Against Identity Politics

Francis Fukuyama correlates in his article, which made a great resonance, the political-economical changes, crises of the second part of the 20th century with the rise of identity politics that defined the politics and social movements of global capitalism. The quasi social democratic point of view by Fukuyama problematizes that political shift that could be observed on the anticapitalist left, which in the meantime was relocated from the striving after material justice understood as default to the symbolic demands of recognition of oppressed identity groups. According to his argumentation, political correctness, an extreme form of appearance of identity politics, means a threat to liberal democracies, insofar political correctness has a restrictive impact on the free speech, as well as makes difficulties to thematize social problems that are beyond the pale of mainstream mass media and high politics. In addition, Fukuyama claims that the right took over identity politics, which was becoming hegemonic on the left, which by this time prioritized issues about religion and nation, as well as the demands of recognition of the white – and predominantly male – working class. The overly questionable conclusion of the author is one of the main characteristics of the modern man that s/he thinks always about her/himself and her/his encircling society within the conceptual horizon of identity.