scholarly journals Thinking the ‘Culture Wars’ and the Present Political Crisis with the Young Marx (and Friends)

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 707-716
Author(s):  
Ben Whitham
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Culture Wars ◽  
Frantz Fanon ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Antonio Gramsci ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Liberal State ◽  
Bell Hooks ◽  
Historical Moment ◽  
Do So

We stand at a key juncture: a Western political crisis arose in 2016-17 to match the deep economic crisis of the preceding decade. Events and new social movements of recent years seem to hail the collapse of the project of liberal democracy, though it is hard to see what will replace it. Among the conceptual and analytic tools bequeathed by Marx are those necessary to better understand and anticipate the direction of this key historical moment – from Donald Trump, Brexit and the so-called ‘culture wars’ to the horizon of liberal democracy itself. In this reflection, I suggest some ways in which Marx’s early thoughts on the liberal state and civil society can and should help us to better understand and explain our present predicament. To say that the Young Marx can help us today with what he called ‘the ruthless critique of everything existing’ is not to say that he can do so alone. It is precisely the issues overlooked or ‘fudged’ by Marx and Marxism – gender, sexuality, and race/racism for example – that now sit at the centre of our ‘culture wars’, alongside but never reducible to the contradictions and crises of capitalism. I conclude that it is only with the help of other writers of the 20th and 21st centuries, from Antonio Gramsci to Frantz Fanon and bell hooks, that we can usefully mobilise the Young Marx today, to critique the world as we find it and especially – the very ‘point’ of theory according to Marx – to change it.

Levinas as a Reader of Jewish Texts

2018 ◽  
pp. 442-458
Author(s):  
Ethan Kleinberg
Keyword(s):  
Reading Strategies ◽  
Related Issue ◽  
Written Texts ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Historical Moment ◽  
And Training ◽  
Do So

This article attempts to understand Levinas as a reader of Jewish texts, with particular attention paid to his Talmudic commentaries. To do so, the entangled relation between oral and written texts is explored; one must be able to properly “read” but also “write,” and there is the related issue of the methodology and training to be able to do so properly. Levinas offers commentary on each issue. Several interpretations of Talmudic texts and an important discussion of reading Scripture are analyzed in order to elucidate Levinas’s reading strategies, what this tells us about his relation to the larger tradition of Talmudic commentary, and Levinas’s particular historical moment, especially the role of the Holocaust for his approach to reading the Talmud and traditional texts.

scholarly journals A political ontology for Europe: Roberto Esposito’s instituent paradigm

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Fulco
Keyword(s):  
Political Theology ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Recent Proposal ◽  
Political Ontology ◽  
The Third ◽  
European Crisis ◽  
Do So

AbstractThe aim of my article is to relate Roberto Esposito’s reflections on Europe to his more recent proposal of instituent thought. I will try to do so by focusing on three theoretical cornerstones of Esposito’s thought: the first concerns the evidence of a link between Europe, philosophy and politics. The second is deconstructive: it highlights the inadequacy of the answers of the most important contemporary ontological-political paradigms to the European crisis, as well as the impossibility of interpreting this crisis through theoretical-political categories such as sovereignty. The third relates more directly to the proposal of a new political ontology, which Esposito defines as instituent thought. Esposito’s discussion of political theology is the central theoretical nucleus of this study. This discussion will focus, in particular, on the category of negation, from which any political ontology that is based on pure affirmativeness or absolute negation is criticized. In his opinion, philosophical theories developed on the basis of these assumptions have proved to be incomplete or ineffective in relation to the current European and global philosophical and political crisis. Esposito therefore perceives the urgent need to propose a line of thought that is neither negatively destituent (post-Heideggerian), nor affirmatively constituent (post-Deleuzian, post-Spinozian), but instituent (neo-Machiavellian), capable of thinking about order through conflict (the affirmative through the negative). Provided that we do not think of the institution statically–in a conservative sense–but dynamically, as constant instituting in which conflict can become an instrument of a politics increasingly inspired by justice.

scholarly journals Polish Catholic Bishops, Nationalism and Liberal Democracy

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 94
Author(s):  
Madalena Meyer Resende ◽  
Anja Hennig
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Church Leadership ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Pope Francis ◽  
National Catholicism ◽  
Law And Justice ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Church

The alliance of the Polish Catholic Church with the Law and Justice (PiS) government has been widely reported and resulted in significant benefits for the Church. However, beginning in mid-2016, the top church leadership, including the Episcopal Conference, has distanced itself from the government and condemned its use of National Catholicism as legitimation rhetoric for the government’s malpractices in the fields of human rights and democracy. How to account for this behavior? The article proposes two explanations. The first is that the alliance of the PiS with the nationalist wing of the Church, while legitimating its illiberal refugee policy and attacks on democratic institutions of the government, further radicalized the National Catholic faction of the Polish Church and motivated a reaction of the liberal and mainstream conservative prelates. The leaders of the Episcopate, facing an empowered and radical National Catholic faction, pushed back with a doctrinal clarification of Catholic orthodoxy. The second explanatory path considers the transnational influence of Catholicism, in particular of Pope Francis’ intervention in favor of refugee rights as prompting the mainstream bishops to reestablish the Catholic orthodoxy. The article starts by tracing the opposition of the Bishops Conference and liberal prelates to the government’s refugee and autocratizing policies. Second, it describes the dynamics of the Church’s internal polarization during the PiS government. Third, it traces and contextualizes the intervention of Pope Francis during the asylum political crisis (2015–2016). Fourth, it portrays their respective impact: while the Pope’s intervention triggered the bishops’ response, the deepening rifts between liberal and nationalist factions of Polish Catholicism are the ground cause for the reaction.

scholarly journals Demokratyczna debata w mediach społecznościowych – utopijne nadzieje i smutna rzeczywistość

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 63-79
Author(s):  
Anna Miotk ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Business Model ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Information Overload ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Equal Access ◽  
Content Filtering ◽  
Filtering Algorithms ◽  
The Media ◽  
Do So

The text analyzes social media in terms of the possibility of conducting a democratic debate through them. Initially, their users had great hopes to do so. Social media were to be not only a tool for expressing opinions or presenting statements but also for disseminating the model of liberal democracy. However, the business model of these media, as well as content filtering algorithms, introduced to protect users against information overload, prevented this from happening. To prove this thesis, the author referred to Sunstein's public forum doctrine and proved that social media do not constitute its equivalent. Although the media provided a space for discussion, they did not ensure equal access for senders of messages to recipients and recipients to a variety of content. The topic of the negative impact of social media on liberal democracy is already raised in English scholarship (and is already present in Poland through its translations) and it is also gradually gaining academic currency among Polish researchers. What constitutes a novel contribution to the already available research is the presentation of social media in the context of the utopian high hopes the media initially raised.

South Sudan

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Giffen
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
South Sudan ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
Responsibility To Protect ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
United Nations Peacekeeping ◽  
The Government ◽  
Do So

Two years and five months following the country’s independence from Sudan, a political crisis in South Sudan quickly devolved into a civil war marked by violence that could amount to atrocities. At the time, a United Nations peacekeeping operation, UNMISS, was the principal multinational intervention in South Sudan. UNMISS was explicitly mandated to assist the government of South Sudan to fulfil its responsibility to protect and was also authorized to protect civilians when the government was unable or unwilling to do so. Despite this role, UNMISS’s Special Representative of the Secretary-General said that no one could have predicted the scale or speed at which the violence unfolded. This chapter explores whether the atrocities could have been predicted by UNMISS, why UNMISS was unprepared, and what other peacekeeping operations can learn from UNMISS’s experience.

Does Liberal Democracy Require a Gandhian Approach to Religion?

Acorn ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-129
Author(s):  
Sanjay Lal ◽  
Jeff Shawn Jose ◽  
Douglas Allen ◽  
Michael Allen ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Religious Values ◽  
Public Justification ◽  
Liberal State ◽  
Absolute Truth ◽  
Democratic Socialism ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Unity In Diversity

In this author-meets-critics dialogue, Sanjay Lal, author of , argues that Gandhian values of nonviolence raise aspirations of liberal democracy to a higher level. Since Gandhian values of nonviolence are closely associated with religious values, liberal democracy should make public commitments to religions on a non-sectarian basis, except for unreasonable religions. Critic Jeff Shawn Jose agrees that Gandhian values can strengthen liberal democracy. However, Jose finds a contradiction in Lal’s proposal that a liberal state should support reasonable religions only. A more consistent Gandhian approach would focus on everyday interactions between citizens and groups rather than state-directed preferences. Critic Douglas Allen also welcomes Lal’s project that brings Gandhian philosophy into relation with liberal democratic theory; however, he argues that universalizing the Absolute Truth of genuine religion is more complicated than Lal acknowledges. D. Allen argues for a Gandhian approach of relative truths, which cannot be evaluated apart from contingency or context, and he offers autobiographical evidence in support of his critical suspicion of genuine religion. Critic Michael Allen argues that Lal’s metaphysical approach to public justification violates a central commitment of political liberalism not to take sides on any metaphysical basis. M. Allen argues that democratic socialism is closer to Gandhi’s approach than is liberalism. Lal responds to critics by arguing that Gandhi’s evaluation of unreasonable religions depends upon an assessment of violence, which is not as problematic as critics charge, either from a Gandhian perspective or a liberal one. Furthermore, by excluding unreasonable or violent religions from state promotion, Lal argues that he is not advocating state suppression. Finally, Lal argues that Gandhian or Kingian metaphysics are worthy of support by liberal, democratic states seeking to educate individuals regarding peaceful unity in diversity.

Secular Communion in the Coalfields: The Populist Aesthetic and Practice of Roadside Theater

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 16-43
Author(s):  
Ben Fink
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Community Organizing ◽  
Culture Wars ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Theatre Production ◽  
Theatre Company ◽  
Shared Power

Roadside Theater is a populist theatre company. Refusing liberal elitism, activist vanguardism, and the authoritarian pseudo-populism of Donald Trump, Roadside works in grassroots partnerships that cross racial, political, and rural-urban lines. Combining theatre production, community organizing, and economic development, this work creates the conditions for residents of the Appalachian coalfields and neighbors nationwide to confront exploitative power structures and divisive culture wars, tell their own stories, build shared power and wealth, and create a future where “We Own What We Make.”

‘Your Fourier’s Failed’

2018 ◽  
pp. 274-297
Author(s):  
Eric Hood
Keyword(s):  
Nodal Point ◽  
Psychological Needs ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
The Political ◽  
George Sand ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Aurora Leigh ◽  
Charles Fourier ◽  
Historical Moment ◽  
Verse Novel

This chapter traces the affective forces at work in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s representation of utopian socialist Charles Fourier in Aurora Leigh (1855).  In Barrett Browning’s verse-novel, “Fourier” operates as a sign mediated by networks of affect, referring not only to the political struggles surrounding socialism in the 1850s but also to Barrett Browning’s personal psychoanalytic conflicts against both her father and her own queer desires (particularly, for George Sand).  Thus, “Fourier” functions as a nodal point in Aurora Leigh where a political crisis and the author’s individual psychological needs meet to produce a dismissal of the economic and social alternatives that were available at that historical moment and the forms of queer identity that challenged the heteronormative, liberal order.

‘Mother Macree ad nauseam’

2019 ◽  
pp. 85-130
Author(s):  
Sinéad Moynihan
Keyword(s):  
Church And State ◽  
The Family ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
John Banville ◽  
Unmarried Motherhood ◽  
Historical Moment ◽  
Abuse Of Women ◽  
Do So

This chapter argues that narratives of female Returned Yanks emerge forcefully in Irish culture of the 1990s as a kind of imaginative counterpart to Irish citizens’ enforced confrontation with Ireland’s past at the same historical moment, particularly with respect to the collusion of Church and State in the oppression and, often, abuse of women and children. The protagonists of these texts – and I focus most attentively on works by Benjamin Black (John Banville) and Annie Murphy – literally return to Ireland, but they also visit, or revisit, upon Ireland some of the repressions of its past. They do so both thematically, by dramatising the issues of unmarried motherhood, forced adoption and Church intervention in the family; and formally, by revising previous and tenacious gendered mythologies of emigration and return.

Whose Post-Truth Era? Confronting the Epistemological Challenges of Teaching Journalism

2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Tischauser ◽  
Jesse Benn
Keyword(s):  
Professional Practice ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Professional Standards ◽  
Black Press ◽  
Reporting Practices ◽  
Communities Of Color ◽  
Ethnic Press ◽  
Journalism Students ◽  
Do So

While discussions on validity, professional standards, and routines have become more challenging to many educators of journalism, these challenges are old news to communities of color whose experiences are often discounted or erased by information gathering practices taught in journalism schools. We argue that using the label “post-truth” reinforces the privileged and entitled position of journalism educators, and curtails our responsibility as arbiters of professional practice and routine. In this article, we examine how journalism classrooms can bring in ways of knowing and seeing that can provide a refreshing counter to the staid dis-embedded outsider perspective that views journalism as the protector of one truth, liberal democracy. Borrowing ideas from press theory that places journalism inside community, and counterpublic theory that places agency inside culture, we explore an opportunity for journalists to become mediators and translators between publics as a way to strengthen understanding between communities. To do so, we identify and examine reporting practices used in the Black press to understand how to confront the multiplicity of truth. By unpacking how the ethnic press examines the diverse conditions and experiences that lead to alternative versions of events, we can better gauge what reporting practices are relevant to our students today. Indeed, the so-called post-truth era is part of a larger sociohistoric process of truth-making that reflects the dynamics of power and authority in civil society, which we unpack in this article. In the end, we argue that it is more valuable for journalism students to view their work as mediators and translators of truths between communities.

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