We the Sleepwalkers

Abstract

The conclusion returns to key questions that opened the book, such as what aggrieved masculinity is grieving, and whether this might be addressed without giving in to its grievances. The chapter answers, respectively, (a) the dying myth of self-containment and (b) yes, by finally addressing the fact of our permeability. The New Populist pufferfish must go, which means the circuits of aggrieved masculinity must somehow be interrupted. To do so, the chapter proposes a partner for critical thinking: critical feeling, which adopts a pandemic frame to mitigate the transmission of viral masculinity. Whereas critical thinking confronts communication at the ‘front door’ of awareness, critical feeling confronts communicability through the ‘side doors,’ those peripheral bodily entrances that are both less conscious and less guarded. In this way, it enacts lateral empathy. Critical feeling is the next front of cultural warfare. Neither hard nor soft, it melts their distinction. This is ‘critical’ indeed, a show of respect to our sociophysical world.