/341/ How to Grow a Backbone (II), ft. Russell Jacoby (Patreon)

On whether the individual is becoming weaker.

[Patreon Exclusive]

We continue the interview by asking intellectual historian and critic Russell Jacoby what is behind the apparent flattening of the individual, and whether Western society is no longer creating subjects adequate to democracy. Is Jacoby being overly conservative in mounting a retreat to the 19th century individual?

We discuss consumerism and homogenisation, and the role that 'public opinion' plays – both more fragmented than ever, and yet ever-present.

In the After Party, the Bunga boys discuss three key issues:

• What places beyond academia are there where critical thinking takes place
• Whether there are green shoots of utopian thinking today, as seen in dystopian series
• How does individuality become undermined as we become more individualised

Selected books by Jacoby:

• Social Amnesia: A Critique of Contemporary Psychology (Beacon Press, 1975; Transaction, 1997)
• The Last Intellectuals: American Culture in the Age of Academe (Basic Books, 1987; new edition with new Introduction, Basic Books 2000)
• The End of Utopia: Politics and Culture in the Age of Apathy (Basic Books, 1999)
• Picture Imperfect: Utopian Thought for an Anti-Utopian Age (Columbia University Press, 2005)
• On Diversity: The Eclipse of the Individual in a Global Era (Seven Stories Press, 2020)

Other recent articles and interviews:

• D’une pensée critique sous emprise – Un entretien avec Russell Jacoby, Comptoir
• A Climate of Fear, Russell Jacoby, Harper's
• The Takeover, Russell Jacoby, Tablet