Capitalist realism (a play on the term "
socialist realism") is an ideological framework for viewing capitalism and its effects on politics, economics, and public thought. It is widely regarded as Fisher's most consequential idea. Through his writings and numerous interviews with political bloggers and theorists, he continually expounded on the idea. By promoting the idea that innate human desire is only compatible with capitalism, any other system that is not based on the personal accumulation of wealth and capital is seen as counter to human nature and, by extension, impossible to implement successfully. Fisher argues that the
bank bailouts following the
2008 financial crisis were a quintessential example of capitalist realism in action, reasoning that the bailouts occurred largely because the notion of allowing the banking sector to fail was unimaginable to both politicians and the general population. Due to the intrinsic value of banks to the capitalist system, Fisher proposes that the influence of capitalist realism meant that such a failure was never considered an option. As a consequence, he observes, the neoliberal system survived and capitalist realism was further validated. He classifies the current state of capitalist realism in the neoliberal system in the following terms: The only powerful agents influencing politicians and managers in education are business interests. It's become far too easy to ignore workers and, partly because of this, workers feel increasingly helpless and impotent. The concerted attack on unions by neoliberal interest groups, together with the shift from a
Fordist to a
post-Fordist organisation of the economy – the move towards
casualisation,
just-in-time production,
globalization – has eroded the power base of unions. The collapse of the Soviet Union, which Fisher believes represented the only real example of a working non-capitalist system, further cemented the place of capitalist realism both politically and in the general population, and was hailed as the decisive final victory of capitalism. He added that in the post-Soviet era, unchecked capitalism was able to reframe history into a capitalist narrative in which neoliberalism was the result of a natural progression of history and even embodied the culmination of human development. Despite the fact that the emergence of capitalist realism is tied to the birth of neoliberalism, Fisher argues that the two are separate entities that merely complement one another. He believes capitalist realism has the potential to outlive neoliberal capitalism, but that the opposite would not be true. Capitalist realism is inherently anti-utopian, as it holds that no matter the flaws or
externalities, capitalism is the only possible means of operation. Conversely, neoliberalism glorifies capitalism by portraying it as providing the means necessary to pursue and achieve near-utopian socioeconomic conditions. In this way, capitalist realism, with its hard-edged tone, pacifies opposition to neoliberalism's overly sunny projections, while neoliberalism counteracts the despair and disillusionment central to capitalist realism. ==Effects==