Self-conscious nostalgia can fuel revolution, not merely fascism

Evidence

But if nostalgia as a political motivation is most frequently associated with Fascism, there is no reason why a nostalgia conscious of itself, a lucid and remorseless dissatisfaction with the present on the grounds of some remembered plenitude, cannot furnish as adequate a revolutionary stimulus as any other: the example of Benjamin is there to prove it. — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 172

Categorization

• XREF: This is Jameson redeploying Benjamin against the default association of nostalgia with reactionary politics — connects to the Frankfurt lineage and to Benjamin’s dialectical reading of the past. — connects to: Nostalgia is an adjustment mechanism during crises — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 540; Joy can be a visceral response to ruptures of stable social order — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 737; Nostalgia for an imagined golden age drives resistance and fear — Andrew L. Whitehead, American Idolatry, 199 (+2 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that a lucid, self-conscious nostalgia can be equally revolutionary as reactionary is a genuinely dialectical reversal: it unfixes nostalgia from fascism by naming the difference (consciousness of itself) as the load-bearing term. Worth sitting with.

Broader Connections

• Joy can be a visceral response to ruptures of stable social order #expands (0.80) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 737
• Nostalgia is an adjustment mechanism during crises #qualifies (0.75) — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 540