Populist passions animate rather than oppose financial rationality

Evidence

The second fallacy implied here is a symbolic distinction between the cold, calculating rationality of finance (manifest in the speculative logic of capital) and the emotional capital invested in the type of populist-nationalist politics responding to this rationality (their “attack on reason”). Yet, as we have seen time and again, markets and publics alike rely on a speculative imagination that contains both passions and interests to engage uncertainty. … Although markets’ amoralism and publics’ anger are both undoubtedly real, the opposition between (financial) reason and (populist) feeling can be entirely deceptive. … In the culture wars of the Trump and Brexit era, populist passions animate (rather than oppose) the rationality of finance. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 268

Yet, as we have seen time and again, markets and publics alike rely on a speculative imagination that contains both passions and interests to engage uncertainty. Although markets’ amoralism and publics’ anger are both undoubtedly real, the opposition between (financial) reason and (populist) feeling can be entirely deceptive. In the culture wars of the Trump and Brexit era, populist passions animate (rather than oppose) the rationality of finance. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 411

Categorization

• XREF: Core to the reader’s thesis: populist feeling and financial reason are copresent, not opposed — directly echoes the ‘homo speculans’ argument and the earlier chapters on markets and publics sharing a speculative imagination. — connects to: Political populists and financiers both profit from political uncertainty. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 379; Financialization and national populism form a false binary, not opposing forces — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 390; Regressive populism and speculative finance are forming new alliances. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 57 (+7 more)
• DEFINE: Sharpens the distinction between the conventional reason/feeling binary and the speculative imagination that holds both at once.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living With…, 268; Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 411