Populism expresses ambivalence toward industrial modernity from its periphery

Evidence

By contrast with established European ideologies, these beliefs have the look of umbrellas hoisted according to the exigencies of the moment but disposable without regret as circumstances change. And this seems entirely sensible as a reaction to the alternation of despair and hope which the peripheral poor of an industrialised world must experience. They cannot afford to be doctrinaire; pragmatism must be the single thread of their behaviour.… I think, then, that we may legitimately rationalise the growing tendency to use the term ‘populism’ to cover many and various movements as a recognition of this particular character of political ideas in the modern world. Populism is a type of movement found among those aware of belonging to the poor periphery of an industrial system; in this sense, it may be taken as a reaction to industrialism. But it is a reaction of those whose profoundest impulse may often be to industrialise: it is only if you cannot join them (and until you can) that you attack them. And it is this ambivalence which accounts for the intellectual emptiness of populist movements. — Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason, 41

Categorization

• XREF: The umbrella-hoisted-but-disposable image and the join-them-or-attack-them mechanism recall the Frankfurt School’s account of anti-modern resentment and Adorno’s analysis of fascist personality. — connects to: The word populism originated with American Midwest farmers, not Europe — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 58; Ordoliberalism’s internal contradictions combined economic modernity with antimodern social ideas — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 506; Understanding today’s populism requires analogies to primal democracy rather than 1930s class war — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 35 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Ordoliberalism’s internal contradictions combined economic modernity with antimodern social ideas #expands (0.78) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 506