Just reading capitalist realism and listened to his talk that was linked in the current perusall reading series and I'd like to start a discussion about his ideas.

One major theme of Fisher seems to be the assessment, that culture has lost its forward momentum, that technology has progressed but culture stalled "we're basically watching 20th century entertainment on ever increasing resolution" or in regards to music that "the terms retro and nostalgia have lost their meaning, because now there is nothing else but them". And I'm not quite sure what to make out of this. One one hand I think this is somewhat plausible that a world, in which everything is instantly accessible and arbitrarily copy-able, would be overwhelmed by nostalgia for a time when there was still new and authentic stuff.

On the other hand, is this really the case? "In 15 years we went from the beatles to punk rock". Starting around 2000 somewhat staying in the genre we went from nu-metal to indie-soft-rock to ... whatever we have now. Idk if this is a good example. But to me this seems less self evident and more like a sort of vibe-ology. A mix of hipster-hopelessness and boomer "back in the day we had real ..." sentiment.

Please share your thoughts!

  • Invidiarum [none/use name]
    hexagon
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    Wait till you get to the maoist-struggle-session-style performance reviews :agony-consuming:

    Ok, in all seriousness, I have an ambivalent relationship to what he's doing there. I get what he's doing, it's provocative, catchy and gets his point across (if you read the chapter). And I'm not much of a "tankie" so criticize Stalin, I have no problem with that. But he's definitely drawing from western tropes (rather than nuanced historical analysis) which is annoying, even if not per se false.

    • solaranus
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      deleted by creator

      • Invidiarum [none/use name]
        hexagon
        ·
        3 years ago

        If I get to put a sign on my boss and yell at them, I’m in.

        We can dream :Care-Comrade: