“The left as self-created through the melancholic meme is not only abstracted from the present: even the lost past it clings to is held at a distance. … Though Freud dismissed it as mere rhetorical device, irony often functions as a Freudian defence mechanism. On the melancholic meme pages, it enables the ego of the weakening left to displace its self-loathing onto its past incarnations in a playful fashion, rather than consider its contemporary failures. But now is the time for attack, not defence. An ironic revolution is no revolution at all.”
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Vassilis Lambropoulos
C. P. Cavafy Professor Emeritus of Classical Studies and Comparative Literature
vlambrop@umich.eduFollow Blog via Email
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Parallel blog of further reflections on solidarity and collaborative culture:
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