Capitalist realism operates like a dream sustained by our own desires
Evidence
Following Wendy Brown, I argued that capitalist realism can be understood as a kind of dreamwork. In this dreamwork, briefly interrupted in 2008, the banking crisis is some repressed trauma which is known about but never confronted, a Real that the dreamer stays asleep to keep avoiding. Capital is the dreamer here, and, insofar as capitalist realism is sustained, we remain figments in its dream. Yet capital is also our dream, which, Matrix-like, has constructed the virtual reality in which we think we live from our energy, our desires and our fantasies. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1797
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the broader capitalist realism concept Fisher develops throughout this collection, and to Zizek’s and Brown’s framing of ideology as dreamwork. — connects to: Capitalist realism is a pervasive atmosphere that constrains thinking itself, not just culture — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 35; Capital operates as a collective dream sustained by our own desires and energy; Dreamwork’s confabulated smoothness models how capitalist realism papers over contradictions — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 122 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Capital operates as a collective dream sustained by our own desires and energy
#corroborates(0.95) - Dreamwork’s confabulated smoothness models how capitalist realism papers over contradictions
#expands(0.85) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 122 - Late capitalism replaces the Freudian unconscious with corporate-authored dream spaces
#expands(0.80) — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life, 532 - Capitalist realism is a pervasive atmosphere that constrains thinking itself, not just culture
#expands(0.78) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 35 - Desire is composed, so capitalism owns no natural claim on it
#complicates(0.76) - Capitalist realism makes alternatives to capitalism unthinkable
#qualifies(0.72) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 8