Mourning and progressive politics after 9/11

Abstract

This article offers a fundamental revision and expansion of the

The insistence on exclusion: The anti‐integrative impulse and thwarted mourning in large groups

“…This requires an acknowledgment of the non-omnipotent contingencies of separate personal conditions, including social difference, and here, of the implications of racism attendant upon that difference. Such acknowledgment requires successful mourning, including social mourning (Moglen, 2005(Moglen, , 2006(Moglen, , 2007 of the loss of the social ideals of equality, freedom, and justice. As Moglen persuasively argues, the damage and destruction done to these libidinally invested ideals must be made conscious and named in order for a different future to be envisioned.…”

“…Both make the case for mourning as central to any social justice pursuit, and thus operate as a foundation for my assertion that anti-integrative backlash reactions are primarily a defense against mourning. Moglen (2005Moglen ( , 2006Moglen ( , 2007 powerfully outlines an argument for the importance of the mourning of social injury through progressive movements. While asserting the centrality of grieving social trauma as a means of sustaining "thwarted hopes and denigrated desires" (2005, p. 152), Moglen critiques theories that propose models of an ameliorative and constructive social melancholia, arguing that melancholia is by definition a self-destructive process that traffics in self-hatred and externalized misanthropy within marginalized communities, subverting political progress.…”

“…I have outlined the steps that take place within successful experiences of empathic identification that lead to the mourning required to undertake social repair and have delineated the ways in which these steps collapse when the anti-integration impulse is in ascendance, discussing common manifestations of backlash reactions in relationship to defenses against mourning. I have examined Moglen's (2005Moglen's ( , 2006Moglen's ( , 2007 revised model of Freudian mourning that outlines social justice as a means of mourning social injury and explored Butler's (2003Butler's ( , 2020 conceptualization of the links between political equality and differential grieveability, noting that in order to actualize social justice goals, we would have to not only mourn those we have previously deemed ungrieveable, but also mourn the very fact that we have regarded some lives as so much less valuable than our own. It is only through such a process of reclaiming lost and damaged love for one another that we may then embark on the integrative processes required for social justice milestones to occur and be protected and grown over time.…”

“…In this paper, I will explore the large group unconscious processes undergirding backlash against initiatives to expand access to rights and privileges enjoyed by a restricted class of people. Specifically, I will discuss moves to maintain social exclusion as a consequence of thwarted mourning, in dialog with Moglen's (2005Moglen's ( , 2006Moglen's ( , 2007 work on mourning social injury and Butler's (2003) foundational paper "Violence, Mourning, Politics. "…”

Film Essay Saying yes to dirt, desire and difference:Yes(2004)

“…Politically, this is a disavowal of the recognition of responsibility for the losses suffered on September 11, 2001. By evading the idea that the dirt is partly ours, by shuffling it over to the other side and white‐washing our side, the American government has denied and deprived its people of the opportunity to mourn the loss of an idealized image of the USA as the embodiment of democracy and freedom (Moglen, 2006). We all leave stains.…”