Why We Still Can’t Think Beyond Capitalism (Mark Fisher, Neoliberalism, and Capitalist Realism) - The Deeper Thinking Podcast

The Deeper Thinking Podcast

Why We Still Can’t Think Beyond Capitalism (Mark Fisher, Neoliberalism, and Capitalist Realism)

For those drawn to psychic dissonance, hauntological atmosphere, and the deep politics of mood.

#MarkFisher #CapitalistRealism #Neoliberalism #

The Deeper Thinking Podcast is digitally narrated

What if the most successful system isn’t the one we believe in—but the one we’ve stopped trying to escape? In this episode, we explore the ambient control of neoliberalism through the lens of capitalist realism—a cultural condition described by Mark Fisher as “the widespread sense that there is no alternative.” We don’t just analyze the system—we sit inside its mood. From emotional UX design to branded wellness fatigue, this is not critique from a distance. It’s an account from within the loop.

This episode invites you into the textures of late capitalism’s atmosphere—where productivity is aesthetic, resistance is formatted, and burnout becomes an internal branding problem. The episode doesn’t offer solutions. Instead, it slows down enough to notice the glitches: tonal slips, emotional pauses, and the moments when the spell stutters.

Reflections

This is not theory as lecture. It is theory as spell-breaking. Here are some moments that surfaced along the way:

• Capitalism no longer needs belief—it only needs performance.
• Compliance has replaced conviction as the dominant social mood.
• The most radical moments often arrive disguised as awkward silence.
• Resilience is the rebranding of exhaustion.
• When systems break, we’re told to optimize—not to question.
• Feeling “off” is often the only signal that reality still resists formatting.
• The real glitch isn’t in the software—it’s in the atmosphere.

Why Listen?

• Engage with Mark Fisher’s cultural theory through lived affect
• Understand how neoliberalism becomes emotional formatting
• Reflect on glitch, silence, and pause as philosophical resistance
• Move from critique to atmosphere—from system to spell

Listen On:

• YouTube
• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts

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Suggested Reading

• Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?
• Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism
• Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society

The future hasn’t disappeared. It’s just been reformatted.

#MarkFisher #CapitalistRealism #Neoliberalism #EmotionalAutomation #SystemFatigue #PhilosophyOfMood #DeeperThinkingPodcast #PostCapitalism #AuditCulture #AmbientControl

Why We Still Can’t Think Beyond Capitalism

Extended readings on capitalist realism, neoliberal affect, emotional automation, and the disappearance of alternatives.

Primary Texts

• Fisher, Mark. Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? Zero Books, 2009.
• Fisher, Mark. Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures. Zero Books, 2014.
• Fisher, Mark. k-punk: The Collected and Unpublished Writings of Mark Fisher (2004–2016). Repeater, 2018.

Extensions of Fisher’s Work

• Srnicek, Nick & Williams, Alex. Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work. Verso, 2015.
• Gilbert, Jeremy (Ed.). Mark Fisher and the Future That Never Arrived. Goldsmiths Press, 2023.
• Barker, Jon. “Mark Fisher and the Weirding of Neoliberalism.” New Formations, no. 106, 2022.
• Haiven, Max. Revenge Capitalism: The Ghosts of Empire, the Demons of Capital, and the Settling of Unpayable Debts. Pluto Press, 2020.

Theoretical Foundations

• Jameson, Fredric. Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Duke University Press, 1991.
• Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation. Trans. Sheila Faria Glaser. University of Michigan Press, 1994.
• Debord, Guy. The Society of the Spectacle. Zone Books, 1994.
• Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Vintage Books, 1995.
• Deleuze, Gilles. “Postscript on the Societies of Control.” October, vol. 59, Winter 1992.

Neoliberalism, Mood, and Emotional Automation

• Han, Byung-Chul. The Burnout Society. Stanford University Press, 2015.
• Cederström, Carl & Spicer, André. The Wellness Syndrome. Polity Press, 2015.
• Davies, William. The Happiness Industry: How the Government and Big Business Sold Us Well-Being. Verso, 2015.
• Gregg, Melissa. Counterproductive: Time Management in the Knowledge Economy. Duke University Press, 2018.
• Berlant, Lauren. Cruel Optimism. Duke University Press, 2011.

Complementary Literature (Affect, Silence, Compliance)

• Ahmed, Sara. The Promise of Happiness. Duke University Press, 2010.
• Sennett, Richard. The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism. W. W. Norton, 1998.
• Crawford, Matthew B. The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015.
• Preciado, Paul B. An Apartment on Uranus: Chronicles of the Crossing. Semiotext(e), 2020.