Capitalist Realism
What notes from Mark Fisher and Slavoj Zizek can teach us about contemporary capitalism
I am somewhere writing this, however, the times we live in make me feel as if it no longer matters. I feel compelled to write a piece on this tumultuous period in human history, as the world doesn’t need my opinion, but it needs something. So I offer this as a deed to society.
Sitting next to me on a suspicious assortment of books is Mark Fisher’s masterpiece Capitalist Realism. The importance of this book lies beyond its 80 pages of doctrine reversal. It represents something that prefaced what capitalism was at its inception, but what it is showing itself to be in contemporary civilization. Simply put, we are a populous of consumerist mutants who have become utterly detached from every aspect of personal meaning and creativity. Put plainly by philosopher Slavoj Zizek, it is easier to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine the end of capitalism, and we are seemingly more and more likely to ratify the former by unhinged continuity of the latter. Could you imagine not being able to look at your phone for more than 30 seconds? Or buy an Amazon Alexa to be delivered tomorrow? To what extent are we willing to subject ourselves to capitalist dogma and enterprise, and if we have had enough, where do we go?
The psychological limits to which we are influenced are well documented, however, poorly addressed. We have even begun to defend hyper-capitalist oligarchs in order to sustain the level to which we breed productivity. For the vast portion of society, it doesn’t make a difference whether you have $200 billion in your bank account or $1 dollar. Many people, I believe, if uninfluenced would prefer to stay out of lives that didn’t affect them, but the sole issue lies in the fact that it does affect them. Could you imagine if you gave a damn good working man a livable wage, where his kids could go to school safely and at a reasonable cost? Where he could take his kids for insulin if they are diabetic without going bankrupt? It is well documented, that for many people, the problem is not having too much money. It is not being able to survive in a society that has a bigger pride and ego than it does respect for its inhabitants.
I wish to share with you passages from Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher that help elucidate what I am offering: “capitalist realism: the widespread sense that not only is capitalism the only viable political and economic system, but also that it is now impossible even to imagine a coherent alternative to it…In its world, as in ours, ultra-authoritarianism and Capital are by no means incompatible.” (Fisher 2)
The foundation for acceptable ideology is put forth by Fisher by identifying a kind of parallax view. Zizek also wrote extensively on what this is, although he was more interested in the parallax gap. What is to be understood by the parallax view? The common Merriam-Webster definition would describe it as “the apparent displacements or the difference in apparent direction of an object as seen from two different points, not on a straight line with the object.”
Imagine the object in this case is our society within capitalism. What we generally see is hyper-productivity coupled with massive amounts of growth. This must be the reason many neoliberal and conservative intellectuals die on the hill of defending the current order. However, if you were to take a step back, and see the object (capitalist society) from another point, you could see that fast-moving productivity isn’t absolute. There are more levels to humanity and the human psyche than mastering that of producing and consuming, and the current order of business does nothing more than focus on just that. They claim, that pure untouched capitalism is the anecdote to authoritarian communism and Marxism and in many ways, the free market has in fact proved to be a reliable solution, but not without state intervention. The intellectual vanguards of capitalism would like to suggest that we should rid of any state assistance, as it renders far worse consequences. The almost comedic paradox of this lies in the fact, for example, during the 2008 financial meltdown, the state made sure to rescue the banking industry. Since then, we have seen nothing but support for this action from these same ideologues.
I want to be clear, that you’re not going to find a solution to capitalism from me. I am unequipped to rise to this occasion because, I too, have been subjected to the one-sided limited scope of what society is, and what it could be. Could capitalism be the system humanity rides out until the inevitable end? It could be, but I highly doubt it. If you do not share this doubt, I encourage you to take a look at civilization and ask yourself if this is the society in which you wish to live in and if you believe it could be better.
Thank you all so much for reading this. I hope you were able to take value from it. If you enjoy my work, feel free to give me a follow to support my writing.
Best regards,
Caleb
