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Capitalist Realism

Is There No Alternative?

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Capitalist Realism

By: Mark Fisher
Narrated by: Tom Lawrence
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About this listen

It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. After 1989, capitalism has successfully presented itself as the only realistic political-economic system–a situation that the bank crisis of 2008, far from ending, actually compounded. The book analyses the development and principal features of this capitalist realism as a lived ideological framework.

Using examples from politics, film (Children Of Men, Jason Bourne, Supernanny), fiction (Le Guin and Kafka), work and education, it argues that capitalist realism colors all areas of contemporary experience, is anything but realistic and asks how capitalism and its inconsistencies can be challenged. It is a sharp analysis of the post-ideological malaise that suggests that the economics and politics of free market neo-liberalism are givens rather than constructions.

New Edition includes:

– Forward by Zoe Fisher, Mark’s wife, talking about Mark as a person

– Introduction by Alex Niven, his friend and colleague, talking about the political significance of the book thirteen years after it was written

– Afterword by Tariq Goddard, the original editor and publisher, describing the writing and editing of the book, its original reception, and Mark’s own view of it

©2022 Mark Fisher (P)2023 Repeater Books Political Science Politics & Government Social Sciences Capitalism Socialism Liberalism Taxation

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All stars
Most relevant
Shame about the last page. Pulls back from all his arguments to say the old left wing moralism having argued so eloquently against in the rest of the book!

Great book

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Reader was good. The book seems a little bit dated. But still very relevant today.

Short form masterpiece

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A very readable insight to capital and how we live now, and how things might be different

Insightful

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I can see the appeal of this book in the 'year of living dangerously (2011)'. I listened to the first few chapters and had to walk away from the book for a few days, as it made me so sad by it's truthsomeness. I returned to it and I haven't worked out yet how to move beyond an affective response. Perhaps that's the point; I have to wallow in it, andlisten again. Mark Fisher's material has made me go back to his k-punk blog (while it stays online) as the primordial source of many of his arguments. He provided terminology for the challenges that have hit society over the 2010's before some occured, and after he died. The personal tone makes his philosophy approachable and viable.

We need more writers like Mark Fisher

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I absolutely adored this book, both the foreword and afterword perfectly contextualize the book and punch up Mark's words higher. I wept at parts, because it gave me the vocabulary to express feelings that are deeply embedded within me but I had no efficient way of articulating them. Besides being educational by taking us through our social political evolution, it prompts a rich and important conversation that is needed in the pursuit of a better, fairer, world for all of us. Thank you to everyone involved in making this audible possible, the reader was superb and definetly made justice to Mark Fisher's words. Couldn't recommend it more!

Fundamental reading for our current system.

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