Empörungsgemeinschaften: A Permanent Error?

Beginning with Goldschmidt’s remarks on outrage in the seventh chapter of Contradiction Set Free, the author examines the function of outrage in social movements in a sort of dialogue with Goldschmidt’s work. While in our time common outrage against this or that bad “other” establishes only the smallest bond of “communities of outrage,” marking by the same token a relapse from civilized into scapegoating societies, Goldschmidt seems to view outrage as an appropriate emotional answer to “that which is outraging in the world.” Given the difference between anarchism’s outrage against injustice and fascism’s anger about the loss of unjust privileges, Goldschmidt’s concept of “tidying up” when it comes to dealing with contradictions points to the remaining line between good and evil: the ability of and the readiness for self-limitation in the face of the other, be it God, another human being, or even nature itself.