Struggles for political progress are never definitively won.
Evidence
The assumption that brutal policing and racism were relics of a bygone era was part of the reactionary narrativisation of the recent riots: yes, there was politics and racism back then, but not now, not any more…The lesson to be remembered – especially now that we are being asked to defend abortion and oppose the death penalty again – is that struggles are never definitively won. — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life, 536
Categorization
- XREF: Builds on theme from the Frankfurt School book about institutional victories requiring constant re-assertion; also resonates with the chapter’s central hauntology framing of stalled time. — connects to: What reads as progressive change can consolidate the very order it promised to end — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on…, 544; Acknowledging the scale mismatch between human life and history can generate new politics — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on…, 551; Politics reflects structural tendencies that may never become realized (+10 more)
- SEED: Essay angle: reactionary narratives of ‘that was then’ as a rhetorical sleight that permits material conditions to continue unexamined.
Broader Connections
- Politics reflects structural tendencies that may never become realized
#corroborates(0.82) - Hegemony is an unstable ongoing process, never a settled victory
#exemplifies(0.80) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 767 - Democratic negotiation among differences must remain an ongoing struggle without final resolution.
#corroborates(0.80) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 375 - Hegemony is an unstable equilibrium never certain of success
#exemplifies(0.80) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 767 - Political practice requires provisional closure that fixes positions while never finalizing them
#qualifies(0.78) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 237 - Political struggle continues after military defeat on political terrain
#expands(0.75) - Political struggle resembles permanent conquest rather than finite military war.
#exemplifies(0.75) - Lockean political legitimacy is a demanding ongoing project, not an achievable steady state
#exemplifies(0.75) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1233 - Democratic institutions settle disputes but never forge cohesive national identity
#corroborates(0.72) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 270 - Progress and Doom beliefs both disable genuine political understanding
#expands(0.72)