty of points ), and transform companies into "syndicates" that are worker-owned. Then, do NOT get rid of the things that people enjoy or rely on, even IF you say they are intoxicants. Like, I can't stand this anti-hedonism and puritanical viewpoint Mark speaks of, it is too close to fascist ideology. Like, you can justify all you want that you are just trying to "free" people from themselves, but WHAT THEN?
43 people found this helpful
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Aren LeBrun
5.0 out of 5 stars An important, accessible starting place for the left
Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2021
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Fisher provides a short, clearly distilled analysis of the neoliberal (i.e. consumerist) superstructure that alienates people in capitalist societies. He's writing about the UK, but it reads equally well for Americans, which is part of the point – far from being the paragon of bold, individual expression its proponents claim, capitalism in fact molds societies in its image – endlessly reproducing profitable forms of art, culture, and entertainment, reluctant to challenge existing market orthodoxies in the chance such risks won't provide a strong enough ROI.

The strongest part of Fisher's book is his direct challenge to the notion of "mental health problems" as individual pathologies – as random chemical imbalances in the individual consumer's neural makeup – rather than evidence of a social and political failure in the system at-large. Fisher challenges the left to "repoliticize" the mental health debate, to "transform the taken for granted into the up-for-grabs." The widespread crisis of depression, anxiety, ADHD, and bipolar disorders must be reframed as a priori evidence of the failures of the system – *not* as individualized flukes that can be resolved through medicine and training in order to better mold the individual into the system's image.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Fernando
5.0 out of 5 stars El planteamiento de Fisher es interesante
Reviewed in Mexico on October 31, 2021
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Aun no lo termino, a pesar de ser un libro pequeño.
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Daniel
5.0 out of 5 stars Gibt es keine Alternative?
Reviewed in Germany on September 6, 2024
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"Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?" von Mark Fisher ist ein tiefgründiges und kritisches Buch, das sich mit der allgegenwärtigen Präsenz des Kapitalismus in unserer modernen Gesellschaft auseinandersetzt. Fisher argumentiert, dass der Kapitalismus nicht nur als wirtschaftliches System, sondern als kulturelle Realität so tief in unser Leben eingebettet ist, dass es schwierig geworden ist, sich überhaupt Alternativen vorzustellen.

Besonders beeindruckend fand ich seine Analyse, wie der Kapitalismus psychische Probleme verstärkt und eine ständige Krise des Individuums verursacht. Fisher zeigt auf, dass viele gesellschaftliche und persönliche Probleme – wie Arbeitsstress oder Depression – eng mit den Anforderungen des kapitalistischen Systems verbunden sind.

Das Buch ist nicht nur eine Kritik, sondern auch eine Aufforderung, über Alternativen nachzudenken, selbst wenn diese im aktuellen Diskurs kaum Raum finden. Es regt dazu an, den Status quo zu hinterfragen und sich mit möglichen Wegen auseinanderzusetzen, wie man diesem allumfassenden System entkommen könnte.
Es gibt sie mit Sicherheit, diese Alternative, wir müssen sie nur finden und erproben.
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Ariane E Alexander
5.0 out of 5 stars "the failure of the neoliberal world to live up to its own PR"
Reviewed in Canada on April 17, 2021
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This is one of the most perceptive and interesting books I've read that describes the systemic problems of our times. Mark Fischer was brilliant, and his passing is everyone's loss. I am so glad to have read this book. I'll share some quotes below:

"What is needed is the strategic withdrawal of forms of labor which will only be noticed by management: all of the machineries of self-surveillance that have no effect whatsoever on the delivery of education, but which managerialism could not exist without."

"For example, the left should argue that it can deliver what neoliberalism signally failed to do: a massive reduction of bureaucracy."

"One of the left’s vices is its endless rehearsal of historical debates, its tendency to keep going over Kronsdadt or the New Economic Policy rather than planning and organizing for a future that it really believes in."

"To tell people how to lose weight, or how to decorate their house, is acceptable; but to call for any kind of cultural improvement is to be oppressive and elitist."

"it is only individuals that can be held ethically responsible for actions, and yet the cause of these abuses and errors is corporate, systemic – is not only a dissimulation: it precisely indicates what is lacking in capitalism."

"The cause of eco-catastrophe is an impersonal structure which, even though it is capable of producing all manner of effects, is precisely not a subject capable of exercising responsibility."
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Tough read but worth it
Reviewed in India on December 8, 2020
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Definitely needs more than one reading for the average reader without a lot of political education. Don't forget to keep a dictionary handy.
4 people found this helpful
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Ibrahim Cesar
5.0 out of 5 stars Não há alternativa a não ser ler
Reviewed in Brazil on January 22, 2019
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Ótimo livro, curto e exploratório de todas as formas com que nosso sistema bio-socio-político conquistou nossas mentes, corpos e sociedades ao ponto de eliminar qualquer forma de imaginar alternativas a ele.
14 people found this helpful
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