Today, Monday 14th November 2011, J’accuse : The New Republic is born . We’re officially dropping the “la verité si je mens” (the truth if I lie) slogan and kicking off the new season by declaring the Age of the New Republic open*.
This is the age of crisis after crisis, the era of the 99% vs the 1%. It is the age of the bouncing of the cheques issued by the marketing-inspired politics of taste and of the de-crystallization of the post-1989 ideologies.
This is the age of the redefinition of populist calls and the age of the clueless enfranchised cohabiting with the hapless disenfranchised.It is the age of the whiplash effects of consumerism, of the final, desperate calls for environmental propriety and of the unmasking of the financial string-pullers and profiteers. It is the age of relativist unhappiness, of consumer anxiety and of moral vacuum after moral vacuum.
Natural disasters, check. Financial turmoil, check. Spread of debt, check. Missing political compass, check. Dearth of leaders, check. It’s all set.
This is the age of crisis. We live in interesting times. However, there is a sense of inevitability in the idea that from this chaos, from this crisis and moment of questioning will arise a new age. We might be questioning the very functionality of our society’s basic functions and organisation. There might be an institutional crisis further aggravated by a political crisis and a lack of faith in those who have claimed to lead until now. There may be more questions and answers at this point in time and a sense of doom and darkness that might lead us to lose all sense of proportion.
Yes, there may be all that and more but there is also the inevitable idea that the chaotic waters following this intellectual, social and economic big bang will be pregnant with new ideas and provide us with a newly born order. The seeds of the New Republic(s) are being sown today.
As a first step, J’accuse will be proposing a series of posts under the new rubrique (NRD – New Republic Dictionary) in which we will be looking at salient concepts and issues that are at the forefront of national and international news at the dawning of this new age. The Dictionary for a New Republic starts here.
P.S. It’s nice to be back – and thank you for all your good wishes.
*You might have noticed the new addition to the J’accuse logo.
