Austerity operates as speculation that converts fiction into fact

Evidence

Konings (2015, 254) puts it thus: “a faith that does not idly hope for magic but assumes personal responsibility for ensuring the transformation of fictions into facts. Such austerity itself takes the form of speculation: it involves a willingness to gear the creation of new symbolic forms to the validation of past promises.” — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 400

Konings (2015, 254) puts it thus: “a faith that does not idly hope for magic but assumes personal responsibility for ensuring the transformation of fictions into facts. Such austerity itself takes the form of speculation: it involves a willingness to gear the creation of new symbolic forms to the validation of past promises.” — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 400

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s question of whether financialized populism is speculative betting rather than irrational voting — austerity-as-speculation inverts the usual moral framing. — connects to: The Australian case for expansionary austerity rests on fabricated facts. — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 568; Austerity persists as an ideology that resists empirical refutation — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 613; A tiny economy’s crisis was weaponized as a metaphor for austerity — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 202 (+9 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The idea that austerity — normally framed as prudent renunciation — is actually a speculative bet that incurs risk to validate past promises reverses both economic and moral categories.
• DEFINE: Useful for the reader’s core task of defining homo speculans: speculation framed not as risk-seeking but as faith-labor that validates past promises.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living With…, 400