Thoughts on oligarchy 4

Identity and class politics in the U.S.

The question of identity in America takes on a different meaning within the conversation about oligarchy. Part of what we have watched in recent years is the mistaking for identities what are in fact better understood as discourses and libraries (for example, any number of -isms and ideologies), using concepts as symbolic volleys in a fruitless fight that plays into the hands of the oligarchic ruling class. It is all totally contained and in vain, in several senses: the symbolic volley takes place within an extremely narrow band of acceptable concepts and thoughts, the boundaries of which are guarded on all sides; recent years have witnessed both teams of the oligarchic ruling class eagerly using surveillance and censorship to steer the public conversation, for example. Rather than mistaking ever-ongoing conversations about ideas for fixed identities, I think we should think of our politics in terms of narratives, conceptual vocabularies, styles and traditions of reasoning and argumentation, and cultural and emotional cues, among other things.