In the late 2000s, Fisher re-purposed the term "capitalist realism" to describe "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".[21]: 2 He argued that the term best describes the ideological situation since the fall of the Soviet Union, in which the logics of capitalism have come to delineate the limits of political and social life, with significant effects on education, mental illness, pop culture, and methods of resistance. The result is a situation in which it is "easier to imagine an end to the world than an end to capitalism."[21]: 2 He wrote:[21]: 16
Capitalist realism as I understand it... is more like a pervasive atmosphere, conditioning not only the production of culture but also the regulation of work and education, and acting as a kind of invisible barrier constraining thought and action.
Fisher also credited working in the public sector in Blairite Britain, as well as being a teacher and trade union activist, with making him see that "neoliberal capitalism didn't fit with the accelerationist model" but was instead creating the bureaucracy he describes in Capitalist Realism.[22] The concept of capitalist realism likely stems from the concept of cultural hegemony proposed by Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci, which can generally be described as the notion that the "status quo" is all there is, and that anything else violates common sense itself.[citation needed] According to capitalist realism, capitalists maintain their power not only through violence and force, but also by creating a pervasive sense that the capitalist system is all there is. They seek to maintain these conditions by dominating most social and cultural institutions. Fisher proposed that within a capitalist framework there is no space to conceive of alternative forms of social structures, adding that younger generations are not even concerned with recognizing alternatives.[21]: 8 He said that the 2008 financial crisis compounded this position. Rather than catalyzing a desire to seek alternatives for the existing model, the response to the crisis reinforced the notion that modifications must be made within the existing system. Fisher states that capitalist realism has propagated a "business ontology" which concludes that everything should be run as a business including education and healthcare.[21]: 15 Fisher has also stated that after the 2008 financial crisis, even the capitalist status quo seemed impossible, which he considered an improvement.
para mas:
https://www.newstatesman.com/long-reads/2009/04/culture-technology-energy-rave
postdata:
Fisher died by suicide at his home on King Street, Felixstowe in Suffolk, England on 13 January 2017 at the age of 48, shortly before the publication of his latest book The Weird and the Eerie (2017). He had sought psychiatric treatment in the weeks leading up to his death, but his general practitioner had only been able to offer over-the-phone meetings to discuss a referral. Fisher's mental health had deteriorated since May 2016, leading to a suspected overdose in December 2016 when he was admitted to Ipswich Hospital.[39]
He discussed his struggles with depression in articles[40] and in his book Ghosts of My Life. According to Simon Reynolds in The Guardian, Fisher said that "the pandemic of mental anguish that afflicts our time cannot be properly understood, or healed, if viewed as a private problem suffered by damaged individuals."