Generalizations on Identity Politics in the Present

Even amidst social constructionist accounts of identity, a kind of logic of embodiment has come to be habitually subscribed and institutionally embedded, and plays in complex ways in discussions of political and economic crises. This has to do with the assumption that persons who putatively belong to a particular identity-defined collective can speak authentically on behalf of that collective, thereby em-bodying and representing that collective (a black spokesperson for all black persons, a woman ideologue for all women, a professing Muslim for all Muslims, and so on).

The insertion of such a logic of embodiment within social constructionist accounts of identity, as if obviously concomitant to its rationale, could surreptitiously undermine political commitments arising from the latter. It presents a fissure or contradiction.

The main political tendency of an essentialist (as opposed to social constructionist) account of a specific identity is towards a form of fascism -- i.e. aspiration towards a social order and political formation wherein only a particular biogenetically defined collective or collective defined by unquestionable "inner" conviction/faith is recognised, and such a collective is regarded as a priori superior to (naturally dominant over) others. The dangers of such fascism now scarcely need enumeration.

Paradoxically, the absolute enemies and best friends of such fascist alignments are other fascist alignments. So, for example, at present the absolute enemy of European neonazi/ anti-immigrant nationalist/ fundamentalist Christian alignments are fundamentalist Islamists and vice versa. The fascism of the one side is defined in opposition to that of the other, and both sides claim legitimacy by polarizing itself against the other. In conditions of strong and mutually-enhanced polarization, both sides could draw in those in their sphere of action who feel disaffected for various reasons – and thus set up a process of fascicization or generate a fascistic environment. There has been some evidence of this again following the 2015 terrorist attack on the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris.

Socialist and liberal formations are intellectually likely to be aligned with social contructionist accounts of identity, given the focus on social relations in materialist terms (such as, class interests) in the former and on precedent individuality (the inviolability or regulation of individual interests) as a first principle in the latter. However, the logic of embodiment amidst social constructionist accounts of identity offers a fissure in both liberal and socialist formations. It is possible that in a fascistic environment there may be some drift of sympathies from socialist and liberal formations towards the fascist, slipping through such cracks as the logic of embodiment.

The dangers of fascist politics are particularly strong when a majority fascist formation appears in a given context. This is as much the case amidst formally majoritarian democratic arrangements as amidst others. Under these circumstances, liberal and socialist alignments might feel that minority fascist formations should be supported to counter majority fascism -- "strategic essentialism" is the intellectual justification usually offered in these circumstances. However, such "strategic essentialism" could well gather a self-sustaining momentum by exploiting existing subscriptions to the logic of embodiment. Minority fascisms may simply contribute to the fascicization of the environment, by a replication of mutually sustaining and polarizing fascisms.

The real enemy of and counter to all fascist alignments are not other fascist alignments (though fascist alignments enhance themselves through their enmity with each other, by their propaganda of the threat of the other), but clear-headed socialist and liberal alignments. It is not surprising that the target of Anders Breivik's 2011 terrorism was explicitly the liberal establishment in Norway, though his fascism was expressed in virulently Islamophobic terms.

Suman Gupta, January 2015