Sustaining the unsustainable: Symbolic politics and the politics of simulation

Abstract

Stirred by the contradiction between the mainstreamed castigation of merely symbolic eco-politics and the firm resolve of advanced consumer democracies to defend the core principles of democratic consumer capitalism, this contribution undertakes a meta-critique of the paradigm of symbolic politics. A tentative typology of different varieties of symbolic politics maps the terrain for a detailed analysis of symbolic politics in the popular understanding. A comprehensive cultural shift conceptualised as the post-ecologist turn is held responsible not only for a fundamental transformation of the ways in which late-modern societies frame and process their environmental problems, but also for the exhaustion of authentic eco-politics which, by implication, renders the critique of merely symbolic politics questionable. The concept of simulative politics is suggested as a more appropriate conceptualisation of late-modern eco-politics. Practices of simulative politics are presented as a key strategy which help late-modern societies to sustain what is known to be unsustainable.

Notes

1. Throughout this contribution I am using the terms late-modern society and late-modern condition in a very specific sense, namely to capture the categorical difference between traditional modernity which was centred on the idea of the autonomous subject and geared towards its emancipation and a new phase of modernity that has overcome the dualism of the subject and the system and is centred on abstract notions of efficiency (for a detailed discussion see Blühdorn, 2007a).

2. Translation of German Language Sources here and below by the author.

3. Note the double meaning of performance which can denote both hollow entertaining façadism and substantive measurable output. I have discussed the late-modern relationship between the two and the ‘performance of performance’ in some detail elsewhere (Blühdorn, 2005: 38–41, 2007a).

4. This contribution ought to be seen as a further addition to the body of work on the politics of simulation that I have done over recent years (see Blühdorn, 2002; 2003; 2004b; 2005; 2006; 2007a, b, c).

5. In this context see Susan Baker's analysis (this volume) of the European Union's commitment to the goals of sustainability as an integral part of the union's strategy of identity construction.

6. See Jens Newig's discussion (this volume) of German environmental legislation as an example of BI-type symbolic politics.

7. Nullmeier's own analysis reaches well beyond these simplistic views.

8. Note that reconciliation with nature and the protection of its integrity is an integral part of this project of modernity (Blühdorn, 2000). In line with the post-Marxist tradition of Critical Theory, the new social movements (or at least their intellectuals) have always seen the realisation of the authentic Self and the liberation of nature as two sides of the same coin.

9. Compare the concept of authentic art which in his Aesthetic Theory Adorno presents as the present anticipation of the reconciled and liberated condition. On authenticity as a political problem see Noetzel (1999). For a good example of the popular discussion of ‘authenticity’, the critical rejection of ‘brands, fakes and spin’ and ‘the lust for real life’ see Boyle (2004).

10. This volume collates German translations of selected chapters from Edelman's The Symbolic Uses of Politics (1964) and Politics as Symbolic Action, Mass Arousal and Quiescence (1971). It was first published in 1976 (prefaced by Claus Offe); a second edition with a preface by Murray Edelman was released in 1990. The third edition of 2005 contains an epilogue by Frank Nullmeier.

11. At the time Edelman did not anticipate the waves of radical action and autre-mondialisme which were to emerge a few years later, yet these movements, arguably, did very little to alter the fact that today radical alternatives to the established system are more difficult to imagine and less in demand than at any time since the launch of the critical project (for a more detailed discussion see Blühdorn, 2006/2007c; for a contrasting assessment see Ian Welsh, this volume).

12. In this context, ecologist thinking is understood as a comprehensive political ideology as defined in Andrew Dobson's classic Green Political Thought (1990).

13. This also applies to the waves of radical action since the 1990s which many observers have celebrated with overwhelming neo-democratic optimism. Protests from the by now legendary Battle of Seattle to the campaign against the Iraq War remained one-off eruptions which did little to revive democratic cultures or inspire the imagination of socio-economic alternatives. For a contrasting assessment see Ian Welsh's contribution in this volume.

14. Bjørn Lomborg's best-selling The Skeptical Environmentalist (2001) is an exemplary articulation of the post-ecologist Zeitgeist. The enormous success of the book may be explained by Lomborg's intuitive sensitivity to the cultural shifts outlined above. Lomborg supplied a narrative that responded to an implicit public demand.

15. Compare Ian Welsh's analysis of the ‘defence of civilisation’ in this volume.

16. This is not meant to be an exhaustive description of post-ecologism. It ought to be read in conjunction with, or within the framework of, my earlier, more theoretical, characterisation of post-ecologism as a post-natural, post-subjective, post-moral and post-problematic politics without identity (Blühdorn, 2000: 151–9).

17. Symbolic politics is here understood in the sense of the BII types specified in Figure 1.

18. The belief that techno-managerial innovation equals economic growth, social development and environmental improvement.

19. It is no coincidence that the regeneration of what is tellingly referred to as social capital has become a prime concern of late-modern societies. Equally striking is the level of attention that is devoted to the reinvention and cultivation of regional identities which are a vital resource for whole industries. A further indicator for the seriousness of the crisis is that businesses have never been more anxious to emphasise that they are serving the community, that they are investing in people and that everything hinges on the customer's autonomous choice.

20. See for example my analyses of simulative democracy (Blühdorn, 2007b) and simulative radical action (Blühdorn, 2007c).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ingolfur Blühdorn

I would like to thank Ian Welsh, Joe Szarka and an anonymous reviewer of Environmental Politics for their valuable comments on an earlier draft of this contribution