Cynical disbelief masks an unconscious ideological fantasy structuring reality

Evidence

If the concept of ideology is the classic one in which the illusion is located in knowledge’, he argues, then today’s society must appear post-ideological: the prevailing ideology is that of cynicism; people no longer believe in ideological truth; they do not take ideological propositions seriously. The fundamental level of ideology, however, is not of an illusion masking the real state of things but that of an (unconscious) fantasy structuring our social reality itself. And at this level, we are of course far from being a post-ideological society. Cynical distance is just one way … to blind ourselves to the structural power of ideological fantasy: even if we do not take things seriously, even if we keep an ironical distance, we are still doing them. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 30

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Capitalism functions without anyone believing in it, unlike fascism — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 29; Believing capitalism is bad licenses continued participation in it — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 31; Postmodernism abandons ideology critique for cynical reason — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 21 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Postmodernism abandons ideology critique for cynical reason #complicates (0.78) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 21