Death, Masculinity, and Hegemony
βAt the center of the symbolic order is the abhorrence of death,β writes Odile Strik in the conclusion of her short essay The Symbolic Order of Life and Manhood. The βsymbolic orderβ 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 β such as masculinity, life and death, and cultural hegemony β and it deserves credit for bringing those themes together. This article is a (long) commentary...
Whatβs there to be proud of?
Pride plays an important role in most β if not all β 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, letβs call it βWestern prideβ, is...