On October 18th, Professor Patchen Markell (Government, Cornell University) joined our Fall Colloquium Series with a paper entitled “The Mob, the People and the Political: Rereading The Origins of Totalitarianism.” In the essay Markell investigates Arendt’s use of the term “mob” in Origins with specific attention to her treatment of European imperialism as well as the Dreyfus Affair. He argues that Arendt’s idea of “the mob” is more closely associated with her account of capitalism than her ostensive critique of popular politics or the idea of democracy unchecked by reason or virtue. Markell relates Arendt’s discussion of the mob in Origins to her analysis of the European nation-state system, thus distinguishing her work from a treatment of politics isolated from economics. This move, according to Markell, leads to a revision of Arendt’s reputation as a theorist of the “autonomy of the political.” Mediating the troubled negotiation between state and society, the nation-state sought to justify itself by claiming to represent the interests of the nation - a claim often displayed in antisemitism, xenophobic outbursts and other “mobbish” behavior. Drawing on Arendt’s own research on the Dreyfus Affair, Markell points to the visual material she would have encountered, which caricatured the crowds involved in the events. The mob, Markell argues, amounts to a caricature, or a distorted description of the people, in Arendt’s work. In this aesthetic register, the caricature harnesses a relationship of sameness and difference between the representation and its referent, a relationship also evident, Markell shows, in her description of the mob as “the déclassés of all classes,” which evokes a Marxian vocabulary. The colloquium concluded with a discussion of the history of the concept of the mob among German thinkers such as Hegel, Marx, Schmitt, and Luhmann, which helped further clarify Arendt’s use of the term. The event was followed by a warm reception, where the discussion continued. (Emir Yigit)
