The 2020s and Beyond
(This is part 7 in the No Time for Utopia series.) The main guiding principle of this series is a rejection of โideal theoryโ, that is, of idealizations and unwarranted abstractions from the real world. Nevertheless, by viewing the climate crisis in relative isolation and by mostly ignoring how it might interact with various other developments, I have effectively abstracted that issue from the real world. Unfortunately, this is not easily remedied, and any attempt at a broader view will be largely speculative. It can only be speculative, because even a slightly broader view is well beyond the level of...
Death, Masculinity, and Hegemony
โAt the center of the symbolic order is the abhorrence of death,โ writes Odile Strik in the conclusion of her short essay The Symbolic Order of Life and Manhood. The โsymbolic orderโ of the title connects death and masculinity, and (supposedly) structures the way most people understand reality. The essay is terse and almost poetic, and only presents a rough sketch of this symbolic order, but it deals with a number of important themes โ such as masculinity, life and death, and cultural hegemony โ and it deserves credit for bringing those themes together. This article is a (long) commentary...
Whatโs there to be proud of?
Pride plays an important role in most โ if not all โ ideologies on the right of the political spectrum. National pride and racial pride are the most obvious examples. The former is, of course, the core feature of nationalism or patriotism; the latter is the foundation of racism. The dominant kind of pride in contemporary right-wing thought seems to be civilizational pride, however. That is, one of the key aspects of the alt-right and right-wing populism as well as more mainstream contemporary conservatism is pride in Western civilization. This pride in Western civilization, letโs call it โWestern prideโ, is...
A Note on the Psychology of Radicalization and Terrorism
The best explanation of the psychological roots of radicalization and terrorism is given by Terror Management Theory (even if the word โterrorโ in that name has nothing to do with terrorism). Western governments appear to be completely ignorant of this explanation, however, and as a consequence, much of their actions promote terrorism more than counter it. * * * There is no uncontroversial definition of โterrorismโ. To a large extent, calling something โterrorismโ or someone a โterroristโ is a political claim intended to de-legitimatize an opponent and to express disapproval of his or her actions and goals. Nevertheless, there are...