[lbo-talk] alienation

[Eric Beck]

On Wed, Jul 20, 2011 at 12:46 PM, shag carpet bomb <shag at cleandraws.com> wrote:
> That was Habermas's argument about legitimation crises. When crises
> threw the legitimacy of the economy and government into question,
> people responded by seeking to shore up their identities. This led to
> what people called new or identity social movements on one hand, which
> could have progressive elements, but to identity formations and
> movements that sought to find comfort in group identities that were
> conservatizing, culturally and politically.

I don't really like the term legitimation crisis, but this sounds
about right to me. It seems fair to say that crises create openings,
but they don't necessarily determine the form and direction those
openings take.

I was also interested because of how *quickly* the attitudes changed.