The left should invent institutions standing for a leftist big Other

Evidence

When Mrs Thatcher famously denied the existence of society, she was echoing Max Stirner’s claim that all such abstractions are “spooks”. But we can’t ever rid ourselves of these incorporeal entities — neoliberalism certainly hasn’t. As I argue in Capitalist Realism, neoliberalism hasn’t killed the big Other — for who is the consumer of PR (which no actual empirical individual believes) if not the big Other? The point now — and I would affirm this forcefully, not tentatively — is to invent a leftist big Other. This doesn’t mean reviving authoritarianism; there is no necessary relation between the big Other and a strong leader. On the contrary, in fact, authoritarianism happens when there is a confusion between the big Other (as virtuality) and an empirical individual. What we need are institutions and agents that will stand in for — but cannot be equated with — a leftist big Other. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2077

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Fisher’s demanded ‘leftist big Other’ of standing institutions resonates with the tree-infrastructure article’s theme of underused collective infrastructure versus individualist framing.
• SEED: Could angle an essay around reframing social-democratic institutions not as bureaucracy but as intentional ‘big Other’ agents that Thatcherite individualism cannot supply.
• XREF: connects to: Effective left politics must engage institutions from without rather than within — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1910; A left politics can defend knowledge-based authority against authoritarianism — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 2172; Reification is inescapable, so the left should pursue anti-capitalist reification — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 2077 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• A ruling class needs its own intellectuals to exercise hegemony alongside coercion #expands (0.78) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1869
• Neoliberal institutions aimed to build a new creed, not revive old liberalism #exemplifies (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 773
• A left politics can defend knowledge-based authority against authoritarianism #expands (0.74) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2172
• Reification is inescapable, so the left should pursue anti-capitalist reification #expands (0.72) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2077
• Institutions can be designed so that non-domination is smoothly maximized #qualifies (0.71) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 453