Simple contrast-based narratives are needed to counter capitalist realism’s own simplistic media stories

Evidence

In many ways, The Emperor’s New Clothes tells us what we already know, but this is the point. How can we accept what we know, when what we know is so monstrous, so obscene, so insane? In the Q and A, Brand was asked why people care more about the X Factor than political struggles. But he argued that, rather than decrying the X Factor, its techniques — in particular those which incite emotion — need to be repurposed. “Capitalism has given us the organisms and the machines we can use to produce the revolution”. #accelerate! So the film is an exercise in affective engineering which patiently yet relentlessly dismantles capitalist realist commonsense. One of its most powerful techniques is the use of simple but devastating contrasts: cleaners at RBS earning hundreds of times less than the bosses (same physical space, different worlds); rioters jailed for stealing small items next to bankers who caused social catastrophe not only going unpunished but receiving bonuses. Mark Kermode’s accusation that the film is “simplistic” misses the point. When faced with a media machine that pushes an outrageously simplistic story of its own — it was Labour wot done it — while recounting neoliberal catechisms like Medieval Catholic priests reciting the Mass in Latin, we need an equally simple counter-narrative. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1779

Categorization

• SEED: The metaphor of neoliberal policy recited like Latin Mass — a ruling ideology so formalized no one in the congregation understands it — could anchor an essay on the ritualization of economic doctrine.
• DEFINE: Flags the phrase ‘capitalist realism’ and ‘affective engineering’ as recurring Fisher concepts worth noting.