The Twentieth-Century Politics of Contempt

Abstract

‘Virtue’ vs. ‘crime’, ‘progress’ vs. ‘reaction’, ‘rational’ vs. ‘irrational’, are only some of the linguistic indicators of the contemporary radicalism that prevails in political discourse. Radicalism, also referred to as Jacobinic hyperbolism, consists in a specific mode of thought and language that neutralises political conflict by disqualifying the opponent’s conduct and opinions, ‘blackening’ (in Latin denigrare, ‘to denigrate’) the antagonist to the point where he or she is no longer recognised as a peer. In what may also be described as a hyper-moralisation of political discourse and action political confrontation dissolves into a Manichean struggle of Good versus Evil.

La passion la plus forte du XXe siècle : la servitude. (Camus, Carnets 1950)