The Fight Against Apathy: Caring for Politics in a Disenchanted World

As the Overton window shifts increasingly to the right across the West and many democracies edge closer towards the spectre of fascism, the question remains, how did we get here? Progression and hope have given way to disenchantment and nihilism and the only solution appears to be regression, nostalgia and spectacularised politics that as Nietzsche claimed, devalues values themselves. I propose a way of thinking through nihilism and disenchantment with politics, that continues to threaten our democracies though the thought and work of critical theorists that faced a similar challenge. With Hannah Arendt’s notion that to change the world we must first ‘love’ the world, this research will explore how we re-engage with politics and infuse a Blochian hope back into the idea of the future. Using Hannah Arendt’s works alongside that of Nietzsche and contemporary theorist, Wendy Brown, this research will ask what we can learn from these theorists that write at various moments of disenchantment and loss and how we can reimagine politics at a time where it is most vital. In reading these theorists alongside one another, I may conclude with how critical thought and pedagogy through Arendt’s concept of Amor Mundi compared with Wendy Brown’s defence of academia in fostering radical ideas and political imagination, may combat the nihilistic apathy felt towards politics today.