Freedom faded from Western discourse after 1960s victories but returned with new threats

Evidence

Above all, they asked about freedom, which several of them considered the topic underlying all others, and which they interpreted both personally and politically. In the years following existentialism’s decline, this topic went out of focus in parts of the world, perhaps because the great liberation movements of the 1950s and 1960s achieved so much in civil rights, decolonisation, women’s equality and gay rights. It seemed as though these campaigns had got what they wanted, and that no point remained in talking about liberation politics. … But that was sixteen years ago, at the time I’m writing, and since then freedom has come into the spotlight again. We find ourselves surveilled and managed to an extraordinary degree, farmed for our personal data, fed consumer goods but discouraged from speaking our minds or doing anything too disruptive in the world, and regularly reminded that racial, sexual, religious and ideological conflict are not closed cases at all. Perhaps we are ready to talk about freedom again — and talking about it politically also means talking about it in our personal lives. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 96

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Foucault-style surveillance/management themes and to the reader’s broader interest in how political libration discourse cycles. — connects to: Freedom lost its philosophical urgency once the 1960s liberation movements won. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 96; Western publics and leaders perceived Islam as the post-Cold War threat — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 579; The Cold War’s end left Islam and the West mutually perceived threats — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 246 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Freedom lost its philosophical urgency once the 1960s liberation movements won. #corroborates (0.85) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 96
• Western publics and leaders perceived Islam as the post-Cold War threat #expands (0.75) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 579
• The Cold War’s end left Islam and the West mutually perceived threats #expands (0.75) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 246
• The word freedom now signals American imperialism in Muslim-majority audiences #expands (0.70) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 1348