Critical positions must inhabit liberal individualism without full hope of teleological change.
Evidence
This position is unfortunately open to Rorty’s shots in “Moral Ideals.” And the possibilities of the transformation of a care [Sorge]-ful acceptance of being-there [Dasein] into an aesthetics of existence are not necessarily socially fruitful. The critical exit is in liberal individualism, if that is our dominant historical moment, even as we are in it, by reading and writing this book. The critical (deconstructive/genealogico-ethical) being can activate this exit within, without full hope (which may include having some hope) in teleological change, and therefore without letting up. That may be the name of ethical living, with some hope in working for political change. — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 1266
Categorization
- XREF: The ‘critical exit within’ move parallels Foucault’s ‘qui gagne perd’ (who wins also loses) and the reader’s own question of whether strategic identity performance can be held ironically without collapse into genuine belief. — connects to: Intellectual paradigm shifts never fully transcend the positions they overturn; Postmodern resignation reduces action to existential necessity without hope of change. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 616; Utopian vision is a necessary but insufficient ingredient of politics. — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 378 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Intellectual paradigm shifts never fully transcend the positions they overturn
#corroborates(0.85) - Utopian vision is a necessary but insufficient ingredient of politics.
#corroborates(0.85) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 378 - A critique of essentialism must remain internal to essentialism.
#corroborates(0.80) — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 55 - Postmodern resignation reduces action to existential necessity without hope of change.
#qualifies(0.78) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 616 - Social movements provoke theoretical advances, yet theory demands a necessary detour from immediacy.
#qualifies(0.72) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 251