23 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: i feel totally cynical about what's happening right now
i just had a call with a buddy i haven't talked to in a while. he was so optimistic about the movement and i had to sort of overplay my optimism as to not disappoint him, but it made me wonder whether i should feel more excited about everything going on and why i don't.
on some level, it seems like the major shift that people are reacting to is that the culture war on racism is being won. and the disagreement seems to be whether winning the culture war equals political change. to me, the fact that a majority of american support the protests doesn't seem to necessitate a change in our political dynamics. i don't see how this outpouring of mass anti-establishment sentiment does anything to fundamentally realign or change the country's institutions.
ross douthat made the point that every major american religious revival contributed to the formation of a lasting institution — for example the mormon church — except the religious revival of the '60s/'70s. since then, mass movements have not been able to create new institutions that challenge power and exist well into the long-run. there is probably more anger right now than there has ever been in the last several decades, but anger is momentary and easily exhausted. i don't see anyone really committed to build something new and lasting. or for that matter, having an idea or ideology which can sustain such an institution. abolition is the perfect example of this - it is not a positive ideology in any sense, it can only exist as an opposition to something, and therefore it's not capable of building an institution around itself. it will only ever be an idea, and its vagueness and insane idealism is perfect for that.
Comment by [deleted] at 25/06/2020 at 21:06 UTC
18 upvotes, 2 direct replies
[deleted]