@deso92 heartening comments. its so topsy turvy to see people spitting on this guy's grave, if only because his message troubles the self-flattering narrative of society's more well adjusted... no more empathetic, caring leftist 'thinker' comes to mind
Which is why I wince every time I hear the term ‘hard working families’, as if there is a moral and ethical superiority in being too stressed, busy, and anxious, to have meaningful or purposeful relationships with one another. The agenda is clear, subjugation to the corporation and the state. Mark is right though, it is collapsing under it’s own weight, as it was never fit for purpose. We are not machine we are alive.
The present world event has shown that the old model is over.. What is coming is much worse.. Check out Alan watt who died last week. He nails ths nwo agenda 21 etc.. Depressing but planned over decades.
I think Capitalist Realism was summed up to me when he said that it doesn’t want workers to be productive, it simply wants to eliminate their ability to imagine any alternative.
the depth of the vulnerability when he says "you haven't worked hard enough telling yourself a positive story" at 29:55 is staggering; you can almost see the pain of it throwing him off balance for a second :(
@@OjoRojo40 Which is exactly why a school of thought could emerge from him. The accessibility of his and Deleuze's ideas and writing couldn't be more different
@@OjoRojo40 I think that every new school of philosophy is allways some kind of product of old school of philosophy. There would not be Marxism without Heglism, there would not be Hegel without Kant etc.
Mark Fisher, David Graeber, Michael Brooks... The left has lost quite a few legends in recent years. It hurts, compounded with the torture of living in this hellhole of a world.
what a brilliant mind. it's gut-wrenching to hear of his death, especially having recently read an article he had written about his struggle with depression. may you rest in peace, mark.
This talk is indeed haunting, It haunts all who have to work for a living, What a terrible loss both Fisher and Graeber. It's almost unbelievable we lost both of these profound thinkers.
I recently viewed a CZcams video about the homeless and working poor in Seattle Washington, USA. One case showed a temporary construction worker who lived with his two children and wife in a tent city. He was asked if he was a proud American. He had difficulty answering. Ultimately he claimed he loved his country. He was then asked how he felt about the inequality between rich and poor in the US. He claimed he felt no animosity toward the rich and added, "I've never been given a job by a poor person". The entire orientation here is erroneous, but to put it in the vernacular - that's just the way it is.
It's because people in need are rarely fit to go helping those around them. People in America trust the wealthy to distribute wealth within society, but helping people doesn't stop at just giving them things, ESPECIALLY when there's a financial return expected on whatever was given, it's not a gift if it's expected back with interest. They're being exploited, and all they can think is "well, at least I've still got work", even when they've got no home, even when there isn't enough to eat, even when there's not enough time to care for your kids, at least they've still got that job that pays shit, always asks more of them everyday, and doesn't care about the difficulty of the work, or lack of tools to get it done, at least they've still got that job that pays them a couple crumbs a day, as long as they have that, they can trick themselves into thinking that everything's still fine and dandy, because, really, they do feel as helpless as they are, but are terrified of recognizing it, as though realizing it would suddenly make all the losses real...
To me his ideas are part of anti-work philosophy, that many do not understand. It is not just "work sucks" I do not want to do it or I do not want to contribute to society. It is the way work is set up in capitalism at its core is dehumanizing and impacts all facets of our lives. Wage labor is a fundamental contradiction of capitalism that leads to massive alienation, and furthermore it is a form of control over our entire lives not just our working hours (which alone is bad enough).
Agree, I linked this with 'Bullshit Jobs' as soon as I read the synopsis of his book (then went on to read the book Capitalism Realism). Glad to see Fisher shout him out here. Bullshit Jobs brings awareness to the issue with some attempts at explanation and Capitalism Realism explains why it's so inherently bizarre and seemingly illogical very well.
that, but also his texts need to be considered through the lens of his eventual suicide - Fisher is a hugely inspiring thinker to me but his cynicism does overwhelm a lot of his broader ideological ideas - I have to remind myself that entirely leaning in to his perspective is also leaning in to a life costing cynicism (although this, for clarity, doesn't negate his points)
If you have time to watch this or to attend the evermore fashionable street protests, capitalism hasn’t dehumanized your life but rather made it possible for you to complain.
Here is a partial transcript, done on the morning of Good Friday 2020, during coronavirus quarantine : [11:00] Part of the problem I think was impatience. With a lot of the 60s counter-culture people flipped out of dominant reality very quickly and assumed that was just how things were going to go now, and everything will flow from that. One of the values that we need at the moment is a kind of a revolutionary patience, really. There was a kind of impatience in that period and a sense that all of the historical structures, stratifying structures that had dominated human life up to that point could be dissolved within a generation, but just wasn't as quick as that. They are much more tenacious than that. What the right bet on, was the tenacity of these structures, that they would return, and it's a long process to dismantle them. The third form of consciousness that was also around this period and neoliberalism had to subjugate, was that which was theorized and practiced through post-socialist-feminism and which goes under the rubric of consciousness-raising. Consciousness-raising practices, the key aspect of, is people would talk about their feelings, but they would relate those feelings to structures. Typically, very quickly, when people got together they would see that they have common problems and that these problems weren't their fault. Things that they have been encouraged to blame themselves for, or feel inadequate for, could be related to structures. Typically patriarchy and capitalism and their interrelation. And this obviously touches on all areas of life. [13:40] Part of the power of consciousness-raising is its kind of molecular contagion, that any group of people can engage in consciousness-raising. I guess the key thing of all of the things that I've talked about in terms of the issue of consciousness, is a transformative power of consciousness itself. That consciousness is not then a raised consciousness. It's not simply that facts are recognized that were already there. When people develop group consciousness, when they develop class consciousness, it's not that they passively register something that is true. It's that they constitute themselves as a group, which has already changed the so-called world. So consciousness is immediately transformative, and shifts in consciousness become the basis for other kinds of transformation. [18:30] It's the specter of democratic socialism or libertarian communism that neoliberalism that was organized around preventing. You can say that the key evental moment of neoliberalism was the crashing of the IND government in Chile. Why? Because that was everything that capital feared. Because it was no longer this kind of soviet stereotype, of a top-down Stalinist bureaucratic and dreary monolith. The waves of this democratic socialism throughout the US and in Europe and elsewhere also. And that it what had to be stopped. That what had to be stopped, eliminated for even a possibility of existing. And in place of that then this mandatory Individualism. This individualism of neoliberalism has always to be policed. There is always the danger of consciousness being raised again. There is always the danger when people are together that they will develop a collective consciousness, that will succeed from these forms of miserable angst-ridden individualism which is a kind of supervised condition. And I think that is where we are at the moment. [17:00] So you have to organize a loathing around people who want working. So that a possibility of life beyond this miserable angst-ridden anxiety-dream drudgery is not anywhere. They've done it really well. We've as close as possible, I think, in Britain in the 21st century to eliminating that possibility, as any society as ever come really. That's the bad news. Good news is, that it's all breaking down, and we can see the symptoms of that breakdown all around us really. All certainties are off, for good and bad. The Santa has disappeared. That's partly why they are in such utter fucking panic. Because, you know, they sort of know it at some level, that the center-ground that they've posited as eternal, with all their, you know, careerist orientation, that's collapsed now, and it's never going to come back. In all sorts of ways that's also not good because it has led to the rise of the right, and particularly the horrific kind of specters around this kind of migrant crisis, the worst kind of elements of European history, the specters of them returning. [30:00] People developing new kind of structures. One thing we can say, and that's I suppose new in my lifetime, that the left has learned since 2008, the left has learned stuff. The right doesn't seem to have anything. Practically all my lifetime every tiny thing the left got something, the right has been one step ahead of it. Well, you know, it's been 7-8 years since the financial crash. They've got nada. We kind of have to face this. They haven't got anything, but new kinds of political formation are emerging, new kinds of thinking, new kinds of organization are emerging on the left. And ok, Syriza might have been crashed, and might not succeed there fully. Jeremy Corbyn, might be crushed. But, I think we can be confident. Those two things are related anyway. That there is now a new wave. There wouldn't have been Corbyn without Syriza, and if Corbyn is crushed something else can emerge later. There is a new wave and I think we can now start to ride it towards post-capitalism.
My god do I love a guy who takes on a topic like this! I am just learning about Mark and have been devastated to learn he has already died. Wow what a loss... these kind of intellectuals are in short supply in our video game and junk food world today
Wow! He really nails it, what I feel about my job and what I see around me. I've never heard it articulated so coherently and palpably before. Too bad I first came across Mark Fisher's work only yesterday through a chance CZcams affiliation.
I sympathize with Fisher's thought, and lament what has happened to my fellow humans, even though I'm one of the few people I know lucky enough live an older style of life, working less and spending more time being human. Too bad my fellow humans are almost always "too busy"
What's fascinating is where Mr. Fischer's analysis overlaps with arch Catholic conservative E. Michael Jones. Neo-Liberalism has created a hall of mirrors, (not so fun house), where the notion of balance or gravity itself is up for life style choice.
The mirrors in this dystopian fun-house threaten to reveal our own Jungian shadows, and it is the narcissistic fear of this self-betrayal and vulnerability that keeps us under the control of an illegitimate system of economic co-option. Our social management of equitable economic relationships with each other is anti-social at best.
Great analysis of where it's at. A string of key points one after the other. The only false note, the obligatory happy ending. More realistic to end with a dire warning. Don't hide the Doom.
I`ve just come across this guy and he speaks so particularly to me and all that has happened to me in the last 15 years,the whole horror story.I`m so sorry for his passing,for his family and to all those that followed him. I`d love to have put a question to him,one that i have been trying to formulate for some time and speaks directly to some of the themes he has covered - What is the role of ART in atomisation ? Let me try to clarify - Art or an aspect of art,its conceptual mirroring and doubletalk is now pandemic.In every construction site,coffee franchise,big box retail outlet,this doubletalk is now mandatory.This of course is post Fordism,post Taylorism and industrial psychology etc and is the toxic cherry on top of the grotesque neo-liberal cheesecake.It means in practical terms they have it sewn up so tight that there is absolutely no way to resist capital flow.Some acid commentator described this social phenomena as "even the lowliest peasant is now an impossible aesthete".I think Dali called it the concrete illusion. It now appears that everyman is an artist and being an artist he/she is a fierce individualist...which of course dovetails perfectly with the neo-liberal agenda of individualism and atomisation,of ensuring there is no collective consciousness. I have learnt to my cost,3 jobs fired from in less than 3 years,that trying to slow or interfere with capital flow is impossible.They find you and find you quick.You end up in the margins with your head in a spin and blacklisted.The degree to which they are prepared to go to control even one minimum wage worker is truly shocking and does not confine itself to the actual physical workplace.It was a frightening revelation, with plain clothes police used to put the frighteners on you,to bring you back in line(on 2 of the jobs i was fired from).Anyone not familiar with these tactics in the workplace will think me unstable or half mad but this whole story takes place in a universe of allusion and ambiguity,nothing is direct or explicit.You are supposed to sound half mad,an unreliable crackpot.It relies on its ability to call you paranoid and of course it cannot be recorded. I won`t go on.There are some here who will understand what i`m talking about,will have some experience,perhaps even say its commonplace but do they understand why it is mandatory and the implications therein ?If we can talk of the social fabric,then we must look at some of the fine stitching,the language. Wintering it out. Win to ring it out.
I'm tired. I'm exhausted. I'm sick. I wanna die. I completely relate to ALL he's saying. I get it. But I have to get a job. I have to go to work on Thursday, and can't enjoy this critique like a cradled scholar (and even then, I know. I know.). I'm starting to relate a bit too much to Fisher these days. Hm, that's not good, is it?
Getting to the end of this when he’s expressing optimism and bringing up corbyn etc I can’t get the “does he know? He doesn’t know” Batman meme out of my head 😢
Crazy it’s almost been 10 years already since 2016…other than bits and pieces of technology, the decline seems to be across the board. There is no such thing as public trust anymore. The best and brightest are doing their best to shelter themselves and their families and are hunkered down, homeschooling their children using very expensive virtual or private tutors. Save whatever money you can and put that towards building up your independence.
My favourite of Fisher's works is "Good For Nothing", describing mental health and particularly depression as resulting from the maddening neoliberal "believe and you can achieve" mentality that describes every success as entirely yours and therefore every failure as entirely yours. Audio version here: czcams.com/video/e_h_5Ykj7vA/video.html
~’The form of time that neoliberal culture creates is a constant series of anxieties. Through technology, we are always available to capital on call. They have captured our time’. 25:30
06:33 Mark refers to David Graeber's views on 'class subordination being an export of Britain' - does anyone know the exact essay/work he's referring to?
Might have found it: "The historical defeat and humiliation of the British working classes is now the island’s primary export product." thebaffler.com/salvos/despair-fatigue-david-graeber
something i wish he had explored before he left us are the aspects of human nature that may lead us to accept dehumanizing structures. is it possible the 60’s failed to “take” because freedom and ambiguity and autonomy are intolerably scary to homo sapiens? was neoliberalism (or religion) forced upon us or it is simply the case that many people like to be told how to act and what to believe? would love to have heard his thoughts on this
He's still correct that the centre that Blairism is predicated on has gone and isn't coming back. Neoliberal austerity as well as the parasitic wealth destruction that is financialisation are continously wearing down middle class savings, assets and prospects for future earnings and advancement. What I've been saying since 2015 is that the number of people whose ideal politics is a Labour party one centimetre to the left, or as currently to the right) of the Conservative party is not above 5000 individuals who all work in ruling class media or for Blairite MPs. The notion that the mass of votes are in what the media calls "the centre", defined as exactly in between Labour and Conservative policies is laughable, but the media hasn't got the joke yet because they are in the tiny bubble of beneficiaries of such unbearable policies. The media's centre ground isn't where the voters are - no-one lives there anymore, as the direct product of "centrist" policies. That is still true and that is why Starmer is going to lose as many general elections as happen while his unprincipled, dictatorial, careerist wing of the party controls it. The real centre in terms of voters' beliefs and policy wishes is far, far to their left, farther to the left than Corbyn. Their only way of winning elections used to be by depriving the electorate of any other choice to the left of the careerists, but that stopped working before 2010. Now it is their only way of retaining control over the Labour party at the known and inevitable cost of continuing to lose elections and decline in influence and parliamentary numbers. That's a price they are willing to pay to hold on to their sinecures, because that's all they ever believed in. And their class position insulates them from the real suffering the policies they collude in enforcing impose on the poor and working class voters, who once gave Labour 6 general election victories when it was a shamelessly Socialist party which catered exclusively to the needs and wishes of those voters and their unions, and not the professional-managerial salariat the careerists pride themselves in being.
He mesmerises me. Could anyone help? I'm stuck with Covid in my claustrophobic London room and decided to subtitle into Italian some of Fisher's talks available on YT, including this one. Sooooo... is it an advert he's referring to at 15:59 ? "Up across there's passion about sandwiches" ? Does anyone know the reference?
A great lecture worth summarising. I used online tools to do that. I hope you all find it useful. **Title: All This Is Temporary - on Capitalism and Consciousness: A Critical Analysis** - **Defining Capitalism Realism** - Conceptualizing capitalism beyond mere economic system - Understanding capitalist realism as a form of consciousness deflation - **The Rise of Capitalist Consciousness** - Correlation between capitalism's rise and diminishing consciousness diversity - Neoliberalism as a strategy to crush emerging consciousness forms - **Forms of Consciousness in the 60s and 70s** - Class Consciousness - Decline of class consciousness post-70s - Impact of neoliberal strategies on class structures and unions - Psychedelic Consciousness - Expansion of psychedelic culture beyond drug use - Beatles and mainstreaming of psychedelic consciousness - Socialist Feminist Consciousness - Practice of consciousness raising - Relating personal feelings to structural issues - **Neoliberalism's Response to Consciousness** - Libidinal engineering and reality manipulation - Imposition of anxious, time-strapped consciousness - Promotion of individualism and eradication of collective time - **Symptoms of Neoliberalism's Breakdown** - Collapse of the center and rise of right-wing populism - Emergence of leftist movements like Corbynism - Left's learning curve since the 2008 financial crisis - **Prospects for Post-Capitalism** - Riding the wave towards a post-capitalist future - Possibility for emergence of new political formations - Optimism in building towards post-capitalism, despite setbacks
@SH-cu9rc Thank you very much. I missed some of the words because the audio is so awful and his British accent difficult for me. I would like to add something to this category of yours: *Forms of Consciousness in the 60s and 70s*. Not a direct quotation. Consciousness, especially experiencing group consciousness, makes one realize that the perceived reality is plastic and fluid, not static and concrete. Relating personal feelings and *experiences, as in feminist teach-ins.
@@lunaridge4510 Thank you for your comment and addition. Yes, some people find some of the British accents difficult to understand, although his is 'mainstream', if you can say that. But, I notice that it does not flow, and you can tell there is a lot going on in his mind while speaking. Also, when you know how much he struggled with his mental health, you'd understand some of the reasons behind his way of speaking, at times better than others though. He was a great man, he is a great loss. RIP
A thought- the key to understanding Fischer s despair is the original split between Left Hegelianism and Right Hegelianism. To heal the left s spiritual malaise it needs to spiritualise its economist IV materialism,
He was.. It is hell. More so surrounded by meat puppets.. An ordeal I am not coping with. Check out Thomas sheridan on CZcams.. It will support you.. You will not wake up the clowns to this sick agenda.. They mean to get rid of us..
hey fellow wage slaves is there like an app we can use to organize direct action and build dual power and shit? if not there should be. it should be easier to fight back
it still breaks me he killed himself. i hope i never such hopelessness, but I understand every human is vulnerable to this, and some more than others. I will never fear this happening. I wonder what mark would of thought of large language models such as chatGPT.
GPT summary: "This speech explores "capitalist realism," the pervasive belief that capitalism is the only viable system. The speaker discusses how neoliberalism has crushed class consciousness, psychedelic consciousness, and feminist consciousness-raising. Despite this, they see hope in emerging leftist movements that challenge the status quo and promote new, collective ways of thinking."
I read a remark by an obese matriarch in a multi-generational dole-dependent family, who said:"I'd rather be fat, happy and unemployed than thin, stressed and working." Hard to argue with. At least until the money/ freedom created by capitalism runs out.
I can't do it mate. Can't quite bring myself to become fully selfish. Some part of me still believes in trying to do the right thing even if everyone else ends up doing the wrong thing. So far...
I find Fisher and his thoughts quite intriguing but many of which flies above my head. I really want to understand more though. Would any kind person be able to point me in a direction for a way in to some of these ideas? TIA!
@@superdeluxesmell quite a lot of words to say "no"! At alchemy (a burn in the states) there was a camp called the acid communist guerrilla training camp and a collection of readings which featured pieces by mark fisher. Which brought me here :)
I think his continued referring to consciousness "raising" works against his ideas. It creates a situation which people can think they are the group with the "raised" consciousness and can convince themselves that they have the moral authority to force their ideas on the electorate because they obviously aren't evolved enough to understand. It gives power structures the "moral" license to subvert the will of the people.
Nothing wrong with leaving the gold standard, as it's arbitrary and cannot be controlled, the problem is the financialisation of the economy and neoliberal cultists who think business is the answer to everything.
I think this guy had huge blindspots about what was going on in society around him. I also think he didn't look far enough into the past to inform his perspective. He offed himself right before the things he was talking about started to get interesting.
He only sees half the picture. Totally ignores culture and race. Imagine unironically thinking people went to pubs because of 'class conciousness' c'mon man.
by your subscriptions i think you are a generation who did not grow up in eras where there was a class consciousness because this was definitely a fucking thing
“I’m an anecdotilist” - David Brent This is like a tedtalk that someone wrote in bathroom 5 mins before showtime. Zero books. Zero statistics. Zero truth.
There are zero statistics in Plato. The system of philosophy which underwrites the entire educational system in which you've spent your life. So what is it, exactly, that you think you're trying to say?
@Whizper2me Yes, Godel showed us that any formal system in which basic arithmetic can be derived is not both consistent and complete, therefore there's no such thing as truth or evidence and we're all just kinda wording it out.
Please let’s discuss the in practice slave religion of marxism. Please tell me how a slacker benefactor and leach of the bourgeoisie. Who not only never worked a day in his life but never knew or spoke kindly of a single proletariat ever. Why should he be the process of thinking by people like me that have worked their entire lives?
Its not a religion its a theory of economic relation and that person who refuses to work has probably rejected this capitalist alienation. Without this alienation and given the ability to be pursue genuinely productive labor, that small minority you speak of can actually feel connected to their work. There's nothing supernatural about wanting life to be worth living.
And now we are being encouraged to ‘brand’ ourselves through social media, and at the same time Brands are attempting to ‘humanise’ themselves.
made me laugh, very true
@@-DistantHorizons- (despairing laugh)
The distinction erases itself. Simulation manifests.
This is making me think. I never thought of this. but i'm not sure how I feel about it atm. Thanks
The individual becomes a product, and is indeed reduced to that of the most wretched of commodities
The night is darkest before the dawn; the best and brightest are also the most fragile; rest in peace, you live in me and us.
@deso92 heartening comments. its so topsy turvy to see people spitting on this guy's grave, if only because his message troubles the self-flattering narrative of society's more well adjusted... no more empathetic, caring leftist 'thinker' comes to mind
jeezus
Which is why I wince every time I hear the term ‘hard working families’, as if there is a moral and ethical superiority in being too stressed, busy, and anxious, to have meaningful or purposeful relationships with one another. The agenda is clear, subjugation to the corporation and the state. Mark is right though, it is collapsing under it’s own weight, as it was never fit for purpose. We are not machine we are alive.
The present world event has shown that the old model is over.. What is coming is much worse.. Check out Alan watt who died last week. He nails ths nwo agenda 21 etc.. Depressing but planned over decades.
Comments like this soil the work of fisher
ur 2 far removed from the farm
hard working equates to well fed, well prepared, ahead of the curve
I didn’t think of that take - makes a lot of sense.
I think Capitalist Realism was summed up to me when he said that it doesn’t want workers to be productive, it simply wants to eliminate their ability to imagine any alternative.
the depth of the vulnerability when he says "you haven't worked hard enough telling yourself a positive story" at 29:55 is staggering; you can almost see the pain of it throwing him off balance for a second :(
Fucking broke me
I predict we will see a school of thought emerge from the groundwork that was done by Mark.
I love Mark, but it's a regurgitation of Deleuze.
@@OjoRojo40 Which is exactly why a school of thought could emerge from him. The accessibility of his and Deleuze's ideas and writing couldn't be more different
@@wolfmotherrule Yes I love how fun is to read Fisher.
@@OjoRojo40 I think that every new school of philosophy is allways some kind of product of old school of philosophy. There would not be Marxism without Heglism, there would not be Hegel without Kant etc.
@@prkp7248 Most definitely :)
Have a good day!
Mark Fisher, David Graeber, Michael Brooks... The left has lost quite a few legends in recent years. It hurts, compounded with the torture of living in this hellhole of a world.
God damnit. It seems the best are dieing first. I'm shocked by the recent news that Mark Fisher is no longer with us. I'm sure he will haunt me.
what a brilliant mind. it's gut-wrenching to hear of his death, especially having recently read an article he had written about his struggle with depression. may you rest in peace, mark.
Would you mind sharing the article here? I'm just getting to know him now, it's such a shame about his passing.
have you got a link to that article please?
This talk is indeed haunting, It haunts all who have to work for a living, What a terrible loss both Fisher and Graeber. It's almost unbelievable we lost both of these profound thinkers.
I recently viewed a CZcams video about the homeless and working poor in Seattle Washington, USA. One case showed a temporary construction worker who lived with his two children and wife in a tent city. He was asked if he was a proud American. He had difficulty answering. Ultimately he claimed he loved his country. He was then asked how he felt about the inequality between rich and poor in the US. He claimed he felt no animosity toward the rich and added, "I've never been given a job by a poor person". The entire orientation here is erroneous, but to put it in the vernacular - that's just the way it is.
It's because people in need are rarely fit to go helping those around them.
People in America trust the wealthy to distribute wealth within society, but helping people doesn't stop at just giving them things, ESPECIALLY when there's a financial return expected on whatever was given, it's not a gift if it's expected back with interest.
They're being exploited, and all they can think is "well, at least I've still got work", even when they've got no home, even when there isn't enough to eat, even when there's not enough time to care for your kids, at least they've still got that job that pays shit, always asks more of them everyday, and doesn't care about the difficulty of the work, or lack of tools to get it done, at least they've still got that job that pays them a couple crumbs a day, as long as they have that, they can trick themselves into thinking that everything's still fine and dandy, because, really, they do feel as helpless as they are, but are terrified of recognizing it, as though realizing it would suddenly make all the losses real...
To me his ideas are part of anti-work philosophy, that many do not understand. It is not just "work sucks" I do not want to do it or I do not want to contribute to society. It is the way work is set up in capitalism at its core is dehumanizing and impacts all facets of our lives. Wage labor is a fundamental contradiction of capitalism that leads to massive alienation, and furthermore it is a form of control over our entire lives not just our working hours (which alone is bad enough).
Agree, I linked this with 'Bullshit Jobs' as soon as I read the synopsis of his book (then went on to read the book Capitalism Realism). Glad to see Fisher shout him out here. Bullshit Jobs brings awareness to the issue with some attempts at explanation and Capitalism Realism explains why it's so inherently bizarre and seemingly illogical very well.
could u explain the link/ difference?
oh totally i draw a lot of anti-work inspiration from Fisher
that, but also his texts need to be considered through the lens of his eventual suicide - Fisher is a hugely inspiring thinker to me but his cynicism does overwhelm a lot of his broader ideological ideas - I have to remind myself that entirely leaning in to his perspective is also leaning in to a life costing cynicism (although this, for clarity, doesn't negate his points)
If you have time to watch this or to attend the evermore fashionable street protests, capitalism hasn’t dehumanized your life but rather made it possible for you to complain.
Here is a partial transcript, done on the morning of Good Friday 2020, during coronavirus quarantine :
[11:00] Part of the problem I think was impatience. With a lot of the 60s counter-culture people flipped out of dominant reality very quickly and assumed that was just how things were going to go now, and everything will flow from that. One of the values that we need at the moment is a kind of a revolutionary patience, really. There was a kind of impatience in that period and a sense that all of the historical structures, stratifying structures that had dominated human life up to that point could be dissolved within a generation, but just wasn't as quick as that. They are much more tenacious than that. What the right bet on, was the tenacity of these structures, that they would return, and it's a long process to dismantle them.
The third form of consciousness that was also around this period and neoliberalism had to subjugate, was that which was theorized and practiced through post-socialist-feminism and which goes under the rubric of consciousness-raising.
Consciousness-raising practices, the key aspect of, is people would talk about their feelings, but they would relate those feelings to structures. Typically, very quickly, when people got together they would see that they have common problems and that these problems weren't their fault. Things that they have been encouraged to blame themselves for, or feel inadequate for, could be related to structures. Typically patriarchy and capitalism and their interrelation. And this obviously touches on all areas of life.
[13:40] Part of the power of consciousness-raising is its kind of molecular contagion, that any group of people can engage in consciousness-raising. I guess the key thing of all of the things that I've talked about in terms of the issue of consciousness, is a transformative power of consciousness itself. That consciousness is not then a raised consciousness. It's not simply that facts are recognized that were already there. When people develop group consciousness, when they develop class consciousness, it's not that they passively register something that is true. It's that they constitute themselves as a group, which has already changed the so-called world. So consciousness is immediately transformative, and shifts in consciousness become the basis for other kinds of transformation.
[18:30] It's the specter of democratic socialism or libertarian communism that neoliberalism that was organized around preventing. You can say that the key evental moment of neoliberalism was the crashing of the IND government in Chile. Why? Because that was everything that capital feared. Because it was no longer this kind of soviet stereotype, of a top-down Stalinist bureaucratic and dreary monolith. The waves of this democratic socialism throughout the US and in Europe and elsewhere also. And that it what had to be stopped. That what had to be stopped, eliminated for even a possibility of existing.
And in place of that then this mandatory Individualism. This individualism of neoliberalism has always to be policed. There is always the danger of consciousness being raised again. There is always the danger when people are together that they will develop a collective consciousness, that will succeed from these forms of miserable angst-ridden individualism which is a kind of supervised condition. And I think that is where we are at the moment.
[17:00] So you have to organize a loathing around people who want working. So that a possibility of life beyond this miserable angst-ridden anxiety-dream drudgery is not anywhere. They've done it really well. We've as close as possible, I think, in Britain in the 21st century to eliminating that possibility, as any society as ever come really.
That's the bad news. Good news is, that it's all breaking down, and we can see the symptoms of that breakdown all around us really. All certainties are off, for good and bad. The Santa has disappeared. That's partly why they are in such utter fucking panic. Because, you know, they sort of know it at some level, that the center-ground that they've posited as eternal, with all their, you know, careerist orientation, that's collapsed now, and it's never going to come back.
In all sorts of ways that's also not good because it has led to the rise of the right, and particularly the horrific kind of specters around this kind of migrant crisis, the worst kind of elements of European history, the specters of them returning.
[30:00] People developing new kind of structures. One thing we can say, and that's I suppose new in my lifetime, that the left has learned since 2008, the left has learned stuff. The right doesn't seem to have anything. Practically all my lifetime every tiny thing the left got something, the right has been one step ahead of it. Well, you know, it's been 7-8 years since the financial crash. They've got nada. We kind of have to face this. They haven't got anything, but new kinds of political formation are emerging, new kinds of thinking, new kinds of organization are emerging on the left.
And ok, Syriza might have been crashed, and might not succeed there fully. Jeremy Corbyn, might be crushed. But, I think we can be confident. Those two things are related anyway. That there is now a new wave. There wouldn't have been Corbyn without Syriza, and if Corbyn is crushed something else can emerge later. There is a new wave and I think we can now start to ride it towards post-capitalism.
thanks for sharing
thanks
Thanks! Where you put "IND government" it's actually "Allende". Cheers.
Thank you!
My god do I love a guy who takes on a topic like this! I am just learning about Mark and have been devastated to learn he has already died. Wow what a loss... these kind of intellectuals are in short supply in our video game and junk food world today
Every sentence so true. And so sad. What a great mind he was. Rest in peace, Mark.
It's refreshing to hear someone who gets it. May he rest in peace.
Wow! He really nails it, what I feel about my job and what I see around me. I've never heard it articulated so coherently and palpably before. Too bad I first came across Mark Fisher's work only yesterday through a chance CZcams affiliation.
God, I'm gonna miss you Mark Fisher. Thank you for your brief time here on Earth, thank you for your wisdom and your strength.
Great talk. more relevant almost 6 years later. RIP!
Respect to comrade Mark !
R.I.P brother. Much missed.
Mark, your work really open my eyes and my mind. We miss you. Ti voglio bene.
Major respect for Mark Fisher.
Mark is a prophet.
thank you so much for uploading this. marks work is living on. #acidcommunism is a growing concept. this is the spark to the fire
When the audio improves drastically at 2:42, I felt a true sense of relief. This is what death must feel like. RIP Mark Fisher.
why did you describe it so well
Genuinely the best contemporary analysis of the current state of capitalism in the 21st
I sympathize with Fisher's thought, and lament what has happened to my fellow humans, even though I'm one of the few people I know lucky enough live an older style of life, working less and spending more time being human. Too bad my fellow humans are almost always "too busy"
god i love mark fisher - thanks for uploading this - wish he was still with us
Brilliant - thanks
LOL. This was categorized by the youtube algorithm as "stand-up comedy".
stand-up tragedy
I got here from Cumtown--seems appropriate.
@aadhi gei Thank you :)
Love this man. He helps me with my depression in some weird way.
Watching this in 2022 and more relevant than ever as the political agenda of neoliberalism trumps proper epidemiology.
What's fascinating is where Mr. Fischer's analysis overlaps with arch Catholic conservative E. Michael Jones. Neo-Liberalism has created a hall of mirrors, (not so fun house), where the notion of balance or gravity itself is up for life style choice.
The mirrors in this dystopian fun-house threaten to reveal our own Jungian shadows, and it is the narcissistic fear of this self-betrayal and vulnerability that keeps us under the control of an illegitimate system of economic co-option. Our social management of equitable economic relationships with each other is anti-social at best.
A brilliant mind.
what a great soul!! If Corbin is crushed (yes it has been) there be another wave!!!!
Great analysis of where it's at. A string of key points one after the other. The only false note, the obligatory happy ending. More realistic to end with a dire warning. Don't hide the Doom.
Brilliant 👏
I`ve just come across this guy and he speaks so particularly to me and all that has happened to me in the last 15 years,the whole horror story.I`m so sorry for his passing,for his family and to all those that followed him.
I`d love to have put a question to him,one that i have been trying to formulate for some time and speaks directly to some of the themes he has covered - What is the role of ART in atomisation ?
Let me try to clarify - Art or an aspect of art,its conceptual mirroring and doubletalk is now pandemic.In every construction site,coffee franchise,big box retail outlet,this doubletalk is now mandatory.This of course is post Fordism,post Taylorism and industrial psychology etc and is the toxic cherry on top of the grotesque neo-liberal cheesecake.It means in practical terms they have it sewn up so tight that there is absolutely no way to resist capital flow.Some acid commentator described this social phenomena as "even the lowliest peasant is now an impossible aesthete".I think Dali called it the concrete illusion.
It now appears that everyman is an artist and being an artist he/she is a fierce individualist...which of course dovetails perfectly with the neo-liberal agenda of individualism and atomisation,of ensuring there is no collective consciousness.
I have learnt to my cost,3 jobs fired from in less than 3 years,that trying to slow or interfere with capital flow is impossible.They find you and find you quick.You end up in the margins with your head in a spin and blacklisted.The degree to which they are prepared to go to control even one minimum wage worker is truly shocking and does not confine itself to the actual physical workplace.It was a frightening revelation, with plain clothes police used to put the frighteners on you,to bring you back in line(on 2 of the jobs i was fired from).Anyone not familiar with these tactics in the workplace will think me unstable or half mad but this whole story takes place in a universe of allusion and ambiguity,nothing is direct or explicit.You are supposed to sound half mad,an unreliable crackpot.It relies on its ability to call you paranoid and of course it cannot be recorded.
I won`t go on.There are some here who will understand what i`m talking about,will have some experience,perhaps even say its commonplace but do they understand why it is mandatory and the implications therein ?If we can talk of the social fabric,then we must look at some of the fine stitching,the language.
Wintering it out. Win to ring it out.
the fact that youtube embedded links to server not found in your words is quite apt,.
I'm tired. I'm exhausted. I'm sick. I wanna die.
I completely relate to ALL he's saying. I get it. But I have to get a job. I have to go to work on Thursday, and can't enjoy this critique like a cradled scholar (and even then, I know. I know.).
I'm starting to relate a bit too much to Fisher these days.
Hm, that's not good, is it?
What part of the country do you live in? What's your job?
@Matthew Barncord well put
Allende's fall was closely followed by the 1975 sacking of the Whitlam government in Australia.
ideology is a form of dreaming in which we live.
25:02 Describes exactly what life feels like in the 2010's: increasingly busy busywork.
say it now, 2021
say it now, 2023 going onto 2024
Getting to the end of this when he’s expressing optimism and bringing up corbyn etc I can’t get the “does he know? He doesn’t know” Batman meme out of my head 😢
This is extremely prescient, the decline since 2016 is massive
Crazy it’s almost been 10 years already since 2016…other than bits and pieces of technology, the decline seems to be across the board. There is no such thing as public trust anymore. The best and brightest are doing their best to shelter themselves and their families and are hunkered down, homeschooling their children using very expensive virtual or private tutors. Save whatever money you can and put that towards building up your independence.
My favourite of Fisher's works is "Good For Nothing", describing mental health and particularly depression as resulting from the maddening neoliberal "believe and you can achieve" mentality that describes every success as entirely yours and therefore every failure as entirely yours. Audio version here: czcams.com/video/e_h_5Ykj7vA/video.html
The opposite of FOMO (fear of missing out) is JOMO (Joy Of Missing Out).
keep telling yourself this, and u will miss out.
rest in peace mark
forever young, I want to be forever young
there is nothing where there should be something
~’The form of time that neoliberal culture creates is a constant series of anxieties. Through technology, we are always available to capital on call. They have captured our time’. 25:30
Ah 2016, the last year of hope
“If Corbyn is crushed” damn he saw it coming. La lutta continua.
But did he imagine the exact, hideous, defamatory means through which they would do so?! Just as well that he didn't have to witness it play out.
@@ronmackinnon9374 I can just imagine what the lockdown would've done to his mind.
06:33 Mark refers to David Graeber's views on 'class subordination being an export of Britain' - does anyone know the exact essay/work he's referring to?
Might have found it: "The historical defeat and humiliation of the British working classes is now the island’s primary export product." thebaffler.com/salvos/despair-fatigue-david-graeber
@jeroenboom8 If you find out, please, post it here.
something i wish he had explored before he left us are the aspects of human nature that may lead us to accept dehumanizing structures. is it possible the 60’s failed to “take” because freedom and ambiguity and autonomy are intolerably scary to homo sapiens? was neoliberalism (or religion) forced upon us or it is simply the case that many people like to be told how to act and what to believe? would love to have heard his thoughts on this
deleuze and guattari look into why people desire their own repression in anti oedipus
@@sigriddolan8583 just ordered along with a thousand plateaus. thank you for the recommendation!
He's still correct that the centre that Blairism is predicated on has gone and isn't coming back. Neoliberal austerity as well as the parasitic wealth destruction that is financialisation are continously wearing down middle class savings, assets and prospects for future earnings and advancement. What I've been saying since 2015 is that the number of people whose ideal politics is a Labour party one centimetre to the left, or as currently to the right) of the Conservative party is not above 5000 individuals who all work in ruling class media or for Blairite MPs. The notion that the mass of votes are in what the media calls "the centre", defined as exactly in between Labour and Conservative policies is laughable, but the media hasn't got the joke yet because they are in the tiny bubble of beneficiaries of such unbearable policies. The media's centre ground isn't where the voters are - no-one lives there anymore, as the direct product of "centrist" policies. That is still true and that is why Starmer is going to lose as many general elections as happen while his unprincipled, dictatorial, careerist wing of the party controls it. The real centre in terms of voters' beliefs and policy wishes is far, far to their left, farther to the left than Corbyn. Their only way of winning elections used to be by depriving the electorate of any other choice to the left of the careerists, but that stopped working before 2010. Now it is their only way of retaining control over the Labour party at the known and inevitable cost of continuing to lose elections and decline in influence and parliamentary numbers. That's a price they are willing to pay to hold on to their sinecures, because that's all they ever believed in. And their class position insulates them from the real suffering the policies they collude in enforcing impose on the poor and working class voters, who once gave Labour 6 general election victories when it was a shamelessly Socialist party which catered exclusively to the needs and wishes of those voters and their unions, and not the professional-managerial salariat the careerists pride themselves in being.
Thank you kindly brother. @@noespam2434
He mesmerises me.
Could anyone help? I'm stuck with Covid in my claustrophobic London room and decided to subtitle into Italian some of Fisher's talks available on YT, including this one. Sooooo... is it an advert he's referring to at 15:59 ? "Up across there's passion about sandwiches" ? Does anyone know the reference?
Upper Crust: They're passtionate about sandwiches
why am i suddenly getting flashbacks to the sandwiches of my homeland
woah unlocked memories
A great lecture worth summarising.
I used online tools to do that. I hope you all find it useful.
**Title: All This Is Temporary - on Capitalism and Consciousness: A Critical Analysis**
- **Defining Capitalism Realism**
- Conceptualizing capitalism beyond mere economic system
- Understanding capitalist realism as a form of consciousness deflation
- **The Rise of Capitalist Consciousness**
- Correlation between capitalism's rise and diminishing consciousness diversity
- Neoliberalism as a strategy to crush emerging consciousness forms
- **Forms of Consciousness in the 60s and 70s**
- Class Consciousness
- Decline of class consciousness post-70s
- Impact of neoliberal strategies on class structures and unions
- Psychedelic Consciousness
- Expansion of psychedelic culture beyond drug use
- Beatles and mainstreaming of psychedelic consciousness
- Socialist Feminist Consciousness
- Practice of consciousness raising
- Relating personal feelings to structural issues
- **Neoliberalism's Response to Consciousness**
- Libidinal engineering and reality manipulation
- Imposition of anxious, time-strapped consciousness
- Promotion of individualism and eradication of collective time
- **Symptoms of Neoliberalism's Breakdown**
- Collapse of the center and rise of right-wing populism
- Emergence of leftist movements like Corbynism
- Left's learning curve since the 2008 financial crisis
- **Prospects for Post-Capitalism**
- Riding the wave towards a post-capitalist future
- Possibility for emergence of new political formations
- Optimism in building towards post-capitalism, despite setbacks
@SH-cu9rc Thank you very much. I missed some of the words because the audio is so awful and his British accent difficult for me. I would like to add something to this category of yours: *Forms of Consciousness in the 60s and 70s*. Not a direct quotation.
Consciousness, especially experiencing group consciousness, makes one realize that the perceived reality is plastic and fluid, not static and concrete.
Relating personal feelings and *experiences, as in feminist teach-ins.
@@lunaridge4510 Thank you for your comment and addition.
Yes, some people find some of the British accents difficult to understand, although his is 'mainstream', if you can say that. But, I notice that it does not flow, and you can tell there is a lot going on in his mind while speaking. Also, when you know how much he struggled with his mental health, you'd understand some of the reasons behind his way of speaking, at times better than others though.
He was a great man, he is a great loss. RIP
Thanks.
the algorithm is sending videos it doesn't understand
A thought- the key to understanding Fischer s despair is the original split between Left Hegelianism and Right Hegelianism. To heal the left s spiritual malaise it needs to spiritualise its economist IV materialism,
This was all before 2020 as well.
Mark Fisher is no longer here because he knew back in 2017 that the future would be intolerable..
It's March 2021... I think he was right.
He was.. It is hell. More so surrounded by meat puppets.. An ordeal I am not coping with. Check out Thomas sheridan on CZcams.. It will support you.. You will not wake up the clowns to this sick agenda.. They mean to get rid of us..
@@pablolowenstein1371 Thanks for that.
Go checkout the population forecasts on deagal dot com ... Will scare the life out of you
@@marcgoodman4561 I know. Its hard being around the droids who think it's all going to be OK.. It ain't...
I wonder what his child thinks?
@@remotefaith one can never get over their parent's suicide.
hey fellow wage slaves is there like an app we can use to organize direct action and build dual power and shit? if not there should be. it should be easier to fight back
wow, one of the talks ive heard
yep this is surely one of the talks ive heard too
what I believe in is to work hard but work for your own sake and produce of enlightement.
i love the talk but i have to pause it every few minutes to not get a migraine from the audio noise
Thought he is on Ted talk scared the shit out of me
anime is worse
it still breaks me he killed himself. i hope i never such hopelessness, but I understand every human is vulnerable to this, and some more than others. I will never fear this happening. I wonder what mark would of thought of large language models such as chatGPT.
“It is not worth the bother of killing yourself, since you always kill yourself too late.”
-Emil Cioran
Does anybody want to be on a podcast?
Sure
Too bad I never had the money to see him when he was alive. Just like I don't have the money to see David Graeber.
GPT summary: "This speech explores "capitalist realism," the pervasive belief that capitalism is the only viable system. The speaker discusses how neoliberalism has crushed class consciousness, psychedelic consciousness, and feminist consciousness-raising. Despite this, they see hope in emerging leftist movements that challenge the status quo and promote new, collective ways of thinking."
what a huge, huge loss
can you re upload louder?
I read a remark by an obese matriarch in a multi-generational dole-dependent family, who said:"I'd rather be fat, happy and unemployed than thin, stressed and working." Hard to argue with. At least until the money/ freedom created by capitalism runs out.
2021..she has a point given what's coming.. Get off the chessboard.. It ain't worth it.
I can't do it mate. Can't quite bring myself to become fully selfish. Some part of me still believes in trying to do the right thing even if everyone else ends up doing the wrong thing. So far...
so nervous it made me nervous
WHY is everyone in that room is noisy???
it's the microphone that's in the crowd
I find Fisher and his thoughts quite intriguing but many of which flies above my head. I really want to understand more though. Would any kind person be able to point me in a direction for a way in to some of these ideas? TIA!
Try reading Jameson, Delueze, Barthes, Debord, Marcuse, Becker, and Baudrillard.
Is that a fidget spinner in his hamd? 🤔
It's a wristwatch. Perhaps he had a set time to speak and wanted to keep himself in control.
The unnameable.
analog horror referential horror ironic horror meta horror
I cant stop asking myself
Anybody here from Alchemy 2019?
xtcfyvgubhinjmo Why do you ask? I never understand why questions of this form are so popular on CZcams.
@@superdeluxesmell quite a lot of words to say "no"!
At alchemy (a burn in the states) there was a camp called the acid communist guerrilla training camp and a collection of readings which featured pieces by mark fisher. Which brought me here :)
@@spinoozefest im curious what did u do in that camp?
this guy would have been the life of the party back in the day
I think his continued referring to consciousness "raising" works against his ideas. It creates a situation which people can think they are the group with the "raised" consciousness and can convince themselves that they have the moral authority to force their ideas on the electorate because they obviously aren't evolved enough to understand. It gives power structures the "moral" license to subvert the will of the people.
And your point is???????
"its your fault" !
Ripest rinp ripeace
We've been in post-capitalism since 1971 when the US left the gold standard. Capital is produced by government fiat. Capitalism requires savings.
Nothing wrong with leaving the gold standard, as it's arbitrary and cannot be controlled, the problem is the financialisation of the economy and neoliberal cultists who think business is the answer to everything.
Sack the audio guy
Weird stand up. Didn’t get it.
>
> more like MARX Fischer!
Is this your "clever" way of saying that none of it penetrated your firewall of dogmatic certainty?
I think this guy had huge blindspots about what was going on in society around him. I also think he didn't look far enough into the past to inform his perspective. He offed himself right before the things he was talking about started to get interesting.
He only sees half the picture. Totally ignores culture and race. Imagine unironically thinking people went to pubs because of 'class conciousness' c'mon man.
how old are you and where did you grow up
by your subscriptions i think you are a generation who did not grow up in eras where there was a class consciousness
because this was definitely a fucking thing
@@yoooohooooo lol. Is that a refutation?
What a load of cope. Capital will flourish beyond your wildest dreams/nightmares over this century and the next
With the way it's going now...Capitalism will bring us all down in decades.
>capital will flourish
literally cope
“I’m an anecdotilist” - David Brent
This is like a tedtalk that someone wrote in bathroom 5 mins before showtime. Zero books. Zero statistics. Zero truth.
There are zero statistics in Plato. The system of philosophy which underwrites the entire educational system in which you've spent your life. So what is it, exactly, that you think you're trying to say?
@Whizper2me Yes, Godel showed us that any formal system in which basic arithmetic can be derived is not both consistent and complete, therefore there's no such thing as truth or evidence and we're all just kinda wording it out.
Came in with an open mind but I have to say this is absolute drivel. That aside, it's very sad to hear of his passing at such a young age.
Gee...what a surprise...no followup explanation nor enlightenment from R G.
the. change. will. come.
Please let’s discuss the in practice slave religion of marxism.
Please tell me how a slacker benefactor and leach of the bourgeoisie.
Who not only never worked a day in his life but never knew or spoke kindly of a single proletariat ever. Why should he be the process of thinking by people like me that have worked their entire lives?
Its not a religion its a theory of economic relation and that person who refuses to work has probably rejected this capitalist alienation. Without this alienation and given the ability to be pursue genuinely productive labor, that small minority you speak of can actually feel connected to their work. There's nothing supernatural about wanting life to be worth living.
lol the username