Bleak dreams, not nightmares

Thaler, Mathias

doi:10.1111/1467-8675.12401

Cited by 14 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…109 A disappointed attentiveness to the moments that have hindered the movement towards greater freedom and equality displaces overly confident visions of the past's progressive overcoming but also nurtures awareness of how things could have been done differently. 110 A reckoning with the unfulfilled promise of the resistance struggle can reclaim the missed opportunities for relating to others across the divides of structural injustice and reveal spaces for beginning anew. The recognition of how the past exclusionary modes of political interaction condition the present may increase our understanding of what is entailed in appealing to others as rightful members of the common world and establishing institutions that are responsive to political reality.…”

Section: Looking Forward: Confronting the Ambiguity Of Beginning Anewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Political Value of Disappointment among Ex-resistance Fighters: Confronting the Grey Zone of Founding

Mrovlje

2019

Political Theory

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This essay examines how the disappointment of ex-resistance fighters can illuminate the grey zone of founding—the ambiguity of beginning anew against the background of systemic violence that eludes the predominant linear visions of transition. For a theoretical framework, I draw on Hannah Arendt’s insights into the ambiguity of beginning anew as a practice of attunement that takes oppressive practices as points of departure for democratizing political action. I explore how the ex-resisters’ stories of disappointment can invigorate this practice, focusing on their ability to reorient political action towards reframing unjust relationships in a way that guards against systematic exclusions in the future. This essay demonstrates the political relevance of disappointment on the example of a South African ex-resister’s memoir, Pregs Govender’s Love and Courage. Govender’s narrative discloses how experiences of disappointment can orient the ex-resisters’ efforts to confront the complexities of founding obscured from the official story.

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Section: Looking Forward: Confronting the Ambiguity Of Beginning Anewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Political Value of Disappointment among Ex-resistance Fighters: Confronting the Grey Zone of Founding

Mrovlje

2019

Political Theory

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“… 5. Representative examples are Dienstag (2006), Strong (2012) and Marasco (2015). There is a small but growing literature on hope that runs counter to this tendency; see, for example, Blöser et al (2020), Goldman (2012, 2023), Huber (2021), Lacelle-Webster (2023), Mittleman (2009), Moellendorf (2022), Stahl (2019), Stockdale (2021), Thaler (2018), and Thaler (2019). …”

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confidence: 99%

Experimentation and the future(s) of political hope

Goldman

2024

European Journal of Social Theory

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Against pessimistic trends in social and political theory, this article argues for the indispensability of hope in conceptualizing the future. Such hope, however, does not need to be beholden to a unitary vision of the future, as with traditional metaphysical or Enlightenment notions of progress, but should instead accommodate a multiplicity of possible better worlds. Pluralizing the future links it to diverse nonsynchronous temporalities of past and present and emphasizes the roles of contingency, action and experimentation in concrete aspiration. Immanuel Kant and Ernst Bloch here offer philosophical foundations for this perspective.

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“…Social and political theorists have developed novel understandings of everyday, ordinary or disguised forms of resistance, and illuminated the political, resistant potential of withdrawal from political life (Vinthagen and Johansson 2013;Bayat 2000;Kirkpatrick 2017Kirkpatrick , 2011. Critical theorists have grounded visions of a better future in a careful engagement with past defeats, losses and failures as propitious sources for rethinking the forms of critique for the contemporary era (Winters 2016;Thaler 2019;McIvor 2016). Finally, scholars working in the field of political memory have exposed the troubling political implications of hegemonic myths of heroic resistance in societies transitioning from violent pasts, drawing attention to the ambivalences of political agency in circumstances of pervasive repression (Leebaw 2019;Mihai 2019a;Mrovlje 2017Mrovlje , 2020.…”

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confidence: 99%

Grey Zones of Resistance and Contemporary Political Theory

Mrovlje

Kirkpatrick

2020

Theoria

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Of late, resistance has become a central notion in political theory, standing at the heart of attempts to respond to the dilemmas of contemporary times. However, many accounts tend to ascribe to an idealised, heroic view. In this view, resistance represents a clearcut action against injustice and stems from individuals’ conscious choice and their unwavering ethical commitment to the cause. Some liberal scholars, most notably Candice Delmas and Jason Brennan, have argued that citizens of democratic societies have a moral duty to resist state-sanctioned injustice. This resistance occurs either through ‘principled – civil or uncivil – disobedience’ or through ‘defensive actions’ (Delmas 2018: 5; Brennan 2019: 15). While acknowledging that pervasive injustice can compromise our cognitive and moral capacities, however, their articulation of our political obligation to resist refrains from a sustained examination of the moral dilemmas, uncertainties and risks that arise when fighting systemic oppression (Delmas 2018: 198–222; Brennan 2019: 28–59, 210–14).

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Bleak dreams, not nightmares

Cited by 14 publications

References 48 publications

The Political Value of Disappointment among Ex-resistance Fighters: Confronting the Grey Zone of Founding

The Political Value of Disappointment among Ex-resistance Fighters: Confronting the Grey Zone of Founding

Experimentation and the future(s) of political hope

Grey Zones of Resistance and Contemporary Political Theory

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