Dear friends,
How are you spending your summer vacation?
Well, I am submitting letters to the Guardian because I finally find the time to do so.
After a short WhatsApp discussion with an old friend on Zoe Williams’ article on Anton Jäger’s book Hyperpolitics, I decided to knock out a letter on my phone and submit it to the Guardian.
I am quite thrilled that the Guardian eventually published my letter. Interestingly, the other person whose letter was published also had a union background showing that Jäger has struck a nerve with those invested in the labour movement.
You can read the letter here.
The original letter I drafted was about three times so long, but I had to reduce it to 300 words max.
There were two further points I would have liked to make.
One point that was lost was that every era has its declinist narrative.
I wrote:
we should question the declinist narrative behind the argument. Claims about the death of civil society, individual anomie and political dissatisfaction have appeared and re-appeared throughout the 20th century. Each period simply has its own vernacular Everyone surely remembers Robert Putnam's "Bowling Alone".
This is a useful reminder for all those believing that we are living through a wholly new and unprecedented era.
Moreover, Jäger treats the 1990s as some kind of turning point in which individuals moved away from more collectivist forms to individualism. However, I argue
It began to change with feminism, environmentalism, anti-nuclear movements and punk culture in the 1970s. New political expressions emerged, while older institutions weakened.
All of these proposed more horizontal, egalitarian and networked forms of organisation, even if the reality was more akin to what Jo Freeman has called “the tyranny of structurelessness”.
Using the 1990s as a turning point just reinforces “the end of history"-narratives we have become all too acquainted with and don't provide us a route out of the current impasse.
I hope you enjoy this newsletter. If you do, please forward it to a friend, lover or your right-wing uncle.
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