Hyperpolitics

the Guardian · theguardian.com ↗Meet the man whose groundbreaking book is being devoured by the leftAnton Jäger has been lauded for his exceptional ability to make sense of these strange political times – and he’s only 32. The writer and academic explains why we’re living in an age of hyperpolitics

I’m a huge fan of Anton Jäger, and I’ve been reading his writing for a long time. I’m yet to read Hyperpolitics, but I’ve heard several podcasts in which Jäger has spoken about the concept. The concept offers a useful lens to make sense of the contemporary political landscape and its interactions with the civil society:

Hyperpolitics is what came next: intense politicisation, with neither institutional roots nor ambitions. “On the surface,” Jäger writes, “the Black Lives Matter protests would seem to have little in common with the mob that stormed the Capitol in January 2021. Morally, they are worlds apart … Organisationally, however, these movements exhibit a striking set of similarities: fleeting in duration, they maintain no membership rolls and struggle to impose any real discipline on their adherents.” As a consequence, everything explodes and nothing changes; movements surge suddenly forward and yet no territory is taken. He quotes political theorist Paolo Gerbaudo’s contemporary interpretation of the evocative phrase “bodies without organs”. Modern political movements, he writes, are “concentrated and muscular, yet without an internal metabolism”.