Capitalist realism makes alternatives to capitalism unthinkable

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. … Neoliberals, the capitalist realists par excellence, have celebrated the destruction of public space but, contrary to their official hopes, there is no withering away of the state in Children of Men, only a stripping back of the state to its core military and police functions (I say ‘official’ hopes since neoliberalism surreptitiously relied on the state even while it has ideologically excoriated it. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 8

Capitalist realism, to sum it up briefly, can be seen as both a belief and an attitude. It is a belief that capitalism is the only viable political/economic system, and a simple restatement of the old Thatcherite maxim, “There is no alternative”. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1640

Categorization

• DEFINE: Core definition of the book’s central term: the inability to imagine alternatives to capitalism.
• XREF: Core definition echoes the book’s central thesis as a standalone definition worth resurfacing. — connects to: Capitalism is an infinitely plastic system that dismantles all transcendent codes; The 2008 bailouts discredited neoliberalism but not capitalist realism itself. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 161; Total ideological closure makes small alternatives disproportionately powerful. (+28 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 8; Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1640
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source

Broader Connections

• Capitalist realism restricts the horizon of what is politically possible #corroborates (0.90) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 410
• Loathed-but-complied systems typify capitalist realism #expands (0.85)
• Capitalist realism defines politically possible options, which diverge from physical realities #expands (0.80)
• Neo-anarchism is an effect of, not a challenge to, capitalist realism #exemplifies (0.75) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1735