The Obsolescence of Political Definitions
3 hours ago
- #postmodernism
- #political-theory
- #cold-war
- Kondylis highlights the ambiguity and obsolescence of political terms like 'conservatism,' 'liberalism,' and 'socialism,' which have lost their original meanings over time.
- The Cold War further distorted political vocabulary, with terms like 'liberalism' and 'conservatism' being used polemically rather than substantively.
- Kondylis argues that modern mass democracy, emerging from bourgeois society, has rendered traditional political classifications irrelevant due to extreme societal atomization and mobility.
- The victory of the West in the Cold War did not signify the triumph of liberalism but rather the decline of ideological frameworks, leading to de-ideologized conflicts focused on material goods.
- Kondylis suggests that the end of the modern era is marked by the dissolution of traditional political vocabularies, as mass democracy shifts focus from ideological battles to economic and organizational survival.