Idiotic Politics

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The essay analyses, from the writings of Marx and, more particularly, from some contemporary thinkers, the assumptions behind the pejorative assessment of bourgeois Western society as alienated and privatized (idiotic) and in more detail, the remedial prescriptions of community and participation (polity). The assessments assume capitalism as the culprit and regard politics as ubiquitous. The key assumption in the prescriptions is that man is a communal being. Two questions are asked of this assumption. The first examines the accommodation of the individual within his community and demonstrates the distinctive sense of sociality implied. The second question examines the rationale of industrial democracy and points up a connection with a conception of real interests. The cogency of the assumptions and the critique depend on the evaluations of the evidence but what that will demonstrate is itself problematic.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: