Again, apologies for reading this almost a year later. Another excellent essay, the best critique I"ve seen of Occupy, selecting the high points of Winant's assessment of it. I would add this: Early on, Winant highlights Michael Denning and quotes him: “The most significant consequence of Occupy, Denning predicted, would not be direct political victories, but rather the experience itself, the individual lessons it taught and the ways that it became embedded in the life histories of those who went through it. As in all intense social movement cycles, participants would find themselves doing things they would not have anticipated.... They would change not the state but themselves, and then carry that change with them elsewhere." Denning's view, and Winant's is politics as personal therapy. It has its roots in late sixties radicalism, particularly feminists who raised the slogan, the personal is the political. A consequence is that if radicals don’t feel better about themselves then what’s the point? (as I surely did at the time; then had to face the consequences in the mid-seventies…) Thus it was middle class malaise, what some left dissidents consider a spiritual emptiness in their lives, which motivated much radical activity. This would eventually defeat critique, including the left critiquing itself. For to critique your commitments, including your past attachments, you probably won't be feeling too good about yourself...
Again, apologies for reading this almost a year later. Another excellent essay, the best critique I"ve seen of Occupy, selecting the high points of Winant's assessment of it. I would add this: Early on, Winant highlights Michael Denning and quotes him: “The most significant consequence of Occupy, Denning predicted, would not be direct political victories, but rather the experience itself, the individual lessons it taught and the ways that it became embedded in the life histories of those who went through it. As in all intense social movement cycles, participants would find themselves doing things they would not have anticipated.... They would change not the state but themselves, and then carry that change with them elsewhere." Denning's view, and Winant's is politics as personal therapy. It has its roots in late sixties radicalism, particularly feminists who raised the slogan, the personal is the political. A consequence is that if radicals don’t feel better about themselves then what’s the point? (as I surely did at the time; then had to face the consequences in the mid-seventies…) Thus it was middle class malaise, what some left dissidents consider a spiritual emptiness in their lives, which motivated much radical activity. This would eventually defeat critique, including the left critiquing itself. For to critique your commitments, including your past attachments, you probably won't be feeling too good about yourself...