D. Ost, The defeat of solidarity, anger and politics in postcommunist Europe

Leonidas Donskis

pp. 251-253

in: Studies in East European Thought 59 (3), 2007.

Abstract

Anger, bitterness, and frustration are inseparable from politics. In many ways, they are political feelings par excellence. They may lurk behind social and cultural criticism serving as a necessary impetus for the entire critical enterprise. At the same time, anger is capable of shaping or reshaping social and political reality. Ultimately, it makes social reality, as far as various subversive or revolutionary activities are concerned. A successful mobilization of anger may come as a promise of hope for the future, and even may result in radical sociopolitical and sociocultural change. Yet the long process of transformation that follows anger and enthusiasm unavoidably reveals another face of anger, one that exposes itself in total disappointment and political apathy or, worse, in self-contempt and hatred. Anger anticipates and signifies the arrival of the new epoch and even of the new world order manifesting itself as a politics of universal human fellowship, openness, and...