Realism is naturalized ideology, and today’s realistic was yesterday’s impossible

Evidence

Needless to say, what counts as ‘realistic’, what seems possible at any point in the social field, is defined by a series of political determinations. An ideological position can never be really successful until it is naturalized, and it cannot be naturalized while it is still thought of as a value rather than a fact. Accordingly, neoliberalism has sought to eliminate the very category of value in the ethical sense. Over the past thirty years, capitalist realism has successfully installed a ‘business ontology’ in which it is simply obvious that everything in society, including healthcare and education, should be run as a business. … It is worth recalling that what is currently called realistic was itself once ‘impossible’: the slew of privatizations that took place since the 1980s would have been unthinkable only a decade earlier, and the current political-economic landscape (with unions in abeyance, utilities and railways denationalized) could scarcely have been imagined in 1975. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 37

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Emancipatory politics must denaturalize the seemingly necessary — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 37; Illusion is impossible today because the real itself is no longer possible — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 73; Capitalist realism restricts the horizon of what is politically possible — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 410 (+9 more)

Related

• Ideology succeeds only when naturalized from value into fact (similarity 0.89)
• Realism masks ideology as maturation via biology and economic constraint (similarity 0.86)
• Capitalist realism restricts the horizon of what is politically possible (similarity 0.86)
• The reality principle itself is ideological (similarity 0.83)
• The reality principle is itself the highest form of ideology (similarity 0.82)
• Emancipatory politics must denaturalize the seemingly necessary (similarity 0.82)
• Capitalist realism defines politically possible options, which diverge from physical realities (similarity 0.82)
• Capitalist realism is the belief that capitalism is the only viable game in town (similarity 0.82)
• Capitalist realism is a pervasive atmosphere that constrains thinking itself, not just culture (similarity 0.81)
• Capitalist realism makes alternatives to capitalism unthinkable (similarity 0.81)
• Capitalist realism subordinates people to a reality that is infinitely plastic rather than solid. (similarity 0.81)
• Capitalist realism defines political possibility against physical possibility (similarity 0.81)
• Capitalist realism makes a coherent alternative to capitalism unimaginable. (similarity 0.80)
• The self-styled realists are the truly insane ones (similarity 0.80)
• Ideology operates through acting as if you believe, not sincere conviction (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Illusion is impossible today because the real itself is no longer possible #expands (0.85) — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 73
• Realism masks ideology as maturation via biology and economic constraint #expands (0.85) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 996
• Capitalist realism restricts the horizon of what is politically possible #expands (0.80) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 410
• Capitalist realism makes alternatives to capitalism unthinkable #expands (0.80) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 8
• Postmodern realism yields only ideological images, never unmediated reality #expands (0.78)
• Realism both critiques and reinforces the status quo’s exclusions #expands (0.75) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 438
• A hegemonic realism retroactively erases cultural possibilities it cannot absorb #expands (0.75) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1009
• Realism began as description of existing works before becoming prescriptive dogma #complicates (0.75) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 386
• Ideology is real practice dislocated from, not fantasy opposed to, reality #expands (0.72)
• Ideology represents imaginary relations to real conditions of existence #expands (0.72)
• Ideology succeeds only when naturalized from value into fact #expands (0.72) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 37