"This at the end of the day is why reactionary movements that seek to roll back citizenship will always fail. They don’t understand what it means to have achieved citizenship in the first place."
Excellent piece building to this stirring Fukuyamist conclusion. This liberal conception of equal citizenship is well worth fighting for - it's precisely the truth we hold to be self evident.
Back in 2015, I would have wholeheartedly agreed with this as a descriptive analysis. I was quite optimistic at the time that recent gains for both the social state (most notably the ACA) and for universal citizenship (most notably LGBTQ equality) would be one-way ratchets.
Post-Trump, the one-way ratchet of the ACA clearly held - but equal citizenship, not so much. The Dobbs decision didn't just roll back women's full citizenship - it opened the door to the further rollback of rights that conservatives deem insufficiently rooted in history and tradition. And although these outcomes were somewhat contingent, they also make sense in comparative terms. Root-and-branch repeal of social insurance programs is basically unheard of in democracies ... but today's right-wing populists, from Orban to Modi, get a lot of juice out of reasserting gender hierarchies and beating up on unpopular minorities.
So now I say "reactionary movements will always fail" like the French at Verdun said "they shall not pass." It's a normative aspiration - it's not preordained, and we will fight like hell to see it. But it may take a long time to bend the arc of the moral universe. Trump and the GOP are on track for a smashing victory this fall, largely by running a reactionary campaign against universal citizenship- and the ensuing right-wing autocracy could last many decades, just like the Jim Crow autocracy did following the backlash to Reconstruction. This ideal of equal citizenship must be our North Star for the long road ahead.
Introduction to the reading of Kengel
I call it immanent kentique
This was a banger, James.
Hahahaha, glad you liked it!
I’m so glad I finally watched the movie recently so I could really engage with this post.
You've also recently re-read Phenomenology of Spirit too right?
Only after the kids are safely in bed.
I think reading this may have changed my entire life.
I naturally assume you mean for the worse
Don’t worry. We’ll Save You, IF we Save ourselves. 🇺🇸
I shall pray to Santo Venenom , aka Saint Venom.
thank you so much
You're extremely welcome
"This at the end of the day is why reactionary movements that seek to roll back citizenship will always fail. They don’t understand what it means to have achieved citizenship in the first place."
Excellent piece building to this stirring Fukuyamist conclusion. This liberal conception of equal citizenship is well worth fighting for - it's precisely the truth we hold to be self evident.
Back in 2015, I would have wholeheartedly agreed with this as a descriptive analysis. I was quite optimistic at the time that recent gains for both the social state (most notably the ACA) and for universal citizenship (most notably LGBTQ equality) would be one-way ratchets.
Post-Trump, the one-way ratchet of the ACA clearly held - but equal citizenship, not so much. The Dobbs decision didn't just roll back women's full citizenship - it opened the door to the further rollback of rights that conservatives deem insufficiently rooted in history and tradition. And although these outcomes were somewhat contingent, they also make sense in comparative terms. Root-and-branch repeal of social insurance programs is basically unheard of in democracies ... but today's right-wing populists, from Orban to Modi, get a lot of juice out of reasserting gender hierarchies and beating up on unpopular minorities.
So now I say "reactionary movements will always fail" like the French at Verdun said "they shall not pass." It's a normative aspiration - it's not preordained, and we will fight like hell to see it. But it may take a long time to bend the arc of the moral universe. Trump and the GOP are on track for a smashing victory this fall, largely by running a reactionary campaign against universal citizenship- and the ensuing right-wing autocracy could last many decades, just like the Jim Crow autocracy did following the backlash to Reconstruction. This ideal of equal citizenship must be our North Star for the long road ahead.