the old is dying and the new cannot be born (nancy fraser)

This is a short but insightful treatise on the vacuum that is opening up in political culture with the waning of neo-liberalism and the failure of either the right or the left to find a new “hegemony” which can replace it. Hegemony being, as the author explains, a Gramscian term which suggests a political/ philosophical worldview which can shape the way political society both acts and sees itself. Nancy Fraser highlights the way in which much of the liberalism in neo-liberalism has been, if you like, window dressing which has covered up the failures of a Capital/ Finance system which supposedly keeps the wheels running (and disproportionately rewards those who oil these wheels) to address key issues of inequality in society. Liberal gains are all well and good but they shouldn’t hide the fact that the working class is getting proportionately poorer, and society is becoming increasingly unjust, even if certain freedoms have been secured. She is great on how Trump manipulated this situation to stoke a culture war which was all about getting him elected and nothing to do with addressing wealth divisions and inequality. This is a short book with an appended interview with Bhaskar Sunkara, but it’s full of really valuable insights, including the complex and dangerous process of trying to find a new hegemony (or vaccine). Referring to what might emerge which will succeed in helping to create the kind of plausible society which the New Deal offered before its hegemony was eroded she says: “What we don’t know yet is whether some new, yet-to-be invented form of capitalism could satisfy those imperatives—or whether the only possible solution is a postcapitalist society, whether we want to call it socialist or something else. Maybe more important than knowing that for sure right now is knowing what the new rules of the road should be for a political economy that is both pro-working-class and globalized. Ours is a world that cannot and must not go back to distinct national economies. That way lies competing protectionisms, militarization, and world war.”