The Postmodern Left

Niall Lucy; Steve Mickler

doi:10.5130/csr.v15i1.2062

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5130/csr.v15i1.2062

Keywords:

postmodernity, Australian politics, the left

Niall Lucy

Curtin University of Technology

Steve Mickler

Curtin University of Technology

Abstract

A certain version of the political left is at one with conservatives in misrepresenting ‘postmodernism’ in order to denounce it. For this ‘left’, which recoils from the left’s historically indivisible association with Marx, the purpose of politics is simply to win government for itself. Our argument here is that, ironically, such a purpose mirrors the very lack of purpose that conservatives define ‘postmodernism’ to represent. Hence the recent call by Clive Hamilton for the left to turn to the churches for moral guidance, in the absence of any meaningful political convictions.

Issue

Vol 15 No 1 (2009): Homefronts

Section

Provocations (Peer Reviewed)

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Author Biographies

Niall Lucy, Curtin University of Technology

Niall Lucy is a Research Fellow in the Humanities at Curtin University of Technology and a member of the consultancy board of Derrida Today. His books include A Derrida Dictionary, Beyond Semiotics: Text, Culture and Technology and (with Steve Mickler) The War on Democracy: Conservative Opinion in the Australian Press.

Steve Mickler, Curtin University of Technology

Steve Mickler is Head of the School of Media, Culture & Creative Arts at Curtin University of Technology and author of Gambling on the First Race: Racism and Talk-Back Radio, The Myth of Privilege: Aboriginal Status, Media Visions, Public Ideas and (with Niall Lucy) The War on Democracy: Conservative Opinion in the Australian Press.

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Niall Lucy, Curtin University of Technology

Steve Mickler, Curtin University of Technology