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Document Details : Title: The Crisis of Anticrisis Author(s): POLT, Richard Journal: Etudes phénoménologiques - Phenomenological Studies Volume: 8 Date: 2024 Pages: 23-39 DOI: 10.2143/EPH.8.0.3292510 Abstract : I discuss the problem of collective identity with reference to thinkers including Arendt, Heidegger, Dewey, and Schutz. In Heideggerian terms, a community attempts, through communication and struggle, to find a shared destiny on the basis of a shared heritage; but the question 'Who are we?' cannot be definitively answered. Democracies are always and essentially in crisis, in that they encourage citizens to participate in contesting collective identity. They institutionalize the question 'Who are we?' The ancient Athenian practice of selection by lot is an example. Today, too many citizens of democracies are longing for an end to crisis, a definitive answer to the question of collective identity; this desire invites demagoguery and dictatorship. This is the crisis of anticrisis. The revival of selection by lot in the deliberative democracy movement is one reason to hope that citizens of democracies can find their way back to the spirit of democracy as permanent crisis. |
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