Late neoliberal capitalism resembles the Soviet system’s terminal phase but worse

Evidence

Restoration capital reeks of defeat and exhaustion, like the Eastern bloc at the end of the 1980s. The Soviet system, just like neoliberal capitalism now, was a gigantic Empire of Simulation in which by then, no one — not even the big Other — believed. Except, under state socialism, there was at least social housing, energy supplied by the state, etc. Under late neoliberalism, even in the “wealthiest” countries, such as ours, we don’t even have that: only a cybergothic Dickensian re-run… Temples of finance looming above food banks… — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1957

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The comparison of late-neoliberal capitalism to the Eastern bloc’s Empire of Simulation ‘in which no one believed’, yet noting socialism still had housing and energy while late capitalism doesn’t even have that, is a paradigm-shifting juxtaposition that resists quick summary.
• XREF: connects to: Neoliberalism differs fundamentally from the Cold War era economy — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 49; Neoliberal marketisation of public services paradoxically produces a Stalinist proliferation of bureaucracy — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 2211; Totalitarian political regimes are symptoms of deeper economic systematization (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism differs fundamentally from the Cold War era economy #contradicts (0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 49
• Neoliberal marketisation of public services paradoxically produces a Stalinist proliferation of bureaucracy #expands (0.82) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2211
• Totalitarian political regimes are symptoms of deeper economic systematization #corroborates (0.78)
• Loathed-but-complied systems typify capitalist realism #corroborates (0.78)
• Advanced capitalism’s superstructures slow revolutionary action and demand long-term strategy #complicates (0.74) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 167