a balhéra éhes leskelődőknek
The privileging of ‘progression towards the West’ is deeply embedded in Hungarian historical traditions, and it is a major influence for progressivist activism. In such activist projects, there are different strategies for creating legitimacy for oneself.
One salient strategy is speaking in the name of a marginalized group. There is nothing evident about the existence of spokespersons – without a certain kind of public sphere, and given modes of representation of interest there would be no spokespersons at all (Bourdieu, 2000: 184–186). According to Bourdieu, spokespersonship is not only dependent on the public sphere, but spokespersons both define the groups they claim to represent, and they themselves are defined
through this relationship. For this reason, persons who represent (or just endorse) a cause that is deemed progressive will also come into public attention and can bask in the light of progress.
This is even more evident in projects in which individuals position themselves with respect to ‘progress’ through using marginalized groups as the ground for their orientation towards the ‘West’. Böröcz gives a prime example, an open letter signed by Hungarian ‘leftliberal’ intellectuals in 2001, thanking France its long-standing goodness as evidenced by granting refugee status to Romani citizens of Hungary due to racist persecution in their home country. As Böröcz explores, the letter does not position the signatories in relation to the Romani people, it assumes no direct link between them, no responsibility or acting possibility on the part of the signatories. The marginalized group here serves an instrumental purpose: the signatories position themselves with respect to France (the ‘West’, ‘progress’) through them (Böröcz 2006: 114–115).
We use the expression of virtue signalling to describe such phenomena. The signalling of virtue is a concept derived from signalling theory and mainly used in a religious context.5 Such theory concerns honest signals – signals with real virtue behind them. Yet virtue signalling is also becoming a common idiom in everyday use, defined as “the conspicuous expression of moral values done primarily with the intent of enhancing standing within a social group” by Wikipedia.6 Angela Nagle (2017: 115–130) explores the economy of empty signals of virtue, instead of honest signals (hould we stay with signalling theory vocabulary).
Just as spokespersonship is connected to social mobility, Nagle describes how if everyone signals the right kind of virtue, virtue is going to spread thin, and if people have no other currency (as often the case with millenials) scarcity has to be created, otherwise virtue would lose its value – therefore the stakes became higher and higher, and the condemning and targeting the non-virtuous comes to be more and more extreme and vicious (2017: 127–130). Besides spokespersonship and virtue signalling, progressivist activism is also sometimes characterized by vigilantism (concerning the role within a broader social context). The notion of civic vigilance originates from the French revolution era, and it took a variety of forms: interventions by the press, associations, unions, petitions, strikes, etc, with the intent to evaluate and criticise the actions of the government (including public policy) by the governed (see Rosanvallon 2008: 38–40).
Many vigilantes oversee not merely state power but society and other citizens. Such conflating of boundaries fits within a broader neoliberal paradigm: as if there was no difference between institution and citizen, the public and the private sphere. Such unhinged vigilantes overseeing everyone and everything and doing it via the internet are commonly called netilantes or digilantes. For example Chang and Poon (2017) have researched netilantes in Hong Kong. The paper concluded that netilantes thought that the criminal justice system was ineffective; but they believed their actions would achieve social justice, which in turn gave them a boost of personal empowerment.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324799213_Progressivist_gender-based_activism_as_a_means_of_social_antagonism_in_Hungary_through_two_case_studies
One salient strategy is speaking in the name of a marginalized group. There is nothing evident about the existence of spokespersons – without a certain kind of public sphere, and given modes of representation of interest there would be no spokespersons at all (Bourdieu, 2000: 184–186). According to Bourdieu, spokespersonship is not only dependent on the public sphere, but spokespersons both define the groups they claim to represent, and they themselves are defined
through this relationship. For this reason, persons who represent (or just endorse) a cause that is deemed progressive will also come into public attention and can bask in the light of progress.
This is even more evident in projects in which individuals position themselves with respect to ‘progress’ through using marginalized groups as the ground for their orientation towards the ‘West’. Böröcz gives a prime example, an open letter signed by Hungarian ‘leftliberal’ intellectuals in 2001, thanking France its long-standing goodness as evidenced by granting refugee status to Romani citizens of Hungary due to racist persecution in their home country. As Böröcz explores, the letter does not position the signatories in relation to the Romani people, it assumes no direct link between them, no responsibility or acting possibility on the part of the signatories. The marginalized group here serves an instrumental purpose: the signatories position themselves with respect to France (the ‘West’, ‘progress’) through them (Böröcz 2006: 114–115).
We use the expression of virtue signalling to describe such phenomena. The signalling of virtue is a concept derived from signalling theory and mainly used in a religious context.5 Such theory concerns honest signals – signals with real virtue behind them. Yet virtue signalling is also becoming a common idiom in everyday use, defined as “the conspicuous expression of moral values done primarily with the intent of enhancing standing within a social group” by Wikipedia.6 Angela Nagle (2017: 115–130) explores the economy of empty signals of virtue, instead of honest signals (hould we stay with signalling theory vocabulary).
Just as spokespersonship is connected to social mobility, Nagle describes how if everyone signals the right kind of virtue, virtue is going to spread thin, and if people have no other currency (as often the case with millenials) scarcity has to be created, otherwise virtue would lose its value – therefore the stakes became higher and higher, and the condemning and targeting the non-virtuous comes to be more and more extreme and vicious (2017: 127–130). Besides spokespersonship and virtue signalling, progressivist activism is also sometimes characterized by vigilantism (concerning the role within a broader social context). The notion of civic vigilance originates from the French revolution era, and it took a variety of forms: interventions by the press, associations, unions, petitions, strikes, etc, with the intent to evaluate and criticise the actions of the government (including public policy) by the governed (see Rosanvallon 2008: 38–40).
Many vigilantes oversee not merely state power but society and other citizens. Such conflating of boundaries fits within a broader neoliberal paradigm: as if there was no difference between institution and citizen, the public and the private sphere. Such unhinged vigilantes overseeing everyone and everything and doing it via the internet are commonly called netilantes or digilantes. For example Chang and Poon (2017) have researched netilantes in Hong Kong. The paper concluded that netilantes thought that the criminal justice system was ineffective; but they believed their actions would achieve social justice, which in turn gave them a boost of personal empowerment.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324799213_Progressivist_gender-based_activism_as_a_means_of_social_antagonism_in_Hungary_through_two_case_studies
