The Listening Society: A Metamodern Guide to Politics, Book One

by Hanzi Freinacht

If you deny the differences of developmental stage, you also fail to recognize something important: that to be in position to critique someone, from their own premises, is to act from a position of superiority—from a position of power. Isn’t the realization of privilege at the core of your beliefs? Did you really believe that you were an underdog barking at the powerful? You have been a highly privileged, well-informed elitist kicking downwards all along. You, my dear pomo, armed with vast amounts of cultural capital and superior perspectives, belong to the highest strata of global society, the upper class of late modernity—so you should better acknowledge your privilege and take some responsibility for including the perspectives of your fellow citizens. The pomos are in positions of power, more so than George W. Bush ever was.