Capitalism remains imaginable even in imagined apocalypse.

Evidence

Watching Children of Men, we are inevitably reminded of the phrase attributed to Fredric Jameson and Slavoj Žižek, that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine the end of capitalism. That slogan captures precisely what I mean by ‘capitalist realism’: the 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. … In its world, as in ours, ultra-authoritarianism and Capital are by no means incompatible: internment camps and franchise coffee bars co-exist. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 8

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘capitalist realism’ — the core concept of the book.
• SEED: The internment-camps-and-coffee-bars juxtaposition is a sharp image for an essay on how consumerism and state repression coexist.
• XREF: connects to: Capitalism’s supposed pragmatism masks credulous fantasies of its own exceptional survival; Capital can flourish even after capitalism itself dies. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 234; Capitalist realism makes alternatives to capitalism unthinkable — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 8 (+6 more)

Related

• Capitalist realism makes a coherent alternative to capitalism unimaginable. (similarity 0.87)
• Capitalist realism makes alternatives to capitalism unthinkable (similarity 0.86)
• Capitalist realism defines political possibility against physical possibility (similarity 0.82)
• Capitalist realism is the belief that capitalism is the only viable game in town (similarity 0.81)
• Capitalism’s supposed pragmatism masks credulous fantasies of its own exceptional survival (similarity 0.81)
• Capitalist realism reflects social decomposition, not just individual persuasion. (similarity 0.81)
• Capitalist realism is a pervasive atmosphere that constrains thinking itself, not just culture (similarity 0.80)
• Moral critiques of capitalism only strengthen its realism (similarity 0.79)
• Capitalist realism falls only to internal inconsistency, not moral critique (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Capitalist realism makes alternatives to capitalism unthinkable #corroborates (0.90) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 8
• Capitalist realism makes a coherent alternative to capitalism unimaginable. #corroborates (0.90) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 8
• Capitalist realism is the belief that capitalism is the only viable game in town #corroborates (0.85) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1557
• Capitalist realism is a pervasive atmosphere that constrains thinking itself, not just culture #corroborates (0.85) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 35
• Late capitalism is when life’s exteriors to capital become nearly impossible to find. #corroborates (0.80) — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 52
• Capitalism’s supposed pragmatism masks credulous fantasies of its own exceptional survival #corroborates (0.75)
• Capital can flourish even after capitalism itself dies. #qualifies (0.75) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 234
• Capitalism cannot function without its ideological disguises and myths #corroborates (0.75) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 96
• Power struggles within capitalism are simultaneously struggles over imagining the future #complicates (0.75)