The Twilight of Equality: Neoliberalism, Cultural Politics, and the Attack on Democracy

Duggan articulately connects social and economic issues to each other, arguing that neoliberal politics have divided the two when in actuality, they cannot be separated from one another. In the introduction, Duggan argues that politics have become neoliberal - while politics operate under the guise of promoting social change or social stability, in reality, she argues, politicians have failed to make the connection between economic and social/cultural issues. She uses historical background to prove the claim that economic and social issues can be separated from each other is false. For example, she discusses neoliberal attempts to be "multicultural," but points out that economic resources are constantly redistributed upward. Neoliberal politics, she argues, has only reinforced and increased the divide between economic and social political issues. After the introduction, Duggan focuses on a specific topic in each chapter: downsizing democracy, the incredible shrinking public, equality, and love and money. In the first chapter (downsizing democracy), she argues that through violent imperial assertion in the Middle East, budget cuts in social services, and disillusionments in political divides, "capitalists could actually bring down capitalism" (p. 2). Because neoliberal politicians wish to save neoliberalism by reforming it, she argues that proposing alternate visions and ideas have been blocked. Duggan provides historical background that help the reader connect early nineteenth century U.S. legislation (regarding voting rights and slavery) to perpetuated institutional prejudices. In chapter 2, Duggan discusses an annual conference held at Barnard College in 1982 regarding women's sexual freedom, and how it became a widely publicized controversy. She explains that by 1997, these types of conferences became "routine," so the public eye no longer focused on them, therefore "unexpected attention" became focused on a conference in 1997 at SUNY (p. 23). When a conservative trustee of SUNY attended the conference and became "disturbed" by the conference workshops and presentations, she alerted SUNY chancellor John Ryan, a group of political figures worked to have the President at that SUNY campus removed. A panel set up by Ryan protected Bowen and the campus on the grounds of academic freedom. Professors defending the women's studies department and the conferences asserted that the controversy was a result of backlash against the feminist movement. Duggan argues that mainstream reporting framed the controversy as a battle of "culture wars" on college campuses. She argues that this left out the larger political and economic (conservative) context in which the debate occurred. In the third chapter, Duggan discusses the tragedy of 9/11, and how the tragedy appeared to shift public attitude toward lesbian and gay Americans towards greater acceptance. However, she notes, public acceptance was already highest for gays and lesbians who seem

Lisa Duggan is intensely interested in American politics, and has found political life in the United States to have been "such a wild ride, offering moments of of dizzying hope along with long stretches of political depression." She is grateful for "many ideas about political depression, and how to survive it," and she has written a excellent short book that helps make sense of many widely divergent political trends. Her book is well-summarized by its concluding paragraph, which I am breaking up into additional paragraphs for greater clarity: "Now at this moment of danger and opportunity, the progressive left is mobilizing against neoliberalism and possible new or continuing wars. "These mobilizations might become sites for factional struggles over the disciplining of troops, in the name of unity at a time of crisis and necessity. But such efforts will fail; the troops will not be disciplined, and the disciplinarians will be left to their bitterness. "Or, we might find ways of think, speaking, writing and acting that are engaged and curious about "other people's" struggles for social justice, that are respectfully affiliative and dialogic rather than pedagogical, that that look for the hopeful spots to expand upon, and that revel in the pleasure of political life. "For it is pleasure AND collective caretaking, love AND the egalitarian circulation of money--allied to clear and hard-headed political analysis offered generously--that will create the space for a progressive politics that might both imagine and create...something worth living for." The titles of her four chapters--Downsizing Democracy, The Incredible Shrinking Public, Equality, Inc., Love AND Money--summarize her argument. She expected upon her high school graduation in 1972, she writes, that "active and expanding social movements seemed capable of ameliorating conditions of injustice and inequality, poverty, war and imperialism....I had no idea I was not perched at a great beginning, but rather at a denouement, as the possibilities for progressive social change encountered daunting historical setbacks beginning in 1972...." Her target is neoliberalism, which she sees as a broadly controlling corporate agenda which seeks world domination, privatization of governmental decision-making, and marginalization of unions, low-income people, racial and sexual minorities while presenting to the public a benign and inclusive facade. Neo-liberalism seeks to upwardly distribute money, power, and status, she writes, while progressive movements seek to downwardly distribute money, power, and status. The unity of the downwardly distribution advocates should match the unity of the upwardly distribution advocates in order to be effective, she writes. Her belief is that all groups threatened by the neoliberal paradigm should unite against it, but such unity is threatened by endless differences of perspectives. By minutely analyzing many of the differences, and expanding understanding of

Lisa Duggan's THE TWILIGHT OF EQUALITY is, hands down, the best in recent cultural theory. Her ability to connect queer theory and cultural studies with social and political concerns is breathtaking! It is hard to dispute Duggan's arguments about the necessity of identity politics in struggles for social change. Neoliberalists and holier-than-though lefties take note: you can't dismiss identity if you're truly commited to justice, says Duggan. She is compellingly correct. Duggan also provides a much needed critique of the knee-jerk responses to identity by critics like Wendy Brown and Paul Gilroy. In short, the book sets a new standard for all of us engaged in critical thinking.