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4.14 AVERAGE
4.14 AVERAGE
informative
medium-paced
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
As with most Marxist-influenced writings, the diagnosis is much more on point than solutions offered (if any), but this is a particularly trenchant diagnosis.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
In my time, I haven’t ever read such a book quite so profound as Fisher’s. He provides an instant, clear and authentic diagnosis to the problems of our times: business ontology, hyper-consumerism and mental illness. It is deeply reflective and persuasive in Fisher’s own concise and dense prose. Absolute command of philosophical reason and deeply personable experiences make for a tragic but intense read.
From a situation in which nothing can happen, suddenly anything is possible again.
What a fun, reality-shattering book. By fun I don't mean fun, I mean "perspective destroying". This is a phenomenal account of capitalism's ability to define reality by obscuring the Real, by presenting no alternative. The breadth of subject material is dizzying: the necessity of politicization of mental health, interpassivity and disavowal, bureaucracy in higher education (and in general), "atomistic individualization", semiotic theory in PR, affective management, self-surveillance, reductive models of health and wellness. Then there's the pop culture references— Bourne Identity, Wall-E, The Godfather, YouTube, and a million other movies. Then there's the philosophers: Žižek, Foucault, Lacan, Nietzsche, Kant, Baudrillard... It's amazing to think about how much is fit into 80 pages. The bit about teenagers (once I got past the initial knee-jerk of "okay, boomer") hit particularly deeply, especially: "It is not an exaggeration to say that being a teenager in late capitalist Britain is now close to being reclassified as a sickness." (21) Fisher argues against the dejected apathy and 'reflective impotence' that only strengthens capitalist realism, calling for the left to provide a rival rather than a reaction to capitalism, one that plays on the anxieties and unfulfilled needs of the current system.
This is a banger.
The academic language was very difficult for me. However I still was able to get a lot out of this book.
The academic language was very difficult for me. However I still was able to get a lot out of this book.
challenging
sad
tense
medium-paced
Oof, my brain is sore from reading this one.
I don't have much to offer in the way of a critique or praise of this book, mostly because I am not 100% that I fully understand it. That said, there are a lot of really poignant passages that helped connect the dots as to how capitalism has affected the nature of work, education, mental health, and more. A few offers, too, on how we can envision and build a new world free from the vampirism of capital.
"[...] an effective anti-capitalism must be a rival to Capital, not a reaction to it; there can be no return to pre-capitalist territorialities. Anti-capitalism must oppose Capital's globalism with its own, authentic, universality."
I don't have much to offer in the way of a critique or praise of this book, mostly because I am not 100% that I fully understand it. That said, there are a lot of really poignant passages that helped connect the dots as to how capitalism has affected the nature of work, education, mental health, and more. A few offers, too, on how we can envision and build a new world free from the vampirism of capital.
"[...] an effective anti-capitalism must be a rival to Capital, not a reaction to it; there can be no return to pre-capitalist territorialities. Anti-capitalism must oppose Capital's globalism with its own, authentic, universality."