Capitalist realism’s required realism is an escalating series of depressive thresholds

Evidence

The way in which social and political problems are converted into individual pathologies, to be explained via chemical imbalances or family history, neatly sums up so much of what has happened under capitalist realism. It’s what I’ve called the privatisation of stress. Depression has been described as a pathology of responsibility: you feel intensely responsible for the state that you’re in. The excruciating paradox is that, while you feel that only you can get yourself out of depression, the condition consists precisely in your inability to act. There’s more than an analogy with the political hopelessness and fatalism that have characterised capitalist realism. Depression, after all, is a pathology which centrally involves a sense of realism (indeed, there’s a phenomenon called depressive realism): the depressive thinks that they are being realistic, that they have perceived the real state of things, denuded of illusion. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2217 (#complicates, via linked claim)

We have created a socioeconomic system in which meeting our needs depends on mechanisms that thrive on their suppression. A far cry from the best possible world, ours is an upside-down one. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 383 (#complicates, via linked claim)

A moral critique of capitalism, emphasizing the ways in which it leads to suffering, only reinforces capitalist realism. Poverty, famine and war can be presented as an inevitable part of reality, while the hope that these forms of suffering could be eliminated easily painted as naive utopianism. Capitalist realism can only be threatened if it is shown to be in some way inconsistent or untenable; if, that is to say, capitalism’s ostensible ‘realism’ turns out to be nothing of the sort. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 36 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Realism masks ideology as maturation via biology and economic constraint — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 996; Depression’s felt realism mirrors capitalist realism’s lowered expectations — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1489; Labour’s crisis paralysis reflected capitalist realism’s saturation of the party’s infrastructure — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1796 (+10 more)

Related

• Depression’s felt realism mirrors capitalist realism’s lowered expectations (similarity 0.87)
• Capitalist realism’s self-diagnosed realism mirrors the fatalism of depressive realism (similarity 0.87)
• Depression feels like clear-sighted realism about agency’s uselessness (similarity 0.86)
• Capitalist realism reflects social decomposition, not just individual persuasion. (similarity 0.82)
• Capitalist realism requires materialist explanation, not individual psychology (similarity 0.82)
• Moral critiques of capitalism only strengthen its realism (similarity 0.81)
• Capitalist realism is a pathology of the left, not merely a right-wing imposition. (similarity 0.81)
• Capitalist realism is the belief that capitalism is the only viable game in town (similarity 0.80)
• Labour’s crisis paralysis reflected capitalist realism’s saturation of the party’s infrastructure (similarity 0.79)
• Capitalism structurally requires collective mood swings to function (similarity 0.79)
• Capitalism structurally requires excess for some and deprivation for others (similarity 0.79)
• Realism masks ideology as maturation via biology and economic constraint (similarity 0.78)
• Capitalist realism is itself a pathology of the left (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Capitalist realism’s self-diagnosed realism mirrors the fatalism of depressive realism #complicates (0.88) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2217
• Capitalist need-satisfaction depends on suppressing needs #complicates (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 383
• Moral critiques of capitalism only strengthen its realism #expands (0.82) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 36
• Realism both critiques and reinforces the status quo’s exclusions #expands (0.80) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 438
• The discourse of creativity masks real needs that capitalism cannot actually satisfy #complicates (0.80) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 572
• Capitalist realism’s debunking pose masks its own myth of choice #qualifies (0.78) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2454
• Capitalist modernity cannot be understood from its internal dynamics alone #complicates (0.78) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 487
• Capitalist realism is belief in capital’s invincibility, not belief in its merits #qualifies (0.75) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2219