Arkan

“Following the horrors of 9/11, Fukuyama and his ideas were derided as triumphalist nonsense. But he was only half wrong. Fukuyama, a Hegelian, argued that Western democracy had run out of “contradictions”: that is, of ideological alternatives. That was true in 1989 and remains true today. Fukuyama’s mistake was to infer that the absence of contradictions meant the end of history. There was another possibility he failed to consider. History could well be driven by negation rather than contradiction. It could ride on the nihilistic rejection of the established order, regardless of alternatives or consequences. That would not be without precedent. The Roman Empire wasn’t overthrown by something called “feudalism”—it collapsed of its own dead weight, to the astonishment of friend and foe alike. The centuries after the calamity lacked ideological form. Similarly, a history built on negation would be formless and nameless: a shadowy moment, however long, between one true age and another.”
― Martin Gurri, The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium

“Contrary to what a narrowly positivist conception of human sciences would like, these are not only about the real world, but also about two other dimensions, just as important: the imaginary dimension, which governs representations and fictions; and the symbolic dimension, which governs meanings and interpretations, more or less conscious. These three dimensions of reality — the reality of lived situations, the imagination as conveyed by discursive or iconic forms, the symbolism of productions of meaning — cannot be reduced to each other, because they possess their own necessity and coherence.”
― Nathalie Heinich, Wat onze identiteit niet is

“I noticed that religion gave some people a way to escape dealing with the world: “Things will be better when you die,” the people of my grandma’s generation said as they worked themselves to death. “God wants you to forgive and love those who do you wrong,” some people said to shake off the shame of being unable to respond to the abuse they endured. The holier-than-thou faction found comfort in believing, “The rest of y’all are lost because you don’t have a personal relationship with God—our God.”

But art engages you in the world, not just the world around you but the big world, and not just the big world of Tokyo and Sydney and Johannesburg, but the bigger world of ideas and concepts and feelings of history and humanity.”
― Wynton Marsalis, Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life

“National identity is, of course, historically constructed; but it is nevertheless symbolized by a flag and an anthem, materialized by administrative acts and by material boundaries, the object of emotional projections that make people speak, make them act and even, sometimes, fight.”
― Nathalie Heinich, Wat onze identiteit niet is