I look at this all the way I look at calling myself "gay." Gay describes something, but then comes with shifting connotations and then eventually a wholesale identity formation to which I eventually realized I would never be able to conform.
So am I gay? Well, sort of. If I have to describe my sexuality, it's a good word for it. But it's …
I look at this all the way I look at calling myself "gay." Gay describes something, but then comes with shifting connotations and then eventually a wholesale identity formation to which I eventually realized I would never be able to conform.
So am I gay? Well, sort of. If I have to describe my sexuality, it's a good word for it. But it's also a sign of the politicization of every part of our lives that sexuality needs to be defined at all.
And I could spend a lot of time trying to come up with a new term on the one hand or completely abandoned any sort of sexuality labels altogether. Both would be noble projects, probably, but utterly exhausting.
The same thing of course happens with calling myself "pagan." It describes something about me, but it also is used to describe some really ridiculous cosplay and commercialism.
That's how I feel about the "left." It denotes something, an egalitarian tendency. But it was also a word crafted based on a seating arrangement in French national assemblies, and is now used to describe everything from technofuturist "cyborg feminism" and terrifying industrialized authoritarian regimes to anti-modern anarchist and autonomous Marxist movements.
I could find another word, or abandon the categories altogether. But while I am often given to edgewalking and delving into the world without forms to find new ways of making meaning, I'd rather save such work for more mystical experiences.
On the other hand (and I intend to write a lot about this eventually), looking at "left" and "right" as religious tendencies rather than secular political formations is worth that sort of effort for me.
I look at this all the way I look at calling myself "gay." Gay describes something, but then comes with shifting connotations and then eventually a wholesale identity formation to which I eventually realized I would never be able to conform.
So am I gay? Well, sort of. If I have to describe my sexuality, it's a good word for it. But it's also a sign of the politicization of every part of our lives that sexuality needs to be defined at all.
And I could spend a lot of time trying to come up with a new term on the one hand or completely abandoned any sort of sexuality labels altogether. Both would be noble projects, probably, but utterly exhausting.
The same thing of course happens with calling myself "pagan." It describes something about me, but it also is used to describe some really ridiculous cosplay and commercialism.
That's how I feel about the "left." It denotes something, an egalitarian tendency. But it was also a word crafted based on a seating arrangement in French national assemblies, and is now used to describe everything from technofuturist "cyborg feminism" and terrifying industrialized authoritarian regimes to anti-modern anarchist and autonomous Marxist movements.
I could find another word, or abandon the categories altogether. But while I am often given to edgewalking and delving into the world without forms to find new ways of making meaning, I'd rather save such work for more mystical experiences.
On the other hand (and I intend to write a lot about this eventually), looking at "left" and "right" as religious tendencies rather than secular political formations is worth that sort of effort for me.