scholarly journals Mystified Consciousness: Rethinking the Rise of the Far Right with Marx and Lacan

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 236-248
Author(s):  
Claudia Leeb
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Jacques Lacan ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
The United States ◽  
Far Right ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
Neoliberal Capitalism ◽  
Core Concepts ◽  
Unconscious Fantasy

Abstract This paper brings core concepts coined by Karl Marx in conversation with Jacques Lacan to analyse some of the mechanisms that have mystified subjects’ consciousness, and contributed to a scenario where the (white) working-classes in the United States and elsewhere turned to the far right that further undermines their existence, instead of uniting with the raced and gendered working class to overthrow capitalism. It explains that the money fetish, which we find at the centre of the American Dream of wholeness (on earth), serves as the unconscious fantasy object petit a to deal with the desires and fears subjects fundamental non-wholeness creates, which have been heightened by the insecurities of neoliberal capitalism and exploited by the far right. It also shows how religion offers the illusion of wholeness in the sky, which produces subjects who endure rather than rebel against their suffering. Finally, it explains how the far-right brands the sexed and raced working-classes as inferior to uphold the illusion of the white working-class subjects as whole, which further undermines the creation of a revolutionary proletariat.

Karl Marx's Vision of America: A Biographical and Bibliographical Sketch

1980 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 465-503
Author(s):  
Robert Weiner
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
The United States ◽  
Abraham Lincoln ◽  
New Era ◽  
War Of Independence ◽  
Made In

Karl Marx and the United States is a subject which immediately elicits interest, but also surprise. Interest, because of its contemporary importance; surprise, because Marx and America have appeared so remote from one another. Marx has definitely influenced America, but that will not be the theme of this essay —instead, we will concern ourselves with the role of America in the thought of Marx. The magnitude of this role is illustrated by a statement made in Marx's letter to Abraham Lincoln, written in 1864 on behalf of the International Workingmen's Association:The workingmen of Europe feel sure that as the American war of independence initiated a new era of the ascendency of the middle-class, so the American Anti-slavery war will do for the working-class.

The White Working Class

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Gest
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
The United States ◽  
Group Consciousness ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Far Right ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
White Working Class ◽  
Political Economic

In recent years, the world has been re-introduced to the constituency of “white working class” people. In a wave of revolutionary populism, far right parties have scored victories across the transatlantic political world: Britain voted to leave the European Union, the United States elected President Donald Trump to enact an “America First” agenda, and Radical Right movements are threatening European centrists in elections across the Continent. In each case, white working class people are driving a broad reaction to the inequities and social change brought by globalization, and its cosmopolitan champions. In the midst of this rebellion, a new group consciousness has emerged among the very people who not so long ago could take their political, economic, and cultural primacy for granted. Who are white working class people? What do they believe? Are white working class people an “interest group”? What has driven them to break so sharply with the world’s trajectory toward a more borderless, interconnected meritocracy? How can a group with such enduring power feel marginalized? This perplexing constituency must be understood if the world is to address and respond to the social and political backlash they are driving. The White Working Class: What Everyone Needs to Know® provides the context for understanding the politics of this large, perplexing group of people. The book begins by explaining what “white working class” means in terms of demographics, history, and geography, as well as the ways in which this group defines itself and has been defined by others. It will address whether white identity is on the rise, why white people perceive themselves as marginalized, and the roles of racism and xenophobia in white consciousness. It will also look at whether the white working class has distinct political attitudes, their voting behavior, and their prospects for the future. This accessible book provides a nuanced view into the forces driving one of the most complicated and consequential political constituencies today.

Disrupting the Fantasy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Leeb
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Political Subject ◽  
The Status ◽  
Unconscious Fantasy ◽  
Class Woman ◽  
Identity Thinking ◽  
Cover Up

“Disrupting the Fantasy: Adorno and the Working-Class Woman” exposes Adorno’s identity thinking in his figurations of the “working-class woman.” The forms in which she appears in Adorno’s texts (the phallic, castrating, and castrated woman) correspond to the three dimensions (the imaginary, the symbolic, and the real) through which Lacan mapped his thought. In all of these forms she advances to object petit a (Lacan)—the unconscious fantasy object that promises to cover up the fears and desires that non-wholeness incites. That the thinker of non-identity reinforces identity thinking exposes some of the challenges to realizing the idea of a (feminist) political subject-in-outline. For such a subject to be able to transform the status quo and remain inclusive, it must deal with the (unconscious) desires and fears the remaining-with-holes incites.

Governing Labor in Modernizing Texas

2004 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Amberg
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
The United States ◽  
Real Problem ◽  
Labor Management ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
Class Participation ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Ideological Debate ◽  
The Status

The United States is a country in which the working classes are not well organized to participate in politics and the workplace. Four theoretical approaches encompass most explanations. They are culture and identity theories, convergence theories, centerperiphery theories, and institutional theories. Focusing on one specific case, the state of Texas, this article suggests that each approach can contribute to a political construction approach to the labor field that can better explain the patterns of organization. In Texas today working-class participation is very low, but 30 years ago union membership and voting were increasing; 100 years ago Texas was a fount of populism. A focus on the specific historical contexts of labor-management relations enables us to penetrate the contemporary post-facto image of Texas as one member of a category of conservative or nonunion states in contrast to liberal or union-friendly states. That binary image elides the actual more complex and diverse histories of labor struggles that constitute each side of this symbolic opposition. This article demonstrates that there is a real problem to investigate and suggests how we should think about it. What will become clear is that Texas is not exceptional when it comes to the status of workers in the polity. The specific historical pathways to the present suggest the significance of political struggles and ideological debate for the creation of a working class with influence and power.

Radicalism or Reformism: The Sources of Working-class Politics

1983 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seymour Martin Lipset
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
American Exceptionalism ◽  
The United States ◽  
Doctoral Dissertation ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Class Politics ◽  
Forthcoming Book ◽  
Political Scene

From my work on my doctoral dissertation (Lipset 1950, 1968) down to the present, I have been interested in the problem of “American exceptionalism.” That curious phrase emerged from the debate in the international Communist movement in the 1920s concerning the sources of the weakness of left-wing radical movements in the United States (Draper 1960, pp. 268-72; Lipset 1977a, pp. 107-61). The key question repeatedly raised in this context has been, is America qualitatively different from other industrial capitalist countries? Or, to use Sombart's words, “Why is there no Socialism in the United States?” (Sombart 1976).In a forthcoming book, I evaluate the hypotheses advanced by various writers from Karl Marx onward to explain the absence of an effective socialist party on the American political scene. (For a preliminary formulation, see Lipset 1977b, pp. 31-149, 346-63.) If any of the hypotheses are valid, they should also help to account for the variation among working-class movements in other parts of the world. In this article, therefore, I shall reverse the emphasis from that in my book and look at socialist and working-class movements comparatively, applying elsewhere some of the propositions that have been advanced to explain the American situation.

The White Working Class and the 2016 Election

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Carnes ◽  
Noam Lupu
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
The United States ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
Presidential Candidates ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
2016 Election ◽  
White Working Class ◽  
Long Term Trend

Academics and political pundits alike attribute rising support for right-wing political options across advanced democracies to the working classes. In the United States, authors claim that the white working class offered unprecedented and crucial support for Donald Trump in the 2016 election. But what is the evidence for this claim? We examine all of the available academic survey data gathered around the election, along with a number of surveys from prior elections. We test four common claims about the white working class in 2016: (1) that most Trump voters were white working-class Americans; (2) that most white working-class voters supported Trump; (3) that unusually large numbers of white working-class voters switched from Obama in 2012 to Trump in 2016; and (4) that white working-class voters were pivotal to Trump’s victory in several swing states. We find that three of the four are not supported by the available data, and the other lacks crucial context that casts doubt on the idea that Trump uniquely appealed to working-class Americans. White working-class Americans have been supporting Republican presidential candidates at higher rates in recent elections, but that process long predates 2016, and narratives that center on Trump’s alleged appeal obscure this important long-term trend.

The Working-Class Woman and Marx

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Leeb
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
Negative Pole ◽  
Class Woman ◽  
Working Class Women ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Body Theory ◽  
Cover Up

“The Working-Class Woman and Marx: Biased Constructions” shows that Marx, a thinker whose political thought aims to challenge hierarchical oppositions, reinforces hierarchical thought in his writings on the working-class woman. This exposes that oppositions concern deep unconscious structures in capitalism that are gendered, classed, sexed, and raced. It argues that we can only theorize a mediated relationship between hierarchical oppositions (such as mind/body, theory/practice, subject, and subject/object), if we make the unconscious link of women, racial and sexual minorities as well as the working-classes to the negative pole of oppositions conscious and delink groups of people from these oppositions. This is necessary, because such links are used to justify and cover up the division of labor and exploitation along class, gender, racial, and sexual lines. This chapter also discusses the moment when working-class women can rebel against their exploitation.

Frontiers of Labor

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Institution Building ◽  
Class Politics ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
General Proposition ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Great War

Australia and the United States have long been recognized as fertile fields for comparative history. Both the United States and the Australian colonies were “frontier societies” with considerable natural resources and without a feudal heritage. Despite their similarities, the histories of Australia and the United States are also marked by striking divergences, notably in the composition of their working classes, their labor relations, and their politics. The essays in this volume break new ground in comparative and transnational history. Together they offer considerable evidence to support the general proposition that despite similarities in the development of their economies and in fabric of their democratic institutions, the labor histories of Australia and the United States manifest notable differences. The essays in this volume make significant contributions to understanding the comparative aspects of Australian and US labor history in five areas specifically. They examine the divergent impact of the Great War on the fortunes of labor and socialist movements, the history of coerced labor, patterns of ethnic and class identification, the forms of working-class collective action and institution building, and struggles over trade union democracy and the viability of independent working-class politics. Additionally, several essays explore the ways in which radical labor and political activists from both countries developed transnational ties that cross-fertilized their respective trade union and political cultures.

scholarly journals Contesting neoliberalism: Mapping the terrain of social conflict

2021 ◽  
pp. 030981682110548
Author(s):  
David J. Bailey ◽  
Paul C. Lewis ◽  
Saori Shibata
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Social Conflict ◽  
The United States ◽  
Linear Process ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Event Analysis ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Neoliberal Capitalism

This article explores the terrain of social conflict as it developed across advanced capitalist democracies throughout the ‘age of austerity’ that followed the global economic crisis. It shows how a (broadly defined) working class mobilised in different ways in different capitalist contexts, contesting the institutional forms (and the crises that emerged from them) which constitute each particular model of capitalism. Considered this way, we are able to conceptualise and explain the forms of working-class mobilisation that have emerged in opposition to contemporary neoliberalism. In doing so, we go beyond a narrow focus on workplace-focused or trade-union-led forms of working-class mobilisation, highlighting the continuing contestation of neoliberal capitalism. Drawing on a protest event analysis of 1,167 protest events in five countries (Spain, Germany, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom), and developing a Régulation Theory approach to the study of protest/social movements, we provide an overview of the most visible patterns of social contestation in each national neoliberal capitalist context, tracing links to the institutional configurations that constitute those national models of capitalism. While there exists no direct (linear) process of causality between the model of neoliberal capitalism and the forms of mobilised dissent witnessed, nevertheless we are able to clearly trace the different pressures of capital accumulation that have given rise to the protest/social movements identified in each case, thereby allowing us to gain a better insight into both each particular model of capitalism and the forms of dissent that constitute it.

Jacques Lacan

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances L. Restuccia
Keyword(s):  
Jacques Lacan ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
As If

Agamben only sporadically alludes to psychoanalysis and invokes psychoanalytic concepts. He does so most prominently in Stanzas, where he dedicates Part III to ‘geniisque Henry Corbin et Jacques Lacan‘ (S 61); refers to ‘the Lacanian thesis according to which […] the phantasm makes the pleasure suited to the desire’, in order to elaborate a point in Plato about desire and pleasure relying on images in the soul (S 74); and takes up melancholia and fetishism – both of which, it is important to note, circumvent lack. But Agamben is by no means ‘psychoanalytic’. He presents and employs melancholia and fetishism as paradigms for accessing the inaccessible (perhaps we can say that he plays with them). Melancholia, in Agamben, becomes an ‘imaginative capacity to make an unobtainable object appear as if lost’ so that it ‘may be appropriated insofar as it is lost’ (S 20), a strategy for saving the unsavable that evolves into his conception of the messianic. And, although Agamben is preoccupied with ‘a zone of non-consciousness’, he underscores that it is ‘not the fruit of a removal, like the unconscious of psychoanalysis’ (UB 64)

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