Det möjligas politik: Om möjligheternas kristallisering och politikens omöjliga löfte
(2015) STVK02 20151Department of Political Science
- Abstract
- A well-known maxim defines politics as "the art of the possible". This definition implies that the nature of politics is relative to specific circumstances and derives from an adoption of the line of action possible under given circumstances; correlated to this is a rejection of political activities whose realisation is impossible while being subjected to these circumstances. This essay investigates what distinguishes the possible from the impossible in politics and how this difference is maintained ideologically through a process of "crystallization", which generates all social and economic possibility as being inextricably linked with the existing order. On the level of political subjectivity, crystallization operates as a condition for... (More)
- A well-known maxim defines politics as "the art of the possible". This definition implies that the nature of politics is relative to specific circumstances and derives from an adoption of the line of action possible under given circumstances; correlated to this is a rejection of political activities whose realisation is impossible while being subjected to these circumstances. This essay investigates what distinguishes the possible from the impossible in politics and how this difference is maintained ideologically through a process of "crystallization", which generates all social and economic possibility as being inextricably linked with the existing order. On the level of political subjectivity, crystallization operates as a condition for self-understanding. Hence, the subject is faced not only with difficulties in criticising the existing order, but a constitutive inability to think itself beyond the horizon of what is criticised. This dilemma is problematised, as is the mystical radicality of "the limit" in political theory. To conclude, the essay invokes the juxtaposition of realism and impossibility in the Situationist phrase - "Be realistic, demand the impossible". Given the crystallizing nature of capitalist realism, which does not even allow us to consider the immediate possible, this logic should be reversed. In order to fulfil the promise of politics, one has to be unrealistic and insist on the possible - that is, rediscover the possibilities in which this promise is embedded. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/7759616
- author
- Kewenter, Dag LU
- supervisor
-
- Martin Hall LU
- organization
- course
- STVK02 20151
- year
- 2015
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- subjectivity, possibility, end of history, crystallization, political theory
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 7759616
- date added to LUP
- 2015-09-09 16:27:36
- date last changed
- 2015-09-09 16:27:36
@misc{7759616,
abstract = {{A well-known maxim defines politics as "the art of the possible". This definition implies that the nature of politics is relative to specific circumstances and derives from an adoption of the line of action possible under given circumstances; correlated to this is a rejection of political activities whose realisation is impossible while being subjected to these circumstances. This essay investigates what distinguishes the possible from the impossible in politics and how this difference is maintained ideologically through a process of "crystallization", which generates all social and economic possibility as being inextricably linked with the existing order. On the level of political subjectivity, crystallization operates as a condition for self-understanding. Hence, the subject is faced not only with difficulties in criticising the existing order, but a constitutive inability to think itself beyond the horizon of what is criticised. This dilemma is problematised, as is the mystical radicality of "the limit" in political theory. To conclude, the essay invokes the juxtaposition of realism and impossibility in the Situationist phrase - "Be realistic, demand the impossible". Given the crystallizing nature of capitalist realism, which does not even allow us to consider the immediate possible, this logic should be reversed. In order to fulfil the promise of politics, one has to be unrealistic and insist on the possible - that is, rediscover the possibilities in which this promise is embedded.}},
author = {{Kewenter, Dag}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Det möjligas politik: Om möjligheternas kristallisering och politikens omöjliga löfte}},
year = {{2015}},
}