Britain | Bagehot

It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of Tory rule

After 12 years of Conservative government, Britain has a limited political imagination

The best guide to British politics today was written 13 years ago and features the Marxist analysis of Slavoj Zizek applied to the Disney film “Wall-E”. “Capitalist Realism”, a short and eclectic book by Mark Fisher, a leftie cultural theorist, became an unlikely bestseller after it was published in the wake of the global financial crisis. Its main argument was that an alternative to capitalism was not just impossible but incomprehensible. It was, in the book’s punchy refrain, easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Conservative realism”

Frozen out

From the November 26th 2022 edition

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