Author: Stephen Duncombe

Publisher: OR Books

Published: 2019-04-04

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 1682191834

Dream or Nightmare is a book of left wing strategy like no other: It proposes that, to compete with the right, progressives cannot depend on reason and hard fact. They must also deploy drama in the battle of ideas. Donald Trump’s presidency has shown how this is done, albeit to ends that are deplorable. Abandoning logic and truth, the Fabulist in Chief conjures up spectacle to energize his base. Troops are dispatched to counter a fictional threat from convoys of helpless refugees. A powerful Supreme Court nominee is reduced to tears by accusations from a woman who has been sexually assaulted. Open fascists are described as “good people,” physical attacks on journalists are lauded in front of cheering crowds. If they are to engage with this Barnum-like politics, leftists must learn how to communicate in today’s “vernacular of the spectacular,” invoking symbol and emotion themselves, as well as truth. Matching the right in this fashion does not mean adopting its values. Rather Duncombe sets out what he calls a politics of “ethical spectacle.” Of extraordinary relevance to the dark carnival of contemporary politics, this new edition of the book formerly known as Dream sets out an electrifying new vision of progressive politics that is both persuasive and provocative. Stephen Duncombe is Professor of Media and Culture at New York University and author and editor of six books on the intersection of culture and politics. Duncombe, a life-long political activist, co-founded a community-based advocacy group in the Lower East Side of Manhattan which won an award for “Creative Activism” from the Abbie Hoffman Foundation, and is currently co-director of the Center for Artistic Activism, a research and training organization that helps activists create more like artists and artists strategize more like activists.