Capitalist realism defines politically possible options, which diverge from physical realities
Evidence
But it presupposes that capital is the most powerful force on earth, and it’s this presupposition which needs to be undermined. How? By constituting a counter-force capable of disciplining capital. We’ve become used to a world in which workers fear capital, never the reverse. Capitalist realism has never been about direct ideological persuasion — it’s not that the population of the UK were ever convinced of the merits of neoliberal ideas. But what people have been convinced of is the idea that neoliberalism is the dominant force in the world, and that, consequently, there is little point resisting it. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2219 (
#expands, via linked claim)
But as duplicitous and dirty-handed as the Palestinian patriarch turned out, and however rhetorically insistent concerning Israel’s denial and demise, it is a whole lot more difficult, it would seem, to activate denial of the existence of one whose semi-automatic is at your nose than it is to insist that a stateless people, a nation of refugees from – while on – its own land, has no rights. It is not that might makes right in this case, if any; it is that might manufactures the conditions and parameters, the terms, of political, and by extension historical and representational, possibility. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 573 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
Public opinion on these matters is the work of men like ourselves … who have created the political climate in which the politicians of our time must move … I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 136 (
#contradicts, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Capitalist realism makes alternatives to capitalism unthinkable — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 8; Capitalist realism restricts the horizon of what is politically possible — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 410; Capitalist realism is belief in capital’s invincibility, not belief in its merits — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 2219 (+6 more)
Related
- Capitalist realism restricts the horizon of what is politically possible (similarity 0.87)
- Capitalist realism defines political possibility against physical possibility (similarity 0.85)
- Capitalism’s supposed pragmatism masks credulous fantasies of its own exceptional survival (similarity 0.85)
- Capitalist realism is belief in capital’s invincibility, not belief in its merits (similarity 0.84)
- Capitalist realism is the belief that capitalism is the only viable game in town (similarity 0.84)
- Capitalist realism makes alternatives to capitalism unthinkable (similarity 0.83)
- Capitalist realism’s depoliticising hegemony invited populist fervour to replace it (similarity 0.82)
- Capitalist realism makes a coherent alternative to capitalism unimaginable. (similarity 0.82)
- Realism is naturalized ideology, and today’s realistic was yesterday’s impossible (similarity 0.82)
- Capitalist realism is a pervasive atmosphere that constrains thinking itself, not just culture (similarity 0.82)
- Capitalist realism’s own totality makes small alternative experiments disproportionately powerful. (similarity 0.80)
- Capitalist realism falls only to internal inconsistency, not moral critique (similarity 0.80)
- Capitalist realism is a pathology of the left, not merely a right-wing imposition. (similarity 0.80)
- Capitalist realism subordinates people to a reality that is infinitely plastic rather than solid. (similarity 0.80)
- Capitalist realism’s debunking pose masks its own myth of choice (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- Capitalist realism is belief in capital’s invincibility, not belief in its merits
#expands(0.85) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2219 - Might manufactures the terms of political possibility rather than merely being right
#corroborates(0.82) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 573 - Ideas, not vested interests, ultimately shape political possibility.
#contradicts(0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 136