Left Wing Melancholia by Enzo Traverso. It's good, but I guess also a somewhat sobering read. Really drives home the point that the modern left lacks any common sense of hope compared to its predecessors, and has somewhat fallen to a complex of victimhood vs martyrdom and cannot choose either. Past socialist movements from the Spartacists to the Jewish uprising in the Warsaw ghetto to Guevara's fiercely defiant last words all retained in them an implacable sensation of hope even as they were crushed.
I'm still on the first couple chapters, I think I'd recommend it
Yes, I must say the idea that in the last couple decades the left has largely fallen into a state of doomerism, other-blaming, victimhood, and ineffective lifestyle politics quite convincing. We really do need a kick up the arse.
Left Wing Melancholia by Enzo Traverso. It's good, but I guess also a somewhat sobering read. Really drives home the point that the modern left lacks any common sense of hope compared to its predecessors, and has somewhat fallen to a complex of victimhood vs martyrdom and cannot choose either. Past socialist movements from the Spartacists to the Jewish uprising in the Warsaw ghetto to Guevara's fiercely defiant last words all retained in them an implacable sensation of hope even as they were crushed.
I'm still on the first couple chapters, I think I'd recommend it
Yes, I must say the idea that in the last couple decades the left has largely fallen into a state of doomerism, other-blaming, victimhood, and ineffective lifestyle politics quite convincing. We really do need a kick up the arse.