What does good politics actually owe us? In an age of political exhaustion and anti-solidarity, this essay argues that democracy survives through five pillars: limits on power, fear reduction, expanded obligation, equality, and the freedom to speak truth to power. A call to the quiet work of citizenship.
Incredibly powerful essay! The distinction between solidarity as a horizontal practice versus charity flowing downward really reframes how we think about mutual aid. I've been observing how modern platforms reward performance over substance, and your point about algorithms designed for outrage rather than understanding hits hard. What strikes me is how rebuilding these institiutions requires the same patience you describe, when everything around us demands instant results.
Thank you for this. It's almost as if the platforms themselves are designed to make us incapable of the slow work. The irony is that this mismatch, this inability to sit with difficulty, is precisely what anti-solidarity politics exploits. We're exhausted not just by politics, but by the pace at which we're forced to engage with it. The work of rebuilding has to include, we think, the work of slowing down, and of refusing the demand for instant results. That refusal itself is a form of resistance. If this piece resonated with you, we'd be very grateful if you'd share it with others who are thinking about these questions.
A wonderful post. The optimist in me agrees with your arguments for rebuilding and recovery. The pessimist tends to think of social systems in ecological terms where increasing instability leads to catastrophe. Some people will surely survive, but humanity may not...
We feel the same as you, sometimes we can feel pessiminstic. But, we must always strive to be hopeful:
“TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
Incredibly powerful essay! The distinction between solidarity as a horizontal practice versus charity flowing downward really reframes how we think about mutual aid. I've been observing how modern platforms reward performance over substance, and your point about algorithms designed for outrage rather than understanding hits hard. What strikes me is how rebuilding these institiutions requires the same patience you describe, when everything around us demands instant results.
Thank you for this. It's almost as if the platforms themselves are designed to make us incapable of the slow work. The irony is that this mismatch, this inability to sit with difficulty, is precisely what anti-solidarity politics exploits. We're exhausted not just by politics, but by the pace at which we're forced to engage with it. The work of rebuilding has to include, we think, the work of slowing down, and of refusing the demand for instant results. That refusal itself is a form of resistance. If this piece resonated with you, we'd be very grateful if you'd share it with others who are thinking about these questions.
A wonderful post. The optimist in me agrees with your arguments for rebuilding and recovery. The pessimist tends to think of social systems in ecological terms where increasing instability leads to catastrophe. Some people will surely survive, but humanity may not...
We feel the same as you, sometimes we can feel pessiminstic. But, we must always strive to be hopeful:
“TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
― Howard Zinn