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

by Hanzi Freinacht

I have already mentioned the bizarre notion of one ideology or movement or just a relative direction such as “left” or “right” being “the correct one”. In retrospect, it is quite obvious that the grinding of different ideas and perspectives against one another has been necessary for today’s “correct” opinions to evolve—including the ones that you currently hold to be correct. The dialectic that unfolds through the interactions of different perspectives seems to be an integral and necessary part of each political movement. There can be no Left without a Right. The Left needs the Right, would be impossible without it; it would lose all energy and meaning without this polarity. To see that perspectives and movements co-evolve doesn’t mean that you cannot choose sides. Some people still turn out to be right, and others mistaken. But one group or movement or perspective is never continuously correct in all conceivable ways. The metamodernist can choose sides only from a transpartisan position—you understand that there is always a larger process that goes beyond and through your current ideological, partisan position. There is always something to learn from the other parties, even from your most bitter adversary. And your purposes are often best served by using the interplay of different parties and perspectives, rather than by taking one monolithic path.