After the announcement of President-Elect, much of the crowds were calling for unity. To bring an end to the fragmentations and divides within America. Much of this was also echoed in the speech delivered by President -Elect Joe Biden and V.P. Elect Kamala Harris. They talked about the desire to unify a nation during the presidential term. Their thoughts reminded me of the term: Antagonism, which was also included within the theory of democracy by Chantal Mouffe and Ernesto Laclau. Antagonism is defined as:
In relation to politics and democracy, unification is not impossible. “parties with differing perspectives should not be considered as enemies, but as agonists where parties are involved in constructive exchanges … It must be remembered that for democracy to take shape, there will be exchanges and differing view points. This should not be a sign of discouragement, yet rather as political interruption, an attempt for movements to work together” (Hussain, 2017, P. 7).
I offer these thoughts as a mechanism to inspire and to create a possibility for unification. The above quote it taken from a research paper that I originally wrote in 2017 entitled: “Literature and the Arts: Our Common Humanity and Shared Understandings.”
Related Links:
- The New York Times | President-Elect Proclaims ‘Time to Heal’ in Speech
- ELECTION 2020 II!
- ELECTION 2020!
Reference:
- Merriam-Webster. (n.d). Antagonism. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/antagonism
Further Reading:
- Patricia C. Phillips (2003) Creating Democracy: A Dialogue with Krzysztof Wodiczko, Art Journal, 62:4, 32-47, DOI: 10.1080/00043249.2003.10792183
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My thoughts to inspire! With Love & Kindness! 🌹
{HEART'S, FOREVER!} 