Speculation was historically regarded as both a civilizing influence and a wild force simultaneously

Evidence

Preda (2009) demonstrates how the pervasiveness of speculation in the social realm works to challenge but also to cement “order.” He analyses a wealth of sources from that era, from political and financial speeches to Zola’s L’Argent (1891) to unpack links between speculation and social mobility, foresight and progress, and peace–­but also wild adventure. Speculation, he argues, was seen as a “civilising factor and untamed natural force at the same time” (179). — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 622

Categorization

• XREF: Links to the reader’s broader interest in how speculation reshapes the social imagination — this dual framing (civilizing yet untamed) anticipates the ambivalence central to financialized imagination. — connects to: Romantic cynicism let intellectuals hold contradictory ideologies simultaneously — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 451

Broader Connections

• Romantic cynicism let intellectuals hold contradictory ideologies simultaneously #complicates (0.72) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 451