"Relationships are characterized by an interior infinity which opens the life one shares to agency and creativity of a homely sort. They are the opposite of what one nineteenth-century writer called " the despair of finitude," in which we cannot see each other beyond the grid of roles, advantages, and subjections that try to keep everything in their place, all lockstep."
"The despair of finitude characterizes much writing on politics now, under the guise of one of many cynicisms or in stratagems of "us against them." But being in touch with each other appears within ordinary life to provide a dignity to what we know is ordinary between us and so is other than, a break from, the world of objects and subjections, which is, in any case, not a democratic one, not really."
Relationships contain an interior infinity that opens shared life to agency and modest creativity. They oppose a despair of finitude that reduces people to roles, advantages, and subjections. Relationships dignify ordinary mutual life and reveal the falsity of objectifying machinations and impersonal power. From relationships, there is no singular public opinion: there are conflicted, imperfect people who often avoid or benefit from conflict. Democracy depends on sharing life, working through conflicts, and developing collective action that exceeds mere opinion. Abstraction and impersonalization validate shouting and antagonism; relational engagement counters cynicism and fosters durable democratic practice.
Read at Apaonline
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]