Axel Honneth: "We are experiencing a revolt of the oppressed against the forms of social progress."

GironaTen years ago Carles Capdevila interviewed The German philosopher and sociologist Axel Honneth (Essen, 1949) in his series for ARA Domingo on the world to come. A disciple of Habermas, Honneth then directed the Frankfurt School and placed the three emergencies of the moment in uncontrolled capitalism, globalization, and religiously linked revolts against the West. A decade later, in a world with new emergencies, Honneth visited Girona for the first time this week. invited by the Ferrater Mora Chair of Contemporary Thought, where he gave four lectures in the lecture hall of the UdG under the title Escaping Oppression: Different Variations of Social ResistanceHe currently lives between Frankfurt, where he is a professor of social philosophy at Goethe University, and New York, where he has also taught in the Philosophy Department at Columbia University since 2011.

What are the three major emergencies facing the world today?

— It's a difficult question. There are many things to summarize. I'm somewhat surprised that ten years ago you didn't mention the ecological crisis. I think it's one of the most growing problems we face in the political world, because it makes it very difficult to respond appropriately and can lead to disaster. The second would be the outbreak of so many wars like the one in Ukraine or the terrible developments in Israel and Gaza. But what has really changed is the shift from a cultural war between the Islamic world and the West to the emergence of an enemy within the Western bloc.

Trump and the far right.

— The populist far right, far-right fascism. This is the greatest threat to the stability of Western democracies. And it has increased especially since Trump regained power in the United States, because my feeling is that he supports all the European far-right movements. It's a totally new situation.

Despite the critical situation, you already said at the end of the interview that it was necessary to be optimistic. Is that still the case?

— Unlike other intellectuals, I believe that part of the task of emancipation theory is to seek solutions and develop a certain optimism regarding possible tools for escaping a very difficult situation. Even if you are psychologically pessimistic on an individual level. I think that, as an intellectual and theorist, you should develop some fantasies about emancipation. But I must confess that it is much more difficult now than it was ten years ago. For the first time in my political life, I see no signs of social progress.

Does it have a lot to do with your generation?

— I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s. And what we learned as young people was that there was progress. The establishment of the European Union, capitalism under some control. We made progress in social policies. Dictatorships like those in Spain, Portugal, and Greece ended. We're now living in a time, and I think it's the first time in my life, where I don't see any major signs of progress.

In the public talk at the University of Girona, he discusses postcolonialism. What message does Trump send with the tariffs?

— His message is very difficult to understand, because if you look at capitalism over the last four decades, it went hand in hand with the power of globalization. Globalization has had many negative effects, but now, suddenly, the country that represents the most neoliberal capitalism is showing signs of putting an end to globalization.

It's shocking.

— But what is really a surprise is this war against what we could call modernization. The war against what describes woke: the fight against social justice. We have always viewed the fight against discrimination against cultural and sexual minorities as a process of emancipation. We must create legal instruments to overcome these forms of discrimination.

How do you explain the lack of resistance from the US and also from the EU?

— Working conditions have worsened, they're more precarious. The same is happening with the housing market; it has exploded without resistance. I think there's a growing sense of despair, of the impossibility of change, that conditions are the way they are because of opaque powers beyond our control. This feeling has grown hand in hand with the enormous power of internet monopolies. That someone like Elon Musk has his power is an incredible testament to our times. We should be ashamed. Monopolies should be controlled, and now, because of neoliberalism and the deregulation of markets, they have even more power than states.

Does this explain the desperation?

— If not even my state can control those powers, how can I gain control over them? I think what explains the support for far-right movements is this feeling of helplessness. None of today's traditional parties, neither the social democrats nor the conservatives, can do anything about it. Only a radical party, the far right, can help us.

So the only way to escape oppression is the far right?

— Right now, it's clear that the resistance is identified with far-right populism. The revolt against the establishment, the revolt against existing governments, the revolt against what we consider progress and progressive policies. Because progressive policies seem to be economic and cultural globalization. So, yes, it's a revolt of the oppressed, in a way, against forms of progress, social progress. It's a revolt of traditional ways of life: a revolt of cultural values like masculinity, white supremacy, industrial labor, and support for minorities. We are experiencing a great uprising that finds its best expression in far-right parties.

Are freedoms being given up?

— Perhaps one of the best ways to describe it is to use the term of Erich Fromm, an early member of the Frankfurt School, who wrote the book The fear of freedomPeople fear freedom, the new freedoms we've tried to establish, freedoms for minorities, new behaviors, and new ways of life. This helps explain the far-right movement.

If we were to meet in ten years, what do you think would be the biggest challenges?

— I don't have visionary powers, but I am hopeful for a strong resurgence of socialist or social democratic politics that will allay the fears and anxieties that poor people have now, that will strengthen belief in the future, and that will be capable of recreating some kind of progress in our world. That will strengthen Europe and make it an example of a post-nationalist democratic community. That is my hope.