Pseudo-historical fall narratives let conservative politics masquerade as ethics

Evidence

Only this model now tries to pass itself off as a theory of history in its own right, and at once the characteristic marks of pseudohistory reappear: the obsession with historical rise and decline, the never-ending search for the date of the fall and the name of the serpent. Was it Rousseau who was responsible, or his enemies the philosophes? The Romantics or the Positivists? Which was worse, Protestantism or the French Revolution? Such false problems arise from a misconception of what the diachronic sequence can do, but are in turn pressed into ideological service, in which an eschatological framework helps conservative politics masquerade as ethics in an ostensibly aesthetic enterprise. — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 663

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the reader’s prior interest stated in the reading purpose: how ideological false problems arise from misconceived diachronic models — related to Jameson’s metacommentary approach. — connects to: Sartorial faux scandals filled the moral vacuum of conservative-pressured Obama-era politics — W. David Marx, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the…, 409; Pseudo-conservatism masked destructive impulses beneath conventional values, unlike genuine conservatism — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1800; Adorno’s pseudo-conservative distinction added psychological depth to the political concept of conservatism — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1587 (+1 more)
• SEED: Could fuel an essay on how aesthetic nostalgia narratives (e.g. ‘the fall of taste’) function as veiled political conservatism — the serpent-hunt in criticism.

Broader Connections

• Adorno’s pseudo-conservative distinction added psychological depth to the political concept of conservatism #expands (0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1587
• Pseudo-conservatism masked destructive impulses beneath conventional values, unlike genuine conservatism #expands (0.82) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1800
• Sartorial faux scandals filled the moral vacuum of conservative-pressured Obama-era politics #expands (0.78) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 409