For my book review I will be analyzing Joshua Mitchell’s book American Awakening: Identity Politics and Other Afflictions of Our Time. There are three major themes to this book that Mitchell believes prevent Americans from the concept of working together toward a common world. Identity politics, bipolarity and addictions are concepts that are plaguing American society. This book addresses a public crisis with identity politics as well as private affairs with the other two ideas. The purpose of this review is to analyze and critique the argument as well as solutions that Mitchell makes throughout this novel.
In part one Mitchell defines identity and then how this transpires in reality. Identity is a relatively modern concept as it was first introduced in the 1990s. Today identity is shaped as one type becomes an offending transgressor while the other is viewed as an innocent victim. The attachments to these identities extend beyond the moment as they are considered permanent, regardless if the individual contributed to transgression. The concept of identity politics can be considered a quasi-religion as the individual stands for the related transgression. Transgressor and innocents are a concept drawn from Chirstianity. Religion has not decreased within America, but has moved into the framework of identity politics.
Identity politics departs from the liberal idea of citizens building a community. Within the liberal framework, individuals do not work in the nature of self-interest, by alongside fellow citizens to build a community. This task seems difficult, as Mitchell believes that we are satisfied with the categories that we have placed ourselves into and the cost of undoing it is too high. Mitchell’s reasoning to move away from identity politics in order to unify seems reasonable. However, a critique of removing self-interest appears to be a fine line. The idea of an individual is not to become a robot of the state. I think that self-interest cannot completely disappear as this is what creates personality.
Another critique that I have of Mitchell’s idea of a liberal citizen is how it needs to be cultivated. In order to reach this point, frequent, real time conversations need to occur, otherwise a false depiction of others will grow during time spent apart. Social media and other forms of telecommunication are large barriers preventing the liberal citizen from emerging. A starting point to cultivate a citizen would be through education. This type of environment could foster the conversations needed that social media cannot replicate. Since social media is largely used as an escape from reality, it would need to be completely restructured to achieve Mitchell’s desired effect. The idea of a broken link is brought up in the section about the bipolarity experienced today.
The concept of bipolarity can be traced back to the transition from the aristocracy into the democratic age. In an aristocratic society each individual serves a role to another individual in order for the government to function, which links everyone together. However, democracy breaks this link. With the newfound freedom, a democratic man believes that he can save Earth and not God. Although, constraining forces of democracy overwhelm, and they renounce freedom altogether. Therefore, it is the combination of feeling so powerful that you do not need others, yet also feeling powerless that we do not turn to others to work together. This dichotomy can be difficult to escape given the issues prevalent in politics today. These issues are approaching with opposing views that each side becomes obsessed with “winning” over fixing it. I think that this obsession translates into Mitchell’s idea of addiction that ailing American society.
Mitchell believes that the cause of addiction occurs when the supplement becomes the substitute. He relates this to plastic water bottles and fast food chains that are plaguing society. These are temporary concepts that we have relied on for too long as they now have a large presence. The idea of supplements can be applied to the federal government as it is expanding, the problems grow worse and the political parties are in opposition to each other. Mitchell calls on the everyday citizens to heal this wound. This seems ironic as in the previous section on bipolarity, he believes that the world continuously falls short, therefore activism is episodic. Thus, causes humans to oscillate between feeling greater than a king or less than man. It seems that Mitchell wants to establish that humans must first rid the bipolarity of feelings to eliminate living on “borrowed time.”
In the conclusion, Mitchell takes on the philosophical framework of Rousseau. Rousseau wanted to have a civilization which resembled one of the state of nature. He believed that the resulting forces of badly designed societies have resulted in humans being selfish. Mitchell stated the combination of technology and industry have disrupted nature. In order to move forward they need to be removed. This is achieved through rejected Western ideas and its privilege. Although this concept is beneficial to improve reason, I think it fails to recognize the limitations it places on society. I believe that to a certain extent technological advancements are helpful. However, I think the rise of social media can contribute to disruptions that Mitchell is referring to. Information is much more accessible compared to the past and can spread unchecked. I disagree that technology and industry have to become obsolete. Removing these concepts would prove rather difficult given the interdependence on technology globally. Thus, they should be reformed in order to add value to human reason.
Throughout Mitchell’s book he argues that liberalism, in its original meaning, would be more beneficial for American society. He argues for liberalism by explaining the ailments of identity politics, bipolarity, and addiction. The examples ailments provided are not new problems that we face today. Rather, the roots of these “diseases” are based in Christianity, and in current times take a new form. In Mitchell’s conclusion, he discusses a solution to achieve the liberal competence. He states that renewing the middle-class republic as our country was established is the starting point. Two other problems that need to be fixed are reframing the wound of slavery, and restructuring America’s foreign policy. Mitchell is hopeful for the future if citizens are able put in the necessary and difficult labor. Within this future that Mitchell envisions would require that Americans unify and put together their differences, which seems difficult with the polarizing nature of politics in recent years. Society would have to abandon this quasi-religion of identity politics.