On the Persistence of Left Hegelianism

Left Hegelianism has survived healthily into the present because the maintenance of the status quo demands a forum for deflecting oppositional forces.

Contemporary society has produced a seemingly infinite variety of bad objects that are worrisome in their flatness: objects that are bizarre without being exotic (homeopathy, for instance), that are wrong without being debatable (anti-vaccination), that are depressing without being redemptive (opioid addiction). The truly negative moment points beyond i…