A left politics can defend knowledge-based authority against authoritarianism

Evidence

The reason I don’t like the term paternalism is the association with familialism — patriarchy, etc. It’s very difficult to think of a word that would work in the same way. That’s probably part of the conceptual poverty brought about by capitalist realism — that we’re forced back onto this word that in many ways is unsatisfactory. … What Williams wants is a democratic model where everyone participates in the production of media. I think that we can’t just directly go there. We need this kind of democratic paternalism. The goal is more participation than production. The paternalistic dimension just acknowledges the fact that there are asymmetries of kind of power, knowledge, etc. But the democratic side says we can’t be satisfied with these differences in power, knowledge — we must aim towards equalling them out. That’s how I’d like to think about the political project — as one of democratic paternalism. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2172

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces ‘democratic paternalism’ as a named political concept drawn from Raymond Williams.
• XREF: Connects to the recurring capitalist-realism frame of Fisher’s work and to debates on authority vs. authoritarianism elsewhere. — connects to: Effective left politics must engage institutions from without rather than within — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1910; Enlightenment critique exposes tradition-based authority as authoritarian — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1925; The left should invent institutions standing for a leftist big Other — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 2077 (+4 more)
• SEED: An angle: reconciling legitimate expertise-based authority with egalitarian media politics — attacks the false choice between deference and naïve participation.

Broader Connections

• Fighting authoritarianism requires constituting authority collectively, not abandoning it #expands (0.90) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2174
• Authoritarianism can manifest on the political left as well as right #complicates (0.82) — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 446
• Left-wing progressives can score as authoritarian as right-wing extremists #complicates (0.80) — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 446
• The knowledge-politics link must be established case by case, not by fixed rule #qualifies (0.75)