I’m fascinated by what draws people to occupy particular positions. In two very different organizations, I’ve heard bristling against the bogey of “identity politics,” which seems to act as shorthand for everything from managerialist “DEI” box-ticking tactics and the whole of Kamala’s campaign to the very erasure of class. It also borders on being a thought-terminating cliché.
More interestingly, though, is when it seems to name a kind of permission for some to “speak again,” with all the problematics that come with that. It’s not just a racist dog-whistle; it’s a grasping at words in between stutters and hesitations.
I’ve been trying my best to listen deeply when in these spaces; the generation gap is more than metaphorical, at this point.
I’ve been reading Fadi Bardawil’s “Revolution and Disenchantment” on the history of Lebanese Marxists who came of age after pan-Arabism; famous names, like Fawwaz Traboulsi, who founded the Organization of Communist Action in Lebanon before making their names in academia. It’s a fascinating story of “how theory seduces intellectuals, cultivates sensibilities, and authorizes political practice,” without being polemically opposed to any of it. The author calls his method “fieldwork in theory,” which I love, because I feel the same way about my current forays into revolutionary re-enchantment over here.