Yeah, I agree with what you are saying about the shift away from identity politics. As an astrologer, I tie that to Chiron's transit through Aries, which began in 2018 and is now winding down. I have predicted that the upcoming move of Chiron to the next zodiac sign, Taurus, is likely to increase focus on economic issues.
There is something so important about ritual, not just as tradition or custom, but as one of the ways people know where they are and who they belong to. And this revival sounds so alive and relevant.
another excellent article Rhyd, looks like the Kiermes festival was a big hit in the village, glad your Jungian coaching is going well, thanks for sharing
I'm curious about what is going to replace identity politics. I may be pessimistic but I suspect much of the defunding of identity politics is because they have accomplished the goal they were funded for. A generation or more has grown up in a world where class-based politics is silenced. The left is in chaos internationally. The point of building a straw man is always to knock it down in the end and this seems to be what is happening with identity politics. I don't know if identity politics will be replaced with more class consciousness or if a new red herring will be invented to replace it. Possible options I see are some form of politicization of trauma culture. That one scares me because while there is excellent work being done to address the effects of trauma, I also see themes of evangelical purity culture and elitism in some aspects of trauma culture- for example, the idea that people who have experienced traumatic events are damaged and if they don't have the cash to pay a therapist to train them how to express themselves the way the elite does they can't have anything worth saying and the distrust in our communities based on fear of trauma. But that's only one possibility among many.
Yes, this is a very good point. They didn’t stop funding it because they were suddenly against it: I really think they realised they’d accomplished their goal.
The one peculiar thing, at least as far as Soros’s funding in Europe is concerned, is that it was all framed as a way of defeating far right, nationalist, and similar movements. I do wonder if they realised that they were actually feeding into those movements by funding extreme “left”-flavoured identitarianism against which those movements could claim to be reacting. Really, the more absurd some of the “woke” rhetoric got, the more rational and reasonable the far right was able to sound. Soros and his advisors may have finally noticed the blowback.
What comes next? I suspect it might be something similar to what we saw with the pandemic lockdowns, a kind of re-orientation of left-flavored politics into defense of the state. For instance, the social credit/digital ID trends in European and UK governments will need the appearance of support from the people, and the “left” already proved they’re more than willing to become authoritarian stooges when it came to punishing even poor and minority people who were resistant to vaccinations and state controls on movements.
What might we see, then, if the government uses resource-related crises like oil or food shortages as a bludgeon to implement social credit systems? I can imagine a “left” rallying to the government’s defense to punish people who keep trying to purchase gasoline for their vehicles with cash, or people who want to use more electricity than they’re “allowed to.” Something similar to the way early suffragettes in the US, UK, and Canada did public shaming of men who resisted fighting in World War I (they handed them white feathers in public to show everyone that those men were cowards).
Incidentally, I think your really good question has just inspired my next essay. Thank you!
Yeah, I agree with what you are saying about the shift away from identity politics. As an astrologer, I tie that to Chiron's transit through Aries, which began in 2018 and is now winding down. I have predicted that the upcoming move of Chiron to the next zodiac sign, Taurus, is likely to increase focus on economic issues.
I love that the Kiermes was revived!
There is something so important about ritual, not just as tradition or custom, but as one of the ways people know where they are and who they belong to. And this revival sounds so alive and relevant.
Congratulations on the success of the Kiermes revival - Mom and son look so proud 🌺
another excellent article Rhyd, looks like the Kiermes festival was a big hit in the village, glad your Jungian coaching is going well, thanks for sharing
I'm curious about what is going to replace identity politics. I may be pessimistic but I suspect much of the defunding of identity politics is because they have accomplished the goal they were funded for. A generation or more has grown up in a world where class-based politics is silenced. The left is in chaos internationally. The point of building a straw man is always to knock it down in the end and this seems to be what is happening with identity politics. I don't know if identity politics will be replaced with more class consciousness or if a new red herring will be invented to replace it. Possible options I see are some form of politicization of trauma culture. That one scares me because while there is excellent work being done to address the effects of trauma, I also see themes of evangelical purity culture and elitism in some aspects of trauma culture- for example, the idea that people who have experienced traumatic events are damaged and if they don't have the cash to pay a therapist to train them how to express themselves the way the elite does they can't have anything worth saying and the distrust in our communities based on fear of trauma. But that's only one possibility among many.
Yes, this is a very good point. They didn’t stop funding it because they were suddenly against it: I really think they realised they’d accomplished their goal.
The one peculiar thing, at least as far as Soros’s funding in Europe is concerned, is that it was all framed as a way of defeating far right, nationalist, and similar movements. I do wonder if they realised that they were actually feeding into those movements by funding extreme “left”-flavoured identitarianism against which those movements could claim to be reacting. Really, the more absurd some of the “woke” rhetoric got, the more rational and reasonable the far right was able to sound. Soros and his advisors may have finally noticed the blowback.
What comes next? I suspect it might be something similar to what we saw with the pandemic lockdowns, a kind of re-orientation of left-flavored politics into defense of the state. For instance, the social credit/digital ID trends in European and UK governments will need the appearance of support from the people, and the “left” already proved they’re more than willing to become authoritarian stooges when it came to punishing even poor and minority people who were resistant to vaccinations and state controls on movements.
What might we see, then, if the government uses resource-related crises like oil or food shortages as a bludgeon to implement social credit systems? I can imagine a “left” rallying to the government’s defense to punish people who keep trying to purchase gasoline for their vehicles with cash, or people who want to use more electricity than they’re “allowed to.” Something similar to the way early suffragettes in the US, UK, and Canada did public shaming of men who resisted fighting in World War I (they handed them white feathers in public to show everyone that those men were cowards).
Incidentally, I think your really good question has just inspired my next essay. Thank you!
Oh thanks for sharing about the festival. How wonderful.