Political disengagement in British youth stems from reflexive impotence, a self-fulfilling prophecy, not apathy.
Evidence
By contrast with their forebears in the 1960s and 1970s, British students today appear to be politically disengaged. While French students can still be found on the streets protesting against neoliberalism, British students, whose situation is incomparably worse, seem resigned to their fate. But this, I want to argue, is a matter not of apathy, nor of cynicism, but of reflexive impotence. They know things are bad, but more than that, they know they can’t do anything about it. But that ‘knowledge’, that reflexivity, is not a passive observation of an already existing state of affairs. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 45
Categorization
- DEFINE: Introduces the chapter’s core concept ‘reflexive impotence’ and distinguishes it from apathy and cynicism.
- XREF: connects to: A generation born into digital micro-sliced media experiences time as disconnected presents. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 53; Political apathy can be sanctioned as the system’s healthy basis — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2341; British youth political disengagement stems from self-fulfilling beliefs of powerlessness — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 45
Related
- British youth political disengagement stems from self-fulfilling beliefs of powerlessness (similarity 0.93)
- Awareness of political futility functions as a self-fulfilling prophecy (similarity 0.84)
Broader Connections
- Political apathy can be sanctioned as the system’s healthy basis
#qualifies(0.78) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2341