Disconsolate Dreamers: On Pessimism and Utopia

Pessimism is compatible with a radical utopian goal of collective escape from the misery of modern existence. It encourages a disentanglement from the world and offers a glimpse at the utopian impossible.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 80 pages
Publication date: 30 June 2023
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing

The world is becoming more skeptical of happy endings, with resistance or alternatives of hope seeming ill-fated as we resign to a slow and painful descent further into capitalism. However, from a critical position that does not shy away from the scale of the horror facing us, we can begin to rethink utopianism and plot new and speculative pathways for collective escape.

Quiet acts of naysaying to the world, nihilistic or self-destructive events, or wider-ranging renegotiations of what is acceptable and possible at the limits of reason revive the possibility for radical change. Pessimism calls for a disentanglement from the world and offers a glimpse at the utopian impossible.

Against the pernicious machinations of modern-day capitalism and a perverse optimism that sustains it, Disconsolate Dreamers explores the extent to which pessimism is compatible with a radical utopian goal, namely, a collective escape from the misery of modern existence. It shows that in a thoroughly hopeless world devoid of rational alternatives, it is time for the Left to consider the pessimist a helpful guide out of the somnolence of capitalist realism, revealing how pessimism necessitates a radical revision of utopian alterity.

In conclusion, the world is becoming more skeptical of happy endings, but from a critical position, we can begin to rethink utopianism and plot new and speculative pathways for collective escape. Pessimism revives the possibility for radical change through quiet acts of naysaying, nihilistic or self-destructive events, or wider-ranging renegotiations of what is acceptable and possible at the limits of reason. Disconsolate Dreamers explores the extent to which pessimism is compatible with a radical utopian goal, namely, a collective escape from the misery of modern existence. It shows that in a thoroughly hopeless world devoid of rational alternatives, it is time for the Left to consider the pessimist a helpful guide out of the somnolence of capitalist realism, revealing how pessimism necessitates a radical revision of utopian alterity.

Weight: 88g
Dimension: 140 x 217 x 10 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781803413266