The English ruling class neutralizes change by declaring it impossible then inevitable

Evidence

The reality and emotional management systems that have served neoliberalism so well are now not only failing, but conspicuously failing… Of course, the buffers, the spoilers and the blockers haven’t given up yet… Not here, not in England, the country which designed the oldest and most effective damping system the world has ever known… They haven’t given up, they haven’t even realised that they will have soon have to adjust the reality programme they have been peddling for so long that it has become a drab second nature… Soon, they will have to pull the oldest trick in the English bourgeoisie’s book (they perfected it in 1688)… First of all you say it is impossible, then, when it happens, you say it was inevitable… “You see, you have to preserve the impression that nothing happens, especially when it does, is that clear? We don’t have revolutions here…” — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1959

Categorization

• XREF: Fisher’s ‘English bourgeoisie’ damping-system concept resonates with his broader notion of capitalist realism’s prevention of alternative imaginings. — connects to: The word revolution has been devalued to mean any trivial change or mere coup — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 1463; The belief that change is impossible dissolves the obligation to act — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 316; The myth of inevitable change masks the class-serving reality of historical rupture (+2 more)
• SEED: This two-stage trick — ‘first impossible then inevitable’ — is a compact, citable formulation for an essay on how establishment discourse metabolizes genuine ruptures (e.g. Brexit, Sanders, Corbyn).

Broader Connections

• Contradictory ideologies that assert change is either trivial or impossible both suppress collective guilt #expands (0.90) — Michael T. Schmitt, Daniel A. Miller, Nyla R. Branscombe, and Jack W. Brehm, The Difficulty of Making Reparations…, 79
• The myth of inevitable change masks the class-serving reality of historical rupture #expands (0.88)
• The belief that change is impossible dissolves the obligation to act #expands (0.82) — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 316
• British experts knowingly framed class-targeted austerity pain as unavoidable natural law. #exemplifies (0.78) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1030
• The word revolution has been devalued to mean any trivial change or mere coup #complicates (0.72) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1463