Firewalls

There is merit in the proposition that ressentiment is not necessarily something to be overcome. As a feeling that grows in the face of social inequality, ressentiment can provide scope for positive social transformation. However, contemporary political developments complicate this optimistic assessment. We confront a historical moment in which ressentiment and progressive social change operate in tension rather than alignment. The ressentiment of economically and socially marginalized populations—those rendered “surplus” by neoliberal restructuring—increasingly fuels reactionary rather than emancipatory political formations. The resurgence of nativism as a legitimate response to contemporary problems in various countries is just one register of contemporary ressentiment, instantiated also in political discourses of progressive patriotism and left nationalism.