No map, no compass, no dime

Abstract

The very theme “conflicting identities” is yet another sign that in these last moments of the 20th century, advocates of radical politics keep searching for inspiration in the fusion of political and existential concerns known as “identity politics.” This inventive and exhausting search has marked the terrain of left activism and rhetoric for some 30 years now, and increasingly so since the 1980s. It retains the social justice urge of the movements of the 1960s; in so far as it remains connected to those efforts, it reflects the the strategic shift from economic and institutional ground to cultural and existential ground. The initial emergence of what we now call identity politics occurred on two levels: it arose as both a part of the social movements of the 1960s and a challenge to the leadership of those movements on issues of white supremacy, male supremacy, and reformist politics. Its development since the 1960s reflects a pragmatic and yet baffling attempt to retain a radical posture in an increasingly hostile political climate.