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Radical Identity Politics Radical Identity Politics Radical Identity Politics: Beyond Right and Left By Torben Bech Dyrberg Radical Identity Politics: Beyond Right and Left By Torben Bech Dyrberg This book first published 2020 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2020 by Torben Bech Dyrberg All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-5056-7 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-5056-8 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ....................................................... viii PREFACE ................................................................................................. ix INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 1 1 NEW LEFT TURNS OLD RIGHT ......................................................... 5 THE EPOCHAL BREAKDOWN OF THE LEFT .................................................................. 5 LEFTIST IDENTITY POLITICS AFTER THE FATWA AGAINST RUSHDIE ........................... 14 LEFT-WING POLITICS AND THE FRIEND/ENEMY MATRIX ............................................ 18 PART I: THE LEFT AND THE USUAL SUSPECTS 2 LEFTIST REACTIONS TO THE CHARLIE HEBDO MASSACRE ... 22 HOW DO LEFTISTS REACT TO ISLAMIST TERROR? ..................................................... 22 CONTEXT OF EXPLANATION AND ROOT CAUSES ....................................................... 24 TARIQ ALI: ‘FRANCE TRIES TO MASK ITS ISLAMOPHOBIA BEHIND SECULAR VALUES’ AND ‘THE MUSLIM RESPONSE TO PARIS’ ................................................................ 28 COREY OAKLEY: ‘CHARLIE HEBDO AND THE HYPOCRISY OF PENCILS’ ..................... 30 JACOB CANFIELD: ‘IN THE WAKE OF CHARLIE HEBDO, FREE SPEECH DOES NOT MEAN FREEDOM FROM CRITICISM’ ......................................................................... 33 NADINE EL-ENANY AND SARAH KENAN: ‘I AM CHARLIE AND I GUARD THE MASTER’S HOUSE’ .................................................................................................................. 35 JUAN COLE: ‘SHARPENING CONTRADICTIONS: WHY AL-QAEDA ATTACKED SATIRISTS IN PARIS’ ................................................................................................................ 38 VARIOUS ASPECTS OF THE TINY SLIVER ARGUMENT ................................................. 40 JAHANZEB HUSSAIN AND ERIN SEATTER: ‘BEYOND FREE SPEECH: WHAT’S LOST IN THE DEBATE ABOUT CHARLIE HEBDO’ ................................................................ 45 MARGARET KIMBERLEY: ‘THE LESSON OF CHARLIE HEBDO: THE WORLD ONLY CARES IF YOU KILL WHITE PEOPLE’ .................................................................................. 47 JON WILSON: ‘JE NE SUIS PAS CHARLIE HEBDO’ ...................................................... 48 vi Table of Contents 3 LEFTIST IDENTITY POLITICS AND ISLAMIC RADICALISM ..... 52 FOUR TYPES OF LEFTIST CRITIQUE ........................................................................... 52 SYMMETRICAL FUNDAMENTALISM .......................................................................... 53 OFFENCE AND SELF-CENSORSHIP ............................................................................. 59 ANTI-WESTERN RESISTANCE .................................................................................. 65 MORAL ACCOUNTING ............................................................................................. 74 THE ARGUMENTATIVE LOGIC OF LEFTIST IDENTITY POLITICS ................................... 81 Islamism ≠ Islam ................................................................................................... 82 Free speech ≠ hate speech = terrorism/murder ...................................................... 83 Islamic extremism = right wing extremism ........................................................... 84 PART II: LEFTIST IDENTITY POLITICS AND ITS CONSERVATIVE ROOTS 4 TOLERANCE AS MORAL ACCOUNTING: RETRIBUTION AND ENMITY IN MARCUSE ......................................................................... 88 THE REVOLUTIONARY LEFT-WING PROJECT ............................................................. 88 MARCUSE’S CRITIQUE OF THE SYSTEM’S TOLERANCE .............................................. 89 MORAL ACCOUNTING AND THE THREE CODES OF CENSORSHIP .................................. 94 THE POWER/POWERLESS CODE ................................................................................ 97 THE TRUTH/UNTRUTH CODE .................................................................................... 98 THE SPEECH/ACTION CODE .....................................................................................102 MARCUSE AND LEFTIST IDENTITY POLITICS TODAY .................................................104 5 THE LEFTIST FASCINATION WITH SCHMITT: ENMITY AND ANTI-LIBERALISM .................................................................... 108 SCHMITT, THE LEFT, AND THEIR COMMON ENEMY ..................................................108 EXCUSES: DAMAGE CONTROL .................................................................................110 REASONS: SCHMITT SPEAKS THE TRUTH TO LIBERALS .............................................112 THE PROBLEMATIC DISTINCTION BETWEEN LIBERALISM AND DEMOCRACY ..............113 THE POLITICAL: HOMOGENEITY VS. HETEROGENEITY ..............................................118 MOUFFE AND OTHERS ON SCHMITT ........................................................................123 SCHMITT’S CHALLENGE: A MISCONCEIVED DILEMMA FOR THE LEFT ........................130 6 MOUFFE’S BLIND ALLEY: FROM RADICAL AND PLURAL DEMOCRACY TO ‘SCHMITTIAN’ MULTICULTURALISM .......... 134 MOUFFE ON ADVERSARIES AND ENEMIES IN THE CONTEXT OF MULTICULTURALISM ....134 THE CHANGING PROFILE OF THE LEFT ....................................................................137 RADICALISING AND PLURALISING DEMOCRACY ......................................................139 STAGING AND RETREATING FROM RADICAL AND PLURAL DEMOCRACY ....................142 MOUFFE ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY .......................................................145 THE MULTICULTURALIST ASSAULT ON DEMOCRATIC VALUES ..................................152 ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND EUROCENTRISM ...............................................................155 CONCLUDING COMMENTS ......................................................................................158 Radical Identity Politics: Beyond Right and Left vii PART III: DEMOCRACY AND THE AUTONOMY OF POLITICS: RIGHT/LEFT, FOUCAULT, AND RAWLS 7 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF RIGHT/LEFT FOR DEMOCRACY ........ 164 RIGHT/LEFT IN RELATION TO ADVERSARIES AND ENEMIES .......................................164 RIGHT/LEFT AND DEMOCRATIC IDEOLOGY ..............................................................166 THE IDEOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF ORIENTATIONAL METAPHORS .........................169 FROM RIGHT/LEFT TO ESTABLISHMENT/OPPOSITION DISCOURSES ............................174 THE POLITICAL REVERSAL AND THE AUTONOMY OF POLITICS ..................................176 THREE LEVELS OF RIGHT/LEFT ORIENTATION ..........................................................179 8 FOUCAULT ON PARRHESIA: THE AUTONOMY OF POLITICS AND DEMOCRACY ............................................................................. 185 FOUCAULT, PARRHESIA AND POLITICAL THEORY ....................................................185 THE POLITICS OF PARRHESIA ...................................................................................189 POLITICAL AUTHORITY: THE TWO ANALYTICAL LEVELS OF POWER AND FORCE ........194 THE SPECIFICITY AND AUTONOMY OF POLITICS IN RELATION TO PARRHESIA .............199 Power: meritocracy vs. social stratification ..........................................................200 Knowledge: political judgement vs. expert knowledge ........................................203 Ethics: responsibility and secularisation vs. dogma .............................................206 THE AUTONOMY OF POLITICS AS THE BASIS FOR DEMOCRACY .................................209 9 PARRHESIA AND PUBLIC REASON: DIFFERENT AND COMPLEMENTARY ................................................................... 214 DISCUSSING FOUCAULT AND RAWLS ......................................................................214 THEMATIC LINKS BETWEEN PARRHESIA AND PUBLIC REASON ..................................216 RAWLS’S TAKE ON PUBLIC REASON AND THE ORIGINAL POSITION ............................220 PUBLIC REASON AND THE DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLE OF INCLUSION/EXCLUSION .........225 PARRHESIA AND PUBLIC REASON: COMPLEMENTARY DIFFERENCES ..........................228 10. LEFTIST CRITIQUE AND PUBLIC REASON ............................. 234 ADVERSARIAL OR HOSTILE ENGAGEMENT ..............................................................234 THREE THEMES OF LEFTIST CRITIQUE AND PUBLIC REASON .....................................236 ABSOLUTE ENMITY AND CHARACTER ASSASSINATION ............................................238 CONTEXT OF EXPLANATION AND ROOT CAUSES ......................................................242 MORAL ACCOUNTANCY AND DOUBLE STANDARDS .................................................246 REFERENCES ......................................................................................
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