Capitalist realism frames workplace change as both inevitable and desirable
Evidence
The invocation of the idea that ‘there is no alternative’, and the recommendation to ‘work smarter, not harder’, shows how capitalist realism sets the tone for labor disputes in post-Fordism. Ending the inspection regime, one lecturer sardonically remarked, seems more impossible than ending slavery was. Such fatalism can only be challenged if a new (collective) political subject emerges. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 107
Categorization
- DEFINE: Crystallizes the book’s central conception of capitalist realism as a tone-setting ideology that naturalizes restructuring while neutralizing opposition.
- XREF: The sardonic quip — inspection ending viewed as harder than abolishing slavery — is a powerful rhetorical moment paralleling abolitionist framing elsewhere in the book. — connects to: Mistrust of hierarchy and organization fuels capitalist realism’s freeze on systemic change; Capitalist realism makes alternatives to capitalism unthinkable — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 8; Capitalist realism is a pervasive atmosphere that constrains thinking itself, not just culture — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 35 (+2 more)
Related
- Mistrust of hierarchy and organization fuels capitalist realism’s freeze on systemic change (similarity 0.82)
- Capitalist realism falls only to internal inconsistency, not moral critique (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- Loathed-but-complied systems typify capitalist realism
#expands(0.85) - Mistrust of hierarchy and organization fuels capitalist realism’s freeze on systemic change
#expands(0.80) - Capitalist realism makes alternatives to capitalism unthinkable
#corroborates(0.75) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 8 - Capitalist realism is a pervasive atmosphere that constrains thinking itself, not just culture
#corroborates(0.72) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 35 - Containing qualitative social change is industrial society’s defining achievement
#expands(0.72)