Episode #203 ... Why the future is being slowly cancelled. - Postmodernism (Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism)

What It Covers

Mark Fisher's concept of capitalist realism explains how postmodernism and neoliberalism combine to trap society in a confused present, unable to imagine alternative futures beyond capitalism's expansion.

Key Questions Answered

• •Cultural Amnesia: Postmodern society recycles twentieth century cultural forms rather than creating new ones—2019's top ten highest-grossing films were remixes of older properties, reflecting inability to imagine genuinely novel futures.
• •Depressive Hedonia: Modern depression manifests not as inability to find enjoyment, but as constant consumption of dopamine-inducing media to escape a world empty of meaningful possibility or optimistic connection to reality.
• •Tolerant Relativism Contradiction: Young people claim moral relativism while demanding tolerance, creating philosophical inconsistency—true relativism requires accepting intolerant cultures as equally valid, making universal tolerance logically incompatible with complete relativism.
• •Hauntology of Present: Society exists haunted by both past injustices and lost futures that never materialized, stuck comparing current reality to imagined better worlds from previous generations while unable to construct new visions.