Wendy Brown, political scientist: ‘Our organization of life is unsustainable and we know it’

In this in-between moment, after everything and before whatever comes next, political theorist Wendy Brown focuses on the fundamental questions. She speaks about the significance of the upcoming elections, the nihilistic spiral of neoliberalism, the deep problem of naturalized masculinist logic, the demands shared by voters on the left and the right, and the social movements searching for a way out of a world in flames, stoked by opportunistic demagogues.

Brown is the UPS Foundation Professor in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and emerita professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley. Long before that, she was an outstanding student — as classmates at Thomas Downey High School recall on Facebook — who was able to continue her education thanks to the public scholarship system.

But her education did not stop in the classroom. She was also shaped by the anti-Vietnam War, anti-imperialist, anti-racist, feminist and LGBTQ+ movements of the 1960s and 1970s, which transformed the U.S. landscape and, by extension, the world beyond it.

The political theorist shares her life with philosopher Judith Butler, and together they form one of the most influential intellectual partnerships in contemporary thought. She is the author of books such as Walled States, Waning Sovereignty; States of Injury; In the Ruins of Neoliberalism and Nihilistic Times.

In an age of anger and distraction, the California-born scholar keeps her focus, urging people to look beyond today’s bleak realities and to work toward building a reparative democracy.

Brown, who was in Barcelona for the Bienal del Pensament, meets with EL PAÍS in a hotel in the city’s Eixample district. At one point during the conversation, she gets up to close four doors: the noise from outside, together with the strains of How Deep Is Your Love by the Bee Gees playing over the hotel sound system, makes it difficult to follow the flow of her thoughts.

Question. You say neoliberalism is not only an economic system. What do you mean by that?

Answer. Michel Foucault helped us understand that beyond the economic realm, neoliberalism also shapes social life, family and values. We know this intuitively because we see its effects: each of us has to be entrepreneurial, constantly attending to our own value… Neoliberalism also reshapes concepts like freedom and equality to suit itself, casting equality as the right to compete or freedom as the right to develop as an economic individual. All this has a very powerful effect. It hollows out democracy, it de-democratizes us, it de-politicizes us, and it makes us oriented simply toward questions about economic value.

Q. The reality is that tragedies such as ecocide and genocide are being enabled by democratic governments. Is democracy losing its meaning?

A. Yes. Liberal democracy, as a governing form, is exhausted. It can’t solve the climate emergency, the dismantling of the welfare state or the increasing numbers of people living at a barely sustainable level.

Q. In this context of intensified neoliberalism and the rise of the far right, to what extent is it a response to the decades-long process of dethroning the white man from the top of the political, social, cultural and domestic hierarchy?

A. The far right is a form of neoliberalism. Middle-class white men have suffered a loss of place as a result of neoliberalism, but they scapegoat women, migrants and the rest of the world. At the same time, they are also reacting to feminist and anti-racist challenges to their ownership of the world. The combination of neoliberal dethronement and the challenges posed by social movements is producing a tremendous reaction, fueled by opportunistic right-wing demagogues.

Q. Neoliberalism threatens our lives, our communities and the planet. What role does nihilism play in this?

A. Nihilism is an emptying, a loss of shared values, and neoliberalism pushes nihilism to levels never seen before. What it does is reduce the value of any aspect of life — social encounters, love — to its price, and that is a severe form of nihilism. The combination of nihilism with fatalism — the idea that there’s no stopping the planet’s trajectory, droughts, fires, dictatorships — leads us into an emergency. What matters is to introduce the question of what can and must be done.

Q. People talk about apathy, yet protest movements are spreading across France, Serbia, India, Ecuador, the U.S. and Spain.

A. Yes, each in its own way, these are movements that contest that fatalism and nihilism. Faced with the growing disaster of capitalist right-wing politics, with humanitarian tragedies and ecocide, there are people — somewhat in the spirit of the anti-WTO protests of the 1990s— saying “another world is possible.” We see it in the groups that have fought for years to protect the Amazon, or the Latin American feminist movement Ni Una Menos [against femicide]. There’s a cry of “we have enough,” and we want a different way of life.

Q. How can those forces be channeled politically?

A. We must transform the democratic system, not center it on individual interests but on the idea of producing life conditions. We should move toward a model I call reparative democracy, based on taking care of one another, a model more oriented to stopping, controlling and repairing the damages caused by neoliberalism. Our organization of life is unsustainable and we know it.

Q. What should the role of the left be?

A. Its unfinished task is building coalitions beyond sectarian politics. The right is good at that. In my country, figures like Steve Bannon, who can’t stand the tech bros, know they must keep them on board, together with various Republican groups and the financial powers… They stay firm, united, and that is how they win. The left must learn to make coalitions and not be afraid of seizing power.

Q. In Spain, there is a perception that we have a lot at stake in the upcoming elections in November. Is it the same in the United States with the midterms?

A. Yes, it is a very important election. The damage that the Trump regime does to basic institutions, to poor and working people and, especially, to the planet must be stopped. The truth is that most people have moved well away from the center to the left or the right. But at the same time, voters are in some respects more connected than they realize. There is a shared rejection of a world ruled by elites, of corruption, and of data centers… Political movements, like [New York Mayor Zohran] Mamdani’s, are focusing on basics, working to provide affordable housing, food and transportation, and that appeals to many people. There are common concerns, and that could transform politics.

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