The protesters, he explains to his students, “may claim, ethically, that they want to live in a different world but libidinally, at the level of desire, they are committed to living within the current capitalist world”. Rather than ridiculing Mensch’s disingenuous argument – as her fellow contestants do – Fisher takes it seriously. In the video, the former Tory MP Louise Mensch – “I can’t believe she’s called ‘Mensch’ it’s like a daft Martin Amis character, isn’t it?” Fisher comments – claims that Occupy protesters were undermining their critique of capitalism by buying coffee from Starbucks and tweeting on their iPhones: “You can’t be against capitalism and then take everything that it provides.” Fisher began the first lecture by playing three clips, the last from a 2011 episode of Have I Got News for You. Mark Fisher | Acid Communism (Unfinished Introduction): Īlpha City: How London Was Captured by the Super-Rich by Rowland Atkinson: Įmail us with feedback, questions, suggestions at other shows:ĪTTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.When the cultural critic and theorist Mark Fisher took his own life on 13 January 2017 at the age of 48, he was a third of a way through delivering a lecture series titled “Postcapitalist Desire”, which he had devised as part of an MA course in contemporary art theory at Goldsmiths, University of London. The Memeing of Mark Fisher: How the Frankfurt School Foresaw Capitalist Realism and What to do About it: Ĭan the Left Learn to Meme?: Adorno, Video Gaming, and Stranger Things: Matt McManus, Professor of Politics at Whitman College' We may not have all the answers, but all of us should be very grateful Watson is on hand to help us ask the right kinds of questions. In the powerful final chapter, Watson rethinks the potential of Frankfurt school critical theory to provide answers, and sketches an inspiring vision of what the acid-left can be.

In his new book-part tribute to Fisher, part cultural analysis, part reflections on the Frankfurt school-Watson shows the enduring power of a dialectical approach to capitalist realism and exposes the many ways post-modern neoliberal culture has successfully neutered liberating aesthetics. 'Watson is fast becoming one of the most impressive left analysts of our strange digital era helping to fill the void left by Mark Fisher's tragic passing. Ikoi and Liam chat with author Mike Watson about the late great Mark Fisher, the addictive pace of the internet, slow meme movements and the need for reflection, spirituality, mortality, Qanon and Pizzagate, a fair society vs archetypal heroic stories, leftist well-being, selling dirty bath water, being a digital flaneur, the dialectical image, acid communism, helping other people for the sake of it and much much more!

The memeing of mark fisher