Acting Potential of Memory of the Left: On Self-Reflection of a Defeat Cover Image

Delatni potencijal sećanja levice: o samorefleksiji poraza
Acting Potential of Memory of the Left: On Self-Reflection of a Defeat

Author(s): Todor Kuljić
Subject(s): Political Philosophy, Government/Political systems, Political behavior, Political psychology, Politics of History/Memory
Published by: Fakultet političkih znanosti u Zagrebu
Keywords: Left Wing; Melancholy; Defeat; Teleology; Self-reflexion;

Summary/Abstract: How could we rethink and organize memories of the Left in an operational and active way? How could one openly confront the Left-Wing culture of defeat? The paper considers some dimensions of the Left-Wing defeat after 1989, the nature of the linear and the contingent time, various defeat experiences of fascism and liberalism and the dialectic of hope and disappointment. One should reject the language of psychoanalysis (longing, nostalgia, sorrow, melancholy) and the teleological vision of the neoliberal winner. The Left Wing and Right Wing should be understood in new dimensions of time within a new relationship between Cairos and Chronos in the digital age. The Left needs self-reflective review of its own mistakes, if it wants to learn lessons for the future. Theory can awake practical ambition. A desirable multilayered Left-Wing memory has been damaged by dominance of one type of memory. The Left needs self-control and a balanced memory of both badly missing socialist welfare state and its own violence.

  • Issue Year: LVII/2020
  • Issue No: 01
  • Page Range: 7-25
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: Serbian