Radical Intellectuals and the Subversion of Progressive Politics : The Betrayal of Politics

Radical Intellectuals and the Subversion of Progressive Politics is a challenge to contemporary radical politics and political thought. This collection of essays critiques the dominant trends and figures on the left that have distorted the legacy of progressive politics, arguing that they have moved politics away from issues of class and economic power toward a preoccupation with culture and identity. The contributors discuss this new radicalism from the perspective of a more rational form of leftism capable of reviving interest in a more politically relevant form of politics. "Cover"--"Title"--"Copyright" -- "Contens" -- "Acknowledgments" -- "Introduction" -- "Notes" -- "1. The Postmodern Face of American Exceptionalism" -- "Rorty and Relativism" -- "Postmodern Nationalism" -- "Postmodern Impotence" -- "Notes" -- "2. Postmodernism and the Corruption of the Critical Intelligentsia" -- "Postmodernism and the Neoliberal University" -- "The Postmodern World of the Liberal Arts Student" -- "Judith Butler and the End of Feminism" -- "Post-Structuralism Unbound" -- "Notes" -- "3. Inventing the â#x80;#x9C;Politicalâ#x80;#x9D;: Arendt, Antipolitics, and the Deliberative Turn in Contemporary Political Theory" -- "The Flight from the Real" -- "Truth, Power, and Politics" -- "Deliberation and Its Discontents" -- "Democracy Misdirected" -- "Critical Judgment and Radical Politics" -- "Notes" -- "4. Slavoj ÅưiÅlekâ#x80;#x99;s Linksfaschismus" -- "Introduction" -- "ÅưiÅlek and Linksfaschismus" -- "ÅưiÅlek against Democracy" -- "ÅưiÅlek against the â#x80;#x9C;Stupid Pleasuresâ#x80;#x9D; of the â#x80;#x9C;Last Menâ#x80;#x9D;" -- "ÅưiÅlek for Terror and Dictatorship" -- "Revolution as an Antigonian Act" -- "Revolution as a Schmittian Decision" -- "Revolution in the Future Anterieur" -- "ÅưiÅlek and the Self-Sacrificial as Salvific" -- "The Dearth of Feeling on the Left about ÅưiÅlekâ#x80;#x99;s Linksfaschismus" -- "The ÅưiÅlekian Style" -- "Questions of ÅưiÅlekian Substance" -- "Conclusion: Why Take ÅưiÅlek Seriously?" -- "Notes" -- "5. Illusory Alternatives: Neo-Anarchismâ#x80;#x99;s Disengaged and Reactionary Leftism" -- "The Peculiarities of the New Anarchism" -- "The Law of the Heart" -- "Amour de Soi versus Amour Propre" -- "Anti-Intellectualism in Anarchist Life" -- "Neither Left nor Right" -- "The New Anarchismâ#x80;#x99;s Antipolitics" -- "Triumphalism, Insurrection, and Apolitical Reactionaries" -- "Acknowledgments" -- "Notes." Front Matter....Pages i-vii Introduction....Pages 1-13 The Postmodern Face of American Exceptionalism....Pages 15-32 Postmodernism and the Corruption of the Critical Intelligentsia....Pages 33-68 Inventing the “Political”: Arendt, Antipolitics, and the Deliberative Turn in Contemporary Political Theory....Pages 69-97 Slavoj Žižek’s Linksfaschismus....Pages 99-120 Illusory Alternatives: Neo-Anarchism’s Disengaged and Reactionary Leftism....Pages 121-147 Skimming the Surface: Stanley Fish and the Politics of Self-Promotion....Pages 149-162 Being Postmodern While Late Modernity Burned: On the Apolitical Nature of Contemporary Self-Defined “Radical” Political Theory....Pages 163-190 Habermas, Critical Theory, and Political Economy....Pages 191-210 The Spectacle Looks Back into You: The Situationists and the Aporias of the Left....Pages 211-236 The Power and the Void: Radical Democracy, Post-Marxism, and the Machiavellian Moment....Pages 237-254 In Defense of Universalism....Pages 255-274 Back Matter....Pages 275-281 A collection of essays calling into question the ideas of the new radicalism in contemporary political theory