Mass leaderless protest can rupture the sense of living at history’s end

Evidence

In the afternoon of Day X1, streaming from Trafalgar Square up towards Whitehall, we didn’t know where we were going or who, if anyone, was leading us. A month later, the situation feels the same. We’ve broken out of the end of history onto terra incognito. What’s certain is that the old world is disintegrating, and soon it will not be possible to even pretend that we can return to it. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1549

Categorization

• STORYSTEM: The leaderless crowd that doesn’t know where it’s going is a strong image for fiction about nascent revolutionary movements and the disorientation of genuine historical change.
• XREF: connects to: The 2010 protests broke through the end-of-history consensus onto uncertain terrain; Proclaiming history’s end functions ideologically by eternalizing the present moment — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 720; The “end of history” moment produced civilizational despair rather than triumph. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 435 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• The 2010 protests broke through the end-of-history consensus onto uncertain terrain #exemplifies (0.90)
• Proclaiming history’s end functions ideologically by eternalizing the present moment #qualifies (0.85) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 720
• The “end of history” moment produced civilizational despair rather than triumph. #expands (0.75) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 435
• Unled spontaneous revolts invite reactionary counter-movements and coups #contradicts (0.75) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 808