Read on Twitter
The American Cultural Revolution is going to put to the test an interesting hypothesis advanced by @epkaufm in his excellent 2019 book "Whiteshift" (for my review, see below). 1/x https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/11/the-future-is-mixed
Kaufmann says near the end of the book that, due to America's multiracial multiethnic future (& present!), "The American nation can't celebrate the divisive American past ... There must be a separation of the majority from the nation-state." This is happening now. 2/x
This is an argument for a purely "civic" nationalism completely separated from any latent form of ethnic identity. As Kaufmann says, "a thin, culturally neutral and future-oriented national identity" born from "Scrubbing the white ethnic stamp from national identities". 3/x
This could be a 'positive' interpretation of the statue & renaming wars: culturally divisive historical (white) figures are erased from the national memoryscape to make way for a more inclusive but necessarily 'thinner' (less resonant, less moving) national memoryscape. 4/x
Kaufmann paints an interesting picture of this model of national identity: "a kind of Toronto-writ-large: a dynamic, low-cohesion, future-oriented society with an attenuated connection to its ... past." As long as social cleavages are cross-cutting, he thinks this works. 5/x
But unlike academia's simplistic cheerleaders for civic nationalism, Kaufmann recognizes this as thin gruel. Perhaps we can preserve current institutions/policies. But can we create new ones in a "low-cohesion" (I would add "low trust") society? I have my doubts. 6/x
Kaufmann's answer is "multivocalism," a form of identity that "is everywhere and nowhere, with everyone ... belonging to [the nation] in their own way." This is too fanciful, too Rawlsian for my intellectual taste. But Kaufmann doesn't leave it there. Here we go ... 7/x
"The de-centering of the ethnic majority and its separation from the nation-state" is balanced by allowing white Americans to celebrate their ethnic identity & history as a sectarian matter. Like the Lenin statue in Seattle, Stone Mountain can survive as private property? 8/x
But Kaufmann doesn't quite adhere to multivocalism. His key hypothesis is this: "the majority is likely to serve as a key source of civic glue. ... national cohesion is often a byproduct of confident ethnic majorities, who often feel an automatic connection to the state." 9/x
This exact claim is being tested now in America. Will the white majority support an America purged of Jackson, Lee, Wilson, Jefferson, Washington, Grant, Columbus, Roosevelt, Serra, etc.? Will it feel 'connected' when its history is not only de-centered but demonized? 10/x
The premise of Kaufmann's hypothesis is a "confident" ethnic majority. But America's ethnic majority is not confident. Most of it is self-doubting. Some is even self-loathing. Recall that white America's signal cultural contribution of the moment is Robin DiAngelo. 11/x
In a recent piece, @epkaufm urges on us "a new cultural nationalism". But what is the content of "the country’s customs and traditions" that are to be preserved as a touchstone for unity? 12/x https://quillette.com/2020/06/22/toward-a-new-cultural-nationalism/
Folkways (food, literature, leisure activities, manners) in America are mostly local, regional, and ethnic. The "culture" of America that is both separated from the divisive past & truly national is mostly mass entertainment and mass consumption. 13/x
Can online shopping, the NFL & Keeping Up with the Kardashians really keep us together? 14/14
