Chapter 4 Notes - radical ideas

Thursday, September 19, 2024 4:37 PM

4.1 - define "radical" ideas

4.2 - explain why ideology is a critical concept in politics
4.3 examine influential modern political ideologies
4.4 - trace the lineage of these ideologies in contemporary
politics.
4.5 - consider how the covid 19 pandemic has caused
people to re-evaluate politics and the responsibilities of
governments

- Similarities between QAnon, Antifa, BLM, Fridays for

Future and Proud Boys?
○ All examples of radical ideas
○ This poor analysis - it treats the content of
ideas as a equivalent as if language doesn't
reflect power
○ It also assumes the dominant groups can
understand subordinated groups - 'two
Americas'
- Ideas once seen as radical later accepted as
"normal"
○ This is a dynamic of normalization
○ Do we want to be a pro-norm or anti-norm?
○ Code switching and respectability politics

MLK "two Americas" speech

- One beautiful America
- One ugly America

Ability to speak
- Little mermaid 101
○ Sacrificed your voice to become human
- The subaltern
 - One ugly America

Ability to speak
- Little mermaid 101
○ Sacrificed your voice to become human
- The subaltern
- About 7000 languages in the world
○ Un - official languages - English, French,
Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Arabic

"RIOT IS THE LANGUAGE OF THE UNHEARD" - MLK

Stephen D'Arcy
- Three cases
○ Pushing a man to the ground to prevent him
from stabbing nearby child
○ Pushing a man to the ground to prevent
access to the building I am picketing in the
context of a strike
○ Push a man to the ground to express my
contempt for his religion
○ All use force, not all seen as violent
○ Self-defense considered morally accepted, we
resist seeing it as violence

'securitization'
1. Speech act by someone in authority
2. Securitizing move
3. audience reception
4. Impacts policy and allocation of resources
5. Dsecuritization
- Examples
○ War on drugs
○ War on terror
○ The use of torture
○ Anything that creates temporary moral panic

Chapter 4: Radical ideas

- Challenge dominant ideas of their time
- Which ideas are 'good' depends on historical
circumstances and political struggle
Chapter 4: Radical ideas
- Challenge dominant ideas of their time
- Which ideas are 'good' depends on historical
circumstances and political struggle

Radical ideas and ideologies

- Radical ideas critique society
○ Getting to the root of a problem
- What defines root problem depends on the
particular radical theory
- But all involve a critique of the status quo
- As well as existing power relations

Extinction
(non radical idea)
- Extinct rebellion
1. Declaring a climate and ecological emergency
2. Net zero carbon emissions
3. Citizens assemblies
4. Just transition
(radical idea)
- Voluntary human extinction movement
1. Choose no to have children voluntarily
2. Promote sustainable lifestyles and responsible
consumption
3. Advocate for reproductive rights and access to
contraception
4. Raise awareness about the negative consequences
of overpopulation
5. Encourage open dialogue and critical thinking about
population growth and its impact on the
environment

Left and right

- Radical ideas can either be "left wing" or "right
wing"
- Often used to discredit ideas by detractors
○ US representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
and Green New Deal
- Left and right originated in French Revolution
○ Division withing the 1789 French National
Assembly
Supporter of "the people" sat on left
 ○ US representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
and Green New Deal
- Left and right originated in French Revolution
○ Division withing the 1789 French National
Assembly
○ Supporter of "the people" sat on left
○ Supports of the monarchy sat on right

From ideas to ideologies

- Concept of ideology also arises from French
Revolution
- Systemic study and organization of ideas and
concepts
- First ideologues:
○ How ideas of French Revolution could be
translated to new French Republic
- Ideology first give a bad rap by Napoleon

Ideology as a negative concept

- Marx and Engels: ideology masks reality of working
class to benefit of ruling class
- False consciousness:
○ Workers lulled into supporting status quo and
interests of the ruling class
○ Embeds unequal power relations in society to
the detriment of workers and the benefit of
the ruling class
- Antonio Gramsci - ideological hegemony
- Ideology used to coopt potential leaders of
subaltern groups
○ Historic Bloc - Sorel - social myth
○ Social myth and imperialism, democracy,
genocide?
- Collective ways to prevent reform
○ Hegemonic social class for hegemonic bloc
- Education is a key form of ideological control
○ Organic intellectual versus traditional
intellectuals
○ Ethics of teaching the status quo vs
challenging ideas
○ 'problem solving versus critical thinking'
 intellectuals
○ Ethics of teaching the status quo vs
challenging ideas
○ 'problem solving versus critical thinking'

Ideology as a 'reasonable' concept

- Karl Manheim (1893-1947)
○ How groups are formed historically through
common beliefs and values
○ Particular versus total conceptions of ideology
○ View society as a coherent social whole,
conflict not key to struggle
- Clifford Geertz (1926-2006)
○ Ideologies emerge during significant social
disruption and political change
○ How we make sense of the world when reality
no longer clear
○ Dense social networks and the analysis of
ideas in context

Ideology today
- Ideology as a key set of beliefs and values that
legitimate a certain social order
○ There are 16 different definitions so no one
agrees
- Also those values and beliefs that oppose or
challenge dominant order
- Ideas and ideologies are the foundation of politics
- Political science takes a neutral approach to
ideology
○ Examines how ideologies benefit some and
disadvantage others

Radical ideologies
- Include socialism, communism, fascism, and
capitalism
- Many different kinds of capitalism
- Three main types:
○ Liberal capitalism
○ State capitalism
○ Democratic/social democratic capitalism
- How is capitalism radical?
 - Many different kinds of capitalism
- Three main types:
○ Liberal capitalism
○ State capitalism
○ Democratic/social democratic capitalism
- How is capitalism radical?
- Transform all social relations into capitalist
relationships
○ Supernatural belief that capital will always
produce more of itself (interest rates) Taussig
128
○ Supply and demand results in a natural state
of equilibrium
○ Government is an impediment to
revolutionary transformation (social mobility,
consumerism, inequality as natural)
1. Capitalism
○ Liberal capitalism
§ Emphasis on individualism, private
property, market relations, competition,
limited government
§ Not falsifiable, utopian framing
○ State capitalism
§ State ownership, intervention, political
coordination, political influence,
national interest
§ East Asian economic growth, China,
Russia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab
Emirates, Singapore, Vietnam
○ Democratic/social democratic capitalism
2. Socialism
- Many different kinds of socialism
- All traced to Rousseau's critique of property, the
organic society, what constitutes the greater good
- Three main types
○ Utopian
○ Scientific
○ Democratic/social democracy

- Utopian socialism
○ Robert Owen (1771 - 1858)
○ Public ownership
○ Democratic social institutions
○ Eradication of want
 - Utopian socialism
○ Robert Owen (1771 - 1858)
○ Public ownership
○ Democratic social institutions
○ Eradication of want
○ Examples: communes, agricultural co-ops,
public housing

- Scientific socialism
○ Western ideas of rationality and science
○ Marx and Engels and historical materialism
○ Capitalism (mode of production) creates class
antagonisms between bourgeoisie and
proletariat (means of production)
○ Workers commodified to produce surplus
value for capitalists
§ Labour theory of value
○ Workers will eventually revolt and overthrow
capitalism

- Democratic socialism/social democracy

○ Shares critique of capitalism but calls for
evolutionary rather than revolutionary change
○ Mixed public/private enterprise
○ Robust social welfare programs and policies
○ More grassroots decision-making
○ CCF/NDP in Canada
○ Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders
in the US

3. Communism
- Marx and Engels - communism as final stage of
socialism
○ Social ownership of means of production
○ Classless society (social equality)
○ End of the national state
- Lenin - translate Marxist theory into political action
○ Vanguard (those leading, tip of the spear)
party to lead revolution
○ Dictatorship of the proletariat
- Stalin - socialism in one country
○ Purges, central planning, industrialization, cult
of personality
 ○ Vanguard (those leading, tip of the spear)
party to lead revolution
○ Dictatorship of the proletariat
- Stalin - socialism in one country
○ Purges, central planning, industrialization, cult
of personality
○ Utilizing the state to create the perfect society
- Mao Tse-Tung - revolutionary role of Chinese
peasants
- China today as a communist state? If China is
communist what is Canada? The USA?

Fascism and corporatism

Fascism
- Fascism as a right-wing ideology
○ Corporatism, militarism, authoritarianism
○ Social wholes, national body, cultism
- Adolf Hitler's Nazi party and Italy's nationalist fascist
party
○ Ultranationalist - citizens as a collective,
sacrifice for the nation
○ Belief in "Aryan" or white superiority
○ Charismatic leadership and free enterprise
(but state paramount)
○ Expansionism and militarism
○ Use of "rule of law" to consolidate and
maintain power
- Fascism did not disappear post WW2
○ Spain under Francisco Franco 1939-1975
○ 1994 Rwanda genocide
- Contemporary ultra right-wing parties and
movements in Europe and North America
○ Ultranationalist
○ "white pride"
○ Anti-immigration
○ Anti-Roma attitudes alive and well

Corporatism
- An arrangement of society into organizations that
directly interact with the state
○ Cartels, National Labour Organizations,
Agricultural associations, Lobbying groups,
Corporatism
- An arrangement of society into organizations that
directly interact with the state
○ Cartels, National Labour Organizations,
Agricultural associations, Lobbying groups,
Religious associations
○ Not necessarily to do with corporations

Isms for today

- Clifford Geertz: ideologies arise during social
disruptions, in deeply polarized societies
○ Political contestation
- Anarchism and populism contemporary examples

Anarchism
- Inspired movements on both left and right
- Rejection of hierarchical forms of governance
- Three distinct categories
○ Social/collectivist anarchism
○ Individualist anarchism
○ Historical anarchism

- Social/collectivist anarchism
○ joseph Proudhon - "property is theft"
§ Eradication of the state
§ Creation of worker syndicates
○ Chomsky - public advocate for anarchist
critique
- Micheal Bakunin
○ Anti-authoritarianism, collective, direct action,
internationalism, anti nationalism, anti
Marxism
○ Contemporary examples, Black Bloc, forms of
antifascist movements
- Come contemporary anarchists eschew violence
○ Noam Chomsky - speaking truth to power

- Individualist anarchism
○ Max Stirner - rejection of the legitimacy of
government
○ Liberaltarianism as a contemporary example
 - Individualist anarchism
○ Max Stirner - rejection of the legitimacy of
government
○ Liberaltarianism as a contemporary example
§ Maximization if individual freedom from
government control

- Convergence between libertarianism and extreme

right
- Efforts to create a coherent ideological space
○ Alt-right
○ Twitter acquisition
○ Truth social, Breitbart News, rebel news, info
wars
○ Donald trump, "stop the steal", capital
building insurrection

- Historical anarchism
○ David Graeber. James C Scott
§ Specific historical examination of forms
of anarchy
○ Anarchy - 'cooperation without hierarchy or
state 'rule'
§ Against the notion of scientific, rational
progress
§ State can only play an emancipatory role
in some circumstances
§ Key role in the anti nuclear movement
(shock of victory)

Anarchist squint
- As a theory, not a 'ism'
○ Incomplete picture of the world, series of
premiss
1. Modern nation state responsible for more killing
then could have ever been conceived before it
- Bakunin 'freedom without socialism is privileged and
injustice; socialism without freedom is slavery and
brutality'
2. Utopian scientism is impossible
- Germans tried to plan forests = forest death
- Brazilians try to design cities = ghost towns
 - Bakunin 'freedom without socialism is privileged and
injustice; socialism without freedom is slavery and
brutality'
2. Utopian scientism is impossible
- Germans tried to plan forests = forest death
- Brazilians try to design cities = ghost towns
3. Huge disparities of wealth, status, and property
make a mockery of freedom
- Transplant tourism, slum tourism, anti homeless
architecture
4. Organization did not precipitate protest movements
- Protests movements precipitate organizations,
which tame protest to turn it into institutional
channels
- Structural change occurs for massive, non-
institutionalized disruption in the from of riots, the
tax on property, unruly demonstrations, theft,
arson, and defiance
○ Left-wing organizations are not interested in
this
○ Worker's rights, civil rights, anti-Vietnam,
welfare rights are given when the movements
are most disruptive, most confrontational
least organized and least hierarchical
○ No leaders to negotiate with, no one to bribe
(occupy)

Populism
- Slippery concept - less a particular ideology and
more strategy to gain power
- Tied to both left and right
- Arises during times of economic hardship, citizen
frustration
○ "the people" versus "the elite"
○ CCF, Occupy Wall Street, Brexit
○ Donald Trump and :drain the swamp"
○ Rise of populist leaders around the world
- 5th century BCE - art of theories and persuasion
○ Rhetorical argumentation as skill
○ Moral relativism and subjectivism and role of
charisma
○ Plato viewed them as deceptive and
manipulative
§ Gorgias as an skillful orator, doesn't
 ○ Rhetorical argumentation as skill
○ Moral relativism and subjectivism and role of
charisma
○ Plato viewed them as deceptive and
manipulative
§ Gorgias as an skillful orator, doesn't
want to debate Plato
§ Crass making-of-money by selling their
skills as educators

Dog whistle politics

- Dog whistle: 'speaking in code to a target audience'
○ Civil-rights protesters, members of religious
right, environmentalists, guns rights activists
§ All use dog whistle politics
- Basic moves of dog whistle
1. Thinly veiled references to threats
2. Rejection of the notion of prejudice
3. Attacking the critic for being opportunistic
- Ontario provincial campaign 2007 - islamophobia
- Goldwater campaign in 1964 'states rights' against
integration
- What are some other whistle situations

Populist racism
- George Wallace
○ Famous for treating blacks civilly, moderate
racist, lost campaign for governor for being
too soft on race relations
○ Reinvented himself as racial reactionary,
according the clan and defending
segregation - utilizing the N word was
mobilizing - personally stood to block black
students to get into class 95% support
○ Discover the use of non-racial language, states
rights
○ Beating Nixon early in the primaries, Nixon
reaches deal with Strom Thurmond,
campaigns on 'law and order' against the civil
rights movement
- Populism speaks to specific groups using anti elite
language

Southern strategy
 rights movement
- Populism speaks to specific groups using anti elite
language

Southern strategy
- National strategy
○ Part of 'my culture', working-class sensibility,
pickup trucks, fishing poled, cheap beer,
NASCAR, redneck humor
- Bipartisan strategy
○ Southern democrats establish the language
used by dog whistles
- Class
○ Use of the middle class, versus welfare, versus
taxes, versus intelligentsia, elitism
○ Southern states receive most welfare, most to
whites

Canada populism
- Canada has a history of this
○ Rob Ford as precursor to Trump
§ Racist while being multicultural -
working class solidarity
○ 640 news - wouldn't care if he murdered
someone if he lowered taxes
○ Tea party and occupy both attacking notions
of liberalism as anti-democratic
- Populism as identification with charismatic leaders =
no need for debate

Radical ideologies in a (post) pandemic world

- Covid-19 pandemic has impacted how we:
○ View government
○ Consider the intersections of race, poverty,
gender, and geography
○ Revealed the danger of "fake news" and anti-
science conspiracies
○ Exposed cleavages that unite the world
(collaboration on new vaccines)
○ And create divisions (anti-maskers, COVID
deniers)
- Challenged enormous but show importance of
ideologies and radical ideas in contemporary politics
 (collaboration on new vaccines)
○ And create divisions (anti-maskers, COVID
deniers)
- Challenged enormous but show importance of
ideologies and radical ideas in contemporary politics

Summary
- Radical ideas as a form of social critique on the root
problems of society
- Ideologies can be understood as neutral or negative
concepts
- Ideologies articulate different political goals
- Radical ideologies include socialism, communism,
fascism, anarchism, and populism
- New challenges leads to new ideas and movements
but old ideas still remain