A review by anushree
Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? by Mark Fisher

5.0

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.