Really enjoyed this piece and the blog overall so far, Pat. Thanks for writing it. I’m wondering a few things about this:
I totally agree with the point about new words and metaphors to describe both our planetary identity and predicament. I wonder to what extent do Gen X and Y are concerned about labels like ‘left and right’ at all though - I sense that these distinctions are already so anachronistic as to be irrelevant to many of them, apart from those who already identify as ‘political’ in a traditional sense.
In a similar vein, does this need to be a new political party at all, in the sense that we currently understand parties? Without the support of older generations / media etc it stands little chance of success within the current electoral system. So referring back to your previous idea about a new quasi-religion, could this be more of an emerging belief / values system which manifests itself in different ways - through art, community organising, makerism, ritual and new forms of enterprise - as much as politics?
Is our desire to separate politics out from the lived experience of most people part of the problem we face - the ‘us and them’ mentality which is playing out so damagingly in people’s utter distrust in modern politics. Instead should we be thinking about a new alignment, a new constellation, which informs all aspects of culture and from which a new politics naturally flows? What are the outlines and symbols of this new alignment which we can start to call forth into the world, as McCartney excavated the chords for Get Back from raw creative material?
And on a more gloomy note, and perhaps because it’s the end of the year, I wonder who has the energy or the space to incubate and nurture these ideas, especially in the generations you’re talking about. The pandemic is layering such exhaustion at all levels of society that there’s a danger of dystopia by default, as we struggle to summon the energy for day to day life, let alone high falutin ideas about global solidarity and imagined systems of power. This isn’t to be fatalistic: it’s more a plea that we start talking and acting at this level of thinking, and reaching out to leaders and artists within these generations, and using what resources we have to hold this conversation with and for them rather than solely plugging away at the decaying structures we’ve inherited.
Hey James, sorry for tardy reply, thank you for the great comment. Yes, I’m in the midst of a long, faltering goodbye to my socialist/leftist certitudes and traditions… I used to read people like Andre Gorz and Hardt/Negri and exult in them metaphorically as much as logically - their visions of subjecting or reforging big systems, towards the enablement of creative freedom. But the terminal urgency of climate breakdown - extinction as the biggest system failure of all - makes those arguments about modernity pointed this way or that seem moot.
As you’ll have seen from posts since this one, I’m coming back to playfulness (bolstered by material from The Dawn of Everything) as a keyhole through which to discern the “new alignment, new constellation” you speak of. Wengrow and Graeber show magnificently that such moves are not just always possible, but actually happened - and because this “ritual play” is constitutive of us, can happen again. Does the gamer-into-crypto generation feel confident enough to play new games with money and value? And do they move onto other strong systems next (housing, food, energy, communications, etc)?
But your question is crucial: with what language, sensibility? My partner Indra Adnan’s stuff has a march on angsty white Western males, being strongly feminine, South-East Asian and Buddhist - sometimes she hears the kind of new agencies and stories brewing up within younger generations.
Your final point on exhaustion, needing resources for incubation: I think the asset-holding executives of the creative classes need to be building philanthropic funds that address and sustain forms of alignment/constellation. And/or, as Vinay Gupta has been recently urging, younger generations just go and create new environments of economic and cultural value - a “parallel polis”, in Indra’s (and Havel’s) words.
Really enjoyed this piece and the blog overall so far, Pat. Thanks for writing it. I’m wondering a few things about this:
I totally agree with the point about new words and metaphors to describe both our planetary identity and predicament. I wonder to what extent do Gen X and Y are concerned about labels like ‘left and right’ at all though - I sense that these distinctions are already so anachronistic as to be irrelevant to many of them, apart from those who already identify as ‘political’ in a traditional sense.
In a similar vein, does this need to be a new political party at all, in the sense that we currently understand parties? Without the support of older generations / media etc it stands little chance of success within the current electoral system. So referring back to your previous idea about a new quasi-religion, could this be more of an emerging belief / values system which manifests itself in different ways - through art, community organising, makerism, ritual and new forms of enterprise - as much as politics?
Is our desire to separate politics out from the lived experience of most people part of the problem we face - the ‘us and them’ mentality which is playing out so damagingly in people’s utter distrust in modern politics. Instead should we be thinking about a new alignment, a new constellation, which informs all aspects of culture and from which a new politics naturally flows? What are the outlines and symbols of this new alignment which we can start to call forth into the world, as McCartney excavated the chords for Get Back from raw creative material?
And on a more gloomy note, and perhaps because it’s the end of the year, I wonder who has the energy or the space to incubate and nurture these ideas, especially in the generations you’re talking about. The pandemic is layering such exhaustion at all levels of society that there’s a danger of dystopia by default, as we struggle to summon the energy for day to day life, let alone high falutin ideas about global solidarity and imagined systems of power. This isn’t to be fatalistic: it’s more a plea that we start talking and acting at this level of thinking, and reaching out to leaders and artists within these generations, and using what resources we have to hold this conversation with and for them rather than solely plugging away at the decaying structures we’ve inherited.
Hey James, sorry for tardy reply, thank you for the great comment. Yes, I’m in the midst of a long, faltering goodbye to my socialist/leftist certitudes and traditions… I used to read people like Andre Gorz and Hardt/Negri and exult in them metaphorically as much as logically - their visions of subjecting or reforging big systems, towards the enablement of creative freedom. But the terminal urgency of climate breakdown - extinction as the biggest system failure of all - makes those arguments about modernity pointed this way or that seem moot.
As you’ll have seen from posts since this one, I’m coming back to playfulness (bolstered by material from The Dawn of Everything) as a keyhole through which to discern the “new alignment, new constellation” you speak of. Wengrow and Graeber show magnificently that such moves are not just always possible, but actually happened - and because this “ritual play” is constitutive of us, can happen again. Does the gamer-into-crypto generation feel confident enough to play new games with money and value? And do they move onto other strong systems next (housing, food, energy, communications, etc)?
But your question is crucial: with what language, sensibility? My partner Indra Adnan’s stuff has a march on angsty white Western males, being strongly feminine, South-East Asian and Buddhist - sometimes she hears the kind of new agencies and stories brewing up within younger generations.
Your final point on exhaustion, needing resources for incubation: I think the asset-holding executives of the creative classes need to be building philanthropic funds that address and sustain forms of alignment/constellation. And/or, as Vinay Gupta has been recently urging, younger generations just go and create new environments of economic and cultural value - a “parallel polis”, in Indra’s (and Havel’s) words.
Stay in touch, J, best, PK