What was liberalism?
“Interpassivity” (Robert Pfaller):
The belief that irony and distance protect us from ideology is one of ideology’s most effective strategies. Even if we know very well how things are, we continue to act as if we do not know.
Mark Fisher’s ideas about “leftist melancholia” explain why many people feel trapped criticizing capitalism but unable to imagine a real alternative.
The core idea
- Modern capitalism survives partly through image management (branding, PR, “corporate caring”) that hides how ruthless the system actually is. (WIRED)
- People know the system is broken but still feel there is no alternative, a condition Fisher called “capitalist realism.” (Wikipedia)
How this affects everyday life
- Work becomes obsessed with metrics and performance measurement instead of real output or meaning. (WIRED)
- Bureaucracy grows because everything must be quantified and audited.
- Workers start optimizing the appearance of work, not the work itself.
“Leftist melancholia”
The left (critics of capitalism) often gets stuck in:
- mourning lost political movements or failed revolutions
- constant critique of the system
- nostalgia for past possibilities
This creates a loop of critique without action—a political depression.
Fisher’s deeper point
We live in a culture where:
- capitalism feels inevitable
- alternatives feel unimaginable
- critique exists, but collective imagination has collapsed
Or as Fisher often summarized it:
It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. (Wikipedia)
One-sentence TL;DR:
People see capitalism’s problems clearly, but cultural and psychological forces make them feel that no alternative is possible—so critique turns into melancholy rather than change.
