- Vassilis Lambropoulos: “On the melancholy over the failure of autonomy”I am inspired by the remarkable similarities between Robert B. Pippin’s book Modernism as a Philosophical Problem (1991, 2nd edition 1999, Blackwell) and my book-length scholarly project-in-progress, Tragedy of Revolution. Here are the basic ones. Both Pippin and I focus on the “paradox of autonomy” in Modernity: Pippin discusses (the ideal of) autonomy (in pursuit of) independence (through a project of) self-reflection (leading to) failure (as depicted in) fiction while I discuss (the ideal of) autonomy (in pursuit of) emancipation (through a project of) revolution (leading to) defeat (as depicted in) tragedy. Both outcomes are overcome by (the mood… Continue reading Vassilis Lambropoulos: “On the melancholy over the failure of autonomy”
- Anonymous: “Fire and Ice:Lessons from the Battle of Los Angeles”“The explosion was always going to begin in Los Angeles. But now that the fire has started, it is beginning to expand. Protests have spread to dozens of cities across the country. [] What follows are some lessons from the battle of Los Angeles that could prove useful today, as the movement to stop the deportation machine begins to spread and deepen.”
- CrimethInc.: “Anarchists in the Movement against Police and White Supremacy”From the Los Angeles Riots to the George Floyd Uprising: A timeline tracing the trajectory of anarchist contributions to uprisings against the police from the Rodney King riots of 1992 to the uprising in Minneapolis in 2020. This story has never been told in full; we hope this cursory effort will help participants in tomorrow’s movements to understand the history that they are part of.
- Dylan Riley: “Reflections on an Inverted Revolution”“We are living through an inverted revolution. The political heirs of Lenin and Gramsci are leading a right-wing transformation from the White House rather than a left-wing one from the streets. It is not the campus Marxists, but the thought leaders of the nativist right, who turned out to be the real followers of the great theorists of the Third International. They are implementing the Bolshevik playbook, but with all the value signs reversed. MAGA seeks to smash the state and seize control of civil society; it wants to institute a transitional dictatorship leading to the durable cultural and… Continue reading Dylan Riley: “Reflections on an Inverted Revolution”
- Bernard Harcourt: “A Modern Counterrevolution”First, a “counterrevolution” has been underway since the invention of counterinsurgency warfare in the 1950s and ’60s by French, British, and American commanders during the wars of independence in Algeria, Indochina, Malaya, Vietnam, and other former colonies. Those campaigns gave birth to counterinsurgency warfare logics and strategies—also known as unconventional or antiguerrilla warfare, or, as the French would say, “la guerre moderne,” modern warfare. And then those logics and strategies were brought back and applied on domestic soil.
C. P. Cavafy Professor Emeritus of Classical Studies and Comparative Literature, University of Michigan
This site is a book-length scholarly study of political hubris in modern tragedy, specifically, the self-destruction of revolution from Romantic to Postmodern theater and beyond. It includes original scholarship as well as news, comments, and announcements. It remains a work in progress in that new material is regularly added to it and existing material is revised and reconfigured.
Parallel blog of further reflections on solidarity and collaborative culture