{"id":158,"date":"2021-12-14T11:43:35","date_gmt":"2021-09-21T22:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/nostalgia\/post-socialist-performance-as-insurgent-pedagogy-2\/"},"modified":"2023-03-25T07:44:48","modified_gmt":"2023-03-25T07:44:48","slug":"heimweh-george-jepson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/nostalgia\/heimweh-george-jepson\/","title":{"rendered":"Heimweh: Between Nation and Nostalgia"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":161,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-158","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nostalgia","tag-george-jepson"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v18.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/nostalgia\/heimweh-george-jepson\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Heimweh: Between Nation and Nostalgia - Kajet presents: The Future of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/nostalgia\/heimweh-george-jepson\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Kajet presents: The Future of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-09-21T22:06:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-25T07:44:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/3.-Ein_Soldat_bestaunt_die_imposante_Bergwelt_-_CH-BAR_-_3238944-1-1-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1819\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2684\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"kd_Admin\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/\",\"name\":\"Kajet presents: The Future of\",\"description\":\"The Future Of ... Nostalgia\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/nostalgia\/heimweh-george-jepson\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/3.-Ein_Soldat_bestaunt_die_imposante_Bergwelt_-_CH-BAR_-_3238944-1-1-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/3.-Ein_Soldat_bestaunt_die_imposante_Bergwelt_-_CH-BAR_-_3238944-1-1-1.jpg\",\"width\":1819,\"height\":2684},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/nostalgia\/heimweh-george-jepson\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/nostalgia\/heimweh-george-jepson\/\",\"name\":\"Heimweh: Between Nation and Nostalgia - Kajet presents: The Future of\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/nostalgia\/heimweh-george-jepson\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-09-21T22:06:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-03-25T07:44:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/#\/schema\/person\/040fabf36b0b26484bb81f2ebc28dc9c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/nostalgia\/heimweh-george-jepson\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/nostalgia\/heimweh-george-jepson\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/nostalgia\/heimweh-george-jepson\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Heimweh: Between Nation and Nostalgia\"}]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/nostalgia\/heimweh-george-jepson\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Heimweh: Between Nation and Nostalgia - Kajet presents: The Future of","og_url":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/nostalgia\/heimweh-george-jepson\/","og_site_name":"Kajet presents: The Future of","article_published_time":"2021-09-21T22:06:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-03-25T07:44:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1819,"height":2684,"url":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/3.-Ein_Soldat_bestaunt_die_imposante_Bergwelt_-_CH-BAR_-_3238944-1-1-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"kd_Admin"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/#website","url":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/","name":"Kajet presents: The Future of","description":"The Future Of ... Nostalgia","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/nostalgia\/heimweh-george-jepson\/#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/3.-Ein_Soldat_bestaunt_die_imposante_Bergwelt_-_CH-BAR_-_3238944-1-1-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/3.-Ein_Soldat_bestaunt_die_imposante_Bergwelt_-_CH-BAR_-_3238944-1-1-1.jpg","width":1819,"height":2684},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/nostalgia\/heimweh-george-jepson\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/nostalgia\/heimweh-george-jepson\/","name":"Heimweh: Between Nation and Nostalgia - Kajet presents: The Future of","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/nostalgia\/heimweh-george-jepson\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2021-09-21T22:06:27+00:00","dateModified":"2023-03-25T07:44:48+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/#\/schema\/person\/040fabf36b0b26484bb81f2ebc28dc9c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/nostalgia\/heimweh-george-jepson\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/nostalgia\/heimweh-george-jepson\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/nostalgia\/heimweh-george-jepson\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Heimweh: Between Nation and Nostalgia"}]}]}},"grid":"{\r\n  \"colCount\": 12,\r\n  \"colGutter\": 1,\r\n  \"rowGutters\": [\r\n    5,\r\n    0,\r\n    5,\r\n    0,\r\n    5,\r\n    5,\r\n    0,\r\n    0,\r\n    5,\r\n    5,\r\n    5,\r\n    5,\r\n    5,\r\n    5,\r\n    5,\r\n    5,\r\n    5,\r\n    5\r\n  ],\r\n  \"frameMargin\": 0,\r\n  \"topFrameMargin\": 0,\r\n  \"bottomFrameMargin\": 0,\r\n  \"rowAttrs\": [\r\n    {},\r\n    {},\r\n    {},\r\n    {},\r\n    {},\r\n    {},\r\n    {},\r\n    {},\r\n    {},\r\n    {},\r\n    {},\r\n    {},\r\n    {},\r\n    {},\r\n    {},\r\n    {},\r\n    {},\r\n    {},\r\n    {}\r\n  ],\r\n  \"bgColor\": null,\r\n  \"cont\": [\r\n    {\r\n      \"type\": \"img\",\r\n      \"cont\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/3.-Ein_Soldat_bestaunt_die_imposante_Bergwelt_-_CH-BAR_-_3238944-1-1.jpg\",\r\n      \"align\": \"top\",\r\n      \"row\": 0,\r\n      \"col\": 0,\r\n      \"colspan\": 12,\r\n      \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n      \"offsety\": 0,\r\n      \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n      \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n      \"yvel\": 1,\r\n      \"push\": 0,\r\n      \"relid\": 99,\r\n      \"attid\": 160,\r\n      \"sizes\": {\r\n        \"full\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/3.-Ein_Soldat_bestaunt_die_imposante_Bergwelt_-_CH-BAR_-_3238944-1-1.jpg\",\r\n        \"_1280\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/3.-Ein_Soldat_bestaunt_die_imposante_Bergwelt_-_CH-BAR_-_3238944-1-1-1280x1889.jpg\",\r\n        \"_1024\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/3.-Ein_Soldat_bestaunt_die_imposante_Bergwelt_-_CH-BAR_-_3238944-1-1-1024x1511.jpg\",\r\n        \"_768\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/3.-Ein_Soldat_bestaunt_die_imposante_Bergwelt_-_CH-BAR_-_3238944-1-1-768x1133.jpg\",\r\n        \"_512\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/3.-Ein_Soldat_bestaunt_die_imposante_Bergwelt_-_CH-BAR_-_3238944-1-1-512x755.jpg\",\r\n        \"_265\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/3.-Ein_Soldat_bestaunt_die_imposante_Bergwelt_-_CH-BAR_-_3238944-1-1-265x391.jpg\"\r\n      },\r\n      \"w\": 1819,\r\n      \"h\": 2684,\r\n      \"ar\": 1.4755360087960419,\r\n      \"alt\": \"\",\r\n      \"frameOverflow\": \"both\"\r\n    },\r\n    {\r\n      \"type\": \"text\",\r\n      \"cont\": \"<h1 class=\\\"_Headline\\\"><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400; font-family: Quant-Antiqua_Light;\\\">George Jepson<\/span><\/h1>\",\r\n      \"align\": \"top\",\r\n      \"row\": 1,\r\n      \"col\": 2,\r\n      \"colspan\": 8,\r\n      \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n      \"offsety\": 0,\r\n      \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n      \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n      \"yvel\": 1,\r\n      \"push\": 2,\r\n      \"relid\": 8,\r\n      \"frameOverflow\": \"\"\r\n    },\r\n    {\r\n      \"type\": \"text\",\r\n      \"cont\": \"<p><i>Heimweh: <\/i>Between Nation and Nostalgia<\/p>\",\r\n      \"align\": \"top\",\r\n      \"row\": 2,\r\n      \"col\": 2,\r\n      \"colspan\": 8,\r\n      \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n      \"offsety\": 0,\r\n      \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n      \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n      \"yvel\": 1,\r\n      \"push\": 2,\r\n      \"relid\": 4,\r\n      \"frameOverflow\": \"\"\r\n    },\r\n    {\r\n      \"type\": \"text\",\r\n      \"cont\": \"<p><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">There are people who would have never have been in love if they had never heard tell of love.<\/span><\/p>\",\r\n      \"align\": \"top\",\r\n      \"row\": 3,\r\n      \"col\": 3,\r\n      \"colspan\": 6,\r\n      \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n      \"offsety\": 0,\r\n      \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n      \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n      \"yvel\": 1,\r\n      \"push\": 3,\r\n      \"relid\": 5,\r\n      \"frameOverflow\": \"\"\r\n    },\r\n    {\r\n      \"type\": \"text\",\r\n      \"cont\": \"<p class=\\\"_Source\\\" style=\\\"line-height: 1;\\\"><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">La Rochefoucauld<\/span><\/p>\",\r\n      \"align\": \"top\",\r\n      \"row\": 4,\r\n      \"col\": 7,\r\n      \"colspan\": 3,\r\n      \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n      \"offsety\": 0,\r\n      \"spaceabove\": 1,\r\n      \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n      \"yvel\": 1,\r\n      \"push\": 7,\r\n      \"relid\": 6,\r\n      \"frameOverflow\": \"\"\r\n    },\r\n    {\r\n      \"type\": \"text\",\r\n      \"cont\": \"<p class=\\\"_DefaultQ\\\">In his 1688 dissertation, Swiss physician Johannes H\u00f6fer presented for the first time the results of a study that would cast light on a strange, as yet undefined, medical malady.<span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\"><sup>1<\/sup><\/span> In the texts of the Swiss Helvetians, he had found it called das Heimweh, while those of Gaul called it la <em>Maladie du Pays<\/em>. Following these etymological antecedents, particularly the German <em>Heimweh<\/em> (<em>heim<\/em> meaning home, <em>weh<\/em> sick), he developed a calque. Using the Greek term <em>n\u00f3stos<\/em> (return) and <em>\u00e1lgos<\/em>, (suffering or grief), he created a composite term to define this elusive condition: nostalgia.<\/p><p class=\\\"_DefaultQ\\\">While the sufferers of nostalgia had been widespread enough to warrant H\u00f6fer\u2019s medicalisation of the phenomenon as his doctoral research, it was for some time understood as a particularly Swiss affliction. Earning the name <em>Schweizerheimweh<\/em> (Swiss homesickness) as a common synonym, H\u00f6fer had taken as the subject of his affliction Swiss mercenaries abroad, whose suffering at the hands of nostalgia was understood to be unmatched. Unsurprisingly, it took little time for the definition of this peculiarly Swiss disease to irk those concerned with the purity of image of the Swiss nation(ality) itself.<\/p><p class=\\\"_DefaultQ\\\">Foremost amongst these opponents was H\u00f6fer\u2019s fellow physician Jean-Jacques Scheuchzer who\u2014fearing the disparagement of the \u2018vigorous, free, strong and courageous\u2019 Swiss\u2014sought to define a purely mechanical definition of nostalgia, against its understanding as a disease of \u2018an afflicted imagination.\u2019<span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\"><sup>2<\/sup><\/span>\u2060 For Scheuchzer, it was not the shortcomings of Swiss soldiers, their weak- or cowardliness, that made them susceptible to nostalgia. This, to his mind, was impossible. He turned instead to the atmospheric qualities of Switzerland itself.<\/p>\",\r\n      \"align\": \"top\",\r\n      \"row\": 5,\r\n      \"col\": 2,\r\n      \"colspan\": 8,\r\n      \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n      \"offsety\": 0,\r\n      \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n      \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n      \"yvel\": 1,\r\n      \"push\": 2,\r\n      \"relid\": 7,\r\n      \"frameOverflow\": \"\"\r\n    },\r\n    {\r\n      \"type\": \"text\",\r\n      \"cont\": \"<p class=\\\"_Source\\\"><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\"><strong>1<\/strong> Carolyn Kiser Anspach, \u201cMedical Dissertation on Nostalgia by Johannes H\u00f6fer, 1688,\u201d <em>Bulletin of the Institute of the History of Medicine<\/em> 2, no. 6 (1934), 376\u2013391.<br \/><\/span><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 12px;\\\"><strong>2<\/strong> Jean Starobinski and William S. Kemp, \u201cThe Idea of Nostalgia,\u201d <em>Diogenes<\/em> 14, no. 54 (June 1966), 81\u2013103.<\/span><\/p>\",\r\n      \"align\": \"top\",\r\n      \"row\": 6,\r\n      \"col\": 5,\r\n      \"colspan\": 6,\r\n      \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n      \"offsety\": 0,\r\n      \"spaceabove\": 1,\r\n      \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n      \"yvel\": 1,\r\n      \"push\": 5,\r\n      \"relid\": 10\r\n    },\r\n    {\r\n      \"type\": \"img\",\r\n      \"cont\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/6.-Albert_Bierstadt_-_The_Alps_from_Visp.jpeg\",\r\n      \"align\": \"top\",\r\n      \"row\": 7,\r\n      \"col\": 2,\r\n      \"colspan\": 8,\r\n      \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n      \"offsety\": 0,\r\n      \"spaceabove\": 5,\r\n      \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n      \"yvel\": 1,\r\n      \"push\": 2,\r\n      \"relid\": 1276,\r\n      \"attid\": 163,\r\n      \"sizes\": {\r\n        \"full\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/6.-Albert_Bierstadt_-_The_Alps_from_Visp.jpeg\",\r\n        \"_2560\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/6.-Albert_Bierstadt_-_The_Alps_from_Visp-2560x1845.jpeg\",\r\n        \"_1920\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/6.-Albert_Bierstadt_-_The_Alps_from_Visp-1920x1384.jpeg\",\r\n        \"_1280\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/6.-Albert_Bierstadt_-_The_Alps_from_Visp-1280x922.jpeg\",\r\n        \"_1024\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/6.-Albert_Bierstadt_-_The_Alps_from_Visp-1024x738.jpeg\",\r\n        \"_768\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/6.-Albert_Bierstadt_-_The_Alps_from_Visp-768x553.jpeg\",\r\n        \"_512\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/6.-Albert_Bierstadt_-_The_Alps_from_Visp-512x369.jpeg\",\r\n        \"_265\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/6.-Albert_Bierstadt_-_The_Alps_from_Visp-265x191.jpeg\"\r\n      },\r\n      \"w\": 3200,\r\n      \"h\": 2306,\r\n      \"ar\": 0.720625,\r\n      \"alt\": \"\"\r\n    },\r\n    {\r\n      \"type\": \"text\",\r\n      \"cont\": \"<p class=\\\"_Source\\\">The Alps from Visp (1850), by Albert Bierstadt. From Wikimedia Commons.<\/p>\",\r\n      \"align\": \"top\",\r\n      \"row\": 8,\r\n      \"col\": 2,\r\n      \"colspan\": 4,\r\n      \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n      \"offsety\": 0,\r\n      \"spaceabove\": 1,\r\n      \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n      \"yvel\": 1,\r\n      \"push\": 2,\r\n      \"relid\": 25\r\n    },\r\n    {\r\n      \"type\": \"text\",\r\n      \"cont\": \"<p class=\\\"_DefaultQ\\\">The Swiss, blessed as they are with the highest mountains in Europe, thus logically possessed the purest air. And when, with lungs full of such pure air, they descended from mountain top to the murky plains of Northern Europe, they were struck down under the weight of a such foul, impure environment, inevitably suffering a debilitating, if not fatal, case of nostalgia. Scheuchzer had inverted the diagnosis. It was no longer an expression of an inherent weakness but rather a burden on the ineffably pure Swiss; angels arriving from the alps, unprepared for the barbarous all-too-worldly living conditions of their fellow Europeans. By defining the affliction as environmental rather than solely internal to the individual, Scheuchzer was thus able to spatialise the condition concurrent with geopolitical boundaries, the clean Swiss air being of course a direct manifestation of the purity of its citizens.<\/p><p class=\\\"_DefaultQ\\\">From the moment of its definition then, the concept of nostalgia was neither medical, social, cultural, nor political. It was, of course, a fusion of these things, each always effected by the other. Like La Rochefoucauld\u2019s lover who can only love once they have learned of the concept, nostalgia as a medical malady\u2014and the social phenomenon it subsequently became\u2014was made real by its definition and subsequent social acceptance. If, in the eighteenth century, nostalgia was given as the cause of death for scores of soldiers abroad, it was because it was understood to have the power to kill. In the twentieth century, as medical techniques and technologies advanced into more specialised categories, the concept was transferred almost wholesale into the domain of psychiatry. While its official status as disease diminished, nostalgia as a socio-cultural phenomenon remained efficacious. Following Scheuchzer, it remained a force that concerned, at its fundament, the relationship of man and nation. No longer operative on the individual body, nostalgia became an affliction of the body politic at large. In its transition from a medical condition to a psychological one, its political utility in buttressing the \u2018nation-state\u2019 only increased.<\/p>\",\r\n      \"align\": \"top\",\r\n      \"row\": 9,\r\n      \"col\": 2,\r\n      \"colspan\": 8,\r\n      \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n      \"offsety\": 0,\r\n      \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n      \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n      \"yvel\": 1,\r\n      \"push\": 2,\r\n      \"relid\": 95,\r\n      \"frameOverflow\": \"\"\r\n    },\r\n    {\r\n      \"type\": \"text\",\r\n      \"cont\": \"<p class=\\\"_Source\\\"><strong>3<\/strong> Nostalgia is understood in texts leading until the twentieth century to have been often serious, often fatal. He understands this to be the relationship between the physiological and the physical, if knows of an illness, one knows too that they may be afflicted by it. Thus nostalgia itself becomes a medical condition.\u00a0<\/p>\",\r\n      \"align\": \"top\",\r\n      \"row\": 10,\r\n      \"col\": 6,\r\n      \"colspan\": 5,\r\n      \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n      \"offsety\": 0,\r\n      \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n      \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n      \"yvel\": 1,\r\n      \"push\": 6,\r\n      \"relid\": 13\r\n    },\r\n    {\r\n      \"type\": \"img\",\r\n      \"cont\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/10.-Young-Marx.jpeg\",\r\n      \"align\": \"middle\",\r\n      \"row\": 11,\r\n      \"col\": 0,\r\n      \"colspan\": 2,\r\n      \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n      \"offsety\": 0,\r\n      \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n      \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n      \"yvel\": 1,\r\n      \"push\": 0,\r\n      \"relid\": 279,\r\n      \"attid\": 165,\r\n      \"sizes\": {\r\n        \"full\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/10.-Young-Marx.jpeg\",\r\n        \"_265\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/10.-Young-Marx-265x451.jpeg\"\r\n      },\r\n      \"w\": 304,\r\n      \"h\": 517,\r\n      \"ar\": 1.700657894736842,\r\n      \"alt\": \"\",\r\n      \"caption\": \"<p style=\\\"line-height: 0.6;\\\"><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0em;\\\">Young Marx, chalk drawing by Helmut Bach (1953). From the German Historical Museum, via Wikimedia Commons.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\"\r\n    },\r\n    {\r\n      \"type\": \"text\",\r\n      \"cont\": \"<h1 class=\\\"_Headline\\\">Nostalgia and Ideology<\/h1><p><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">While this brief chronology of nostalgia evidences the vicissitudes of medical and social science, the shaping of national ideology through sense, myth, and a particular conception of human nature is clearly nothing new. For Thomas Hobbes, man\u2019s nature directed him towards violent competition, against both one another and his natural environment, thus leading him to subject himself to the will of the sovereign in exchange for protection from violent death. Adam Smith\u2019s work too hinged on a particular conception of human nature, but rather on the primitivist myths espoused in Daniel Defoe\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">Robinson Crusoe<\/span><\/i><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">. While its realist stylings led many contemporary readers to interpret the text as travelogue, its realisation as fiction did nothing to dispel the myths of Crusoe as man in his true mould, as <\/span><i><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">homo-economicus<\/span><\/i><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">. Man in this mould is of course not man in general. By counterposing Crusoe to the \u2018savages\u2019 he encounters, Defoe sought to frame his protagonist\u2019s endeavours as reflective of the \u2018natural\u2019 impulses and logics of English colonists. Human nature here is again hinging on an implied binary between the civilised, entrepreneurial English man, and the savages of a fictionalised South America. It is this fiction that Karl Marx sought to reframe in <\/span><i><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">Capital<\/span><\/i><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">,<\/span> <span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">seeking to reveal the political underpinnings of Smith\u2019s use, alongside David Ricardo, of the individualist entrepreneur as paradigmatic of man\u2019s true nature.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">Marx however does not take issue with the use of a fiction in the exposition of a political theory. He rather reframes the common reading of Crusoe a la Smith, Ricardo, and acolytes, as simply the fictional portrayal of a core tenet of capitalism: the permeation of economy into all social relations. Not only does Defoe implicitly frame a fictional barter economy as the origin of capitalism, thus normalising man\u2019s propensity for economic exchange. He in fact weaves into Crusoe\u2019s thought the calculative mores of a contemporary entrepreneur, one who understands the world through its exchange rather than its use values. In this way, for Marx, <\/span><i><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">Robinson Crusoe<\/span><\/i><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\"> remains an object of valid interpretation, however not as a document of historical veracity. Defoe\u2019s work is a harbinger of Britain\u2019s colonial endeavours, a fable that attempts to evidence the persevering, and benevolent, British spirit and thus attempts to legitimise any past or future imperial enterprise. Where Marx\u2019s reading of Defoe understands his work as historical artefact, expressive of a context through the ideologies embedded in its literature, its use in Smith or Ricardo cannot rise to this level of reflection when considering it an authentic portrayal of man\u2019s nature. For all, however, the power of fiction to construct ideology remains unquestioned.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">It comes as no surprise then that in his lecture <\/span><i><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">The Secular Messiah, <\/span><\/i><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">literary critic George Steiner levies a similar accusation at Marx himself.<sup>4<\/sup><\/span><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\"> In the malaise of a post-religious world, Steiner finds in Marx\u2014alongside Freud and Claude-Levi Strauss\u2014a latent tendency toward prophecy and pseudo-religious mythologising that they themselves claim to have disavowed. Despite professing it as the opium of the masses, the void left in Marx\u2019s work by the absence of religion Steiner found filled by two seemingly contradictory phenomena. The first, a veneration of the culture and society of Ancient Greece. The second, his conceptualisation of the fall of (a strikingly Crusoean) man; his alienation by the permeation of money into all social relations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">Between his abstraction of unalienated man, and his voguish understanding of Ancient Greece as the height of political culture, Marx drew on cultural depictions, images, and techniques from the past as a means to project his imagined future.<sup>5<\/sup><\/span><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\"> In this way, the two function in parallel: Ancient Greece holds for Marx a series of ethical and political ideals (slavery notwithstanding); the alienated <\/span><i><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">homo-economicus <\/span><\/i><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">of<\/span> <span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">Smith\u2019s Robinson Crusoe only shows how far he has fallen. Like Defoe\u2019s imaginary Englishman, Marx\u2019s longing for Ancient Greece cannot severe the tie between nation, nostalgia, and the construction of a political imaginary.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">The elements that Steiner finds present in the unacknowledged mythologies of Marxism\u2014cultural or political idolatry, a literary canon, seemingly teleological predictions of the future\u2014naturally bore themselves out further across the twentieth century, both in its heritage and its opposition. If myth-making is not simply inevitable, but inherent, in the constitution of political ideology, rather than concerning ourselves with veracity\u2014which itself opens up a wormhole of subjective interpretations\u2014we must instead brace this discussion in terms of efficacy. For Walter Benjamin,<\/span> <span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">\u201cevery image of the past that is not recognised by the present as one of its own concerns threatens to disappear irretrievably.\u201d<sup>6<\/sup><\/span><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\"> He saw in the early twentieth-century struggle against fascism a new definition of the role of the historian. For the materialist historian, history must be unearthed and interpreted as a means to draw from the annals of the past images, tools, and sensations that can work to reframe our constitution as historic subjects within and beyond the notion of the nation-state. If nostalgia\u2014in its social mode\u2014both emerges from and is an expression of the idiosyncratic problems of modernity, particularly in the constitution of identity, claims to objective truth wither away, lending agency to all those who seek to use history as a tool, as a political weapon. Against the idlers of bourgeois history that Nietzsche identifies, a true and proper model of historical interpretation is <\/span><i><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\">the<\/span><\/i><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\"> prerequisite for political action.<\/span><\/p>\",\r\n      \"align\": \"top\",\r\n      \"row\": 11,\r\n      \"col\": 2,\r\n      \"colspan\": 6,\r\n      \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n      \"offsety\": 0,\r\n      \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n      \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n      \"yvel\": 1,\r\n      \"push\": 0,\r\n      \"relid\": 14,\r\n      \"frameOverflow\": \"\"\r\n    },\r\n    {\r\n      \"type\": \"img\",\r\n      \"cont\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/9.-Robinson_Crusoe_Walter_Paget_1896_148.jpg\",\r\n      \"align\": \"top\",\r\n      \"row\": 11,\r\n      \"col\": 8,\r\n      \"colspan\": 4,\r\n      \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n      \"offsety\": 0,\r\n      \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n      \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n      \"yvel\": 1,\r\n      \"push\": 0,\r\n      \"relid\": 96,\r\n      \"attid\": 164,\r\n      \"sizes\": {\r\n        \"full\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/9.-Robinson_Crusoe_Walter_Paget_1896_148.jpg\",\r\n        \"_1024\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/9.-Robinson_Crusoe_Walter_Paget_1896_148-1024x855.jpg\",\r\n        \"_768\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/9.-Robinson_Crusoe_Walter_Paget_1896_148-768x641.jpg\",\r\n        \"_512\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/9.-Robinson_Crusoe_Walter_Paget_1896_148-512x428.jpg\",\r\n        \"_265\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/9.-Robinson_Crusoe_Walter_Paget_1896_148-265x221.jpg\"\r\n      },\r\n      \"w\": 1225,\r\n      \"h\": 1023,\r\n      \"ar\": 0.8351020408163266,\r\n      \"alt\": \"\",\r\n      \"isscrolltotop\": true,\r\n      \"frameOverflow\": \"right\",\r\n      \"caption\": \"<p style=\\\"line-height: 0.6;\\\"><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0em;\\\">Illustration by Walter Paget from \u201cThe Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.\u201d (London: Cassell &amp; Co., 1896). From Wikimedia Commons.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\"\r\n    },\r\n    {\r\n      \"type\": \"text\",\r\n      \"cont\": \"<p class=\\\"_Source\\\"><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\"><strong>4<\/strong> George Steiner, <em>Nostalgia for the Absolute<\/em> (Toronto: CBC Enterprises, 1974).<\/span><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\"><br \/><strong>5<\/strong> It is well understood, and as Marx would have known, that Athens in its prime had a slave to citizen population of 2 or 3 to 1.<br \/><\/span><\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p>\",\r\n      \"align\": \"top\",\r\n      \"row\": 12,\r\n      \"col\": 1,\r\n      \"colspan\": 5,\r\n      \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n      \"offsety\": 0,\r\n      \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n      \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n      \"yvel\": 1,\r\n      \"push\": 1,\r\n      \"relid\": 15,\r\n      \"frameOverflow\": \"\"\r\n    },\r\n    {\r\n      \"type\": \"text\",\r\n      \"cont\": \"<p class=\\\"_Source\\\"><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\"><strong>6<\/strong> Walter Benjamin, \u201cTheses on the Philosophy of History,\u201d in <em>Illuminations<\/em> (New York: Random House, 1969), 255.<\/span><\/p>\",\r\n      \"align\": \"top\",\r\n      \"row\": 12,\r\n      \"col\": 6,\r\n      \"colspan\": 4,\r\n      \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n      \"offsety\": 0,\r\n      \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n      \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n      \"yvel\": 1,\r\n      \"push\": 0,\r\n      \"relid\": 16,\r\n      \"frameOverflow\": \"\"\r\n    },\r\n    {\r\n      \"type\": \"img\",\r\n      \"cont\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/A-Private-View-at-the-Royal-Academy-1883-by-William-Powell-Frith..jpg\",\r\n      \"align\": \"middle\",\r\n      \"row\": 13,\r\n      \"col\": 0,\r\n      \"colspan\": 2,\r\n      \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n      \"offsety\": 0,\r\n      \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n      \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n      \"yvel\": 1,\r\n      \"push\": 0,\r\n      \"relid\": 1088,\r\n      \"attid\": 178,\r\n      \"sizes\": {\r\n        \"full\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/A-Private-View-at-the-Royal-Academy-1883-by-William-Powell-Frith..jpg\",\r\n        \"_1280\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/A-Private-View-at-the-Royal-Academy-1883-by-William-Powell-Frith.-1280x672.jpg\",\r\n        \"_1024\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/A-Private-View-at-the-Royal-Academy-1883-by-William-Powell-Frith.-1024x538.jpg\",\r\n        \"_768\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/A-Private-View-at-the-Royal-Academy-1883-by-William-Powell-Frith.-768x403.jpg\",\r\n        \"_512\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/A-Private-View-at-the-Royal-Academy-1883-by-William-Powell-Frith.-512x269.jpg\",\r\n        \"_265\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/A-Private-View-at-the-Royal-Academy-1883-by-William-Powell-Frith.-265x139.jpg\"\r\n      },\r\n      \"w\": 1920,\r\n      \"h\": 1008,\r\n      \"ar\": 0.525,\r\n      \"alt\": \"\",\r\n      \"caption\": \"<p style=\\\"line-height: 0.6;\\\"><span style=\\\"font-size: 12px;\\\">An instance of Victorian art. A Private View at the Royal Academy (1883) by William Powell Frith, via Wikimedia Commons.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\"\r\n    },\r\n    {\r\n      \"type\": \"text\",\r\n      \"cont\": \"<h1 class=\\\"_HeadlineS\\\">Make Nostalgia Great Again<\/h1><p class=\\\"_DefaultQ\\\">Benjamin\u2019s moment, of course, was defined by the constitution of historic propaganda which saw both National Socialist and Bolshevik reframings of their respective cultural and historical pasts. Adolf Hitler\u2019s Mein Kampf acknowledged the necessity of a simplistic, lucid framing of propaganda as the only tool by which to address the new body politic of modernity, while Soviet Constructivists sought entirely new tools\u2014particularly within the arts\u2014through which to project the state\u2019s self-understanding as a historical entity. It is not hard to read the parallels of this moment to our own, in which political discourse has been sanded down into the kernels of abstract significations, and its central tools of dissemination being those of an ever-intensifying media-scape of partisan news broadcasts, social media, hats, and bumper stickers.<\/p><p class=\\\"_DefaultQ\\\">The phrase that emblematises the last 5 years of U.S. politics, \u2018Make America Great Again\u2019, is itself an empty signifier. It calls instead toward an abstracted, undefined, infinitely interpretable image of the halcyon days of American freedom: a nostalgic imaginary whose potency grows as the object of longing becomes less clearly defined.<\/p><p class=\\\"_DefaultQ\\\">Perhaps most fittingly, the phrase was not new. As is well known, it was lifted from Ronald Reagan\u2019s 1980 presidential campaign, only to be used again by Bill Clinton in 1992: a Greatness so abstract and undefined that both Republicans and Democrats can ride its wave to electoral victory, despite supposedly embodying fundamentally different political values. For Reagan, the actor, America was a fiction to be performed; an imagined state, cleansed of its historic brutality, a vessel for the emblematisation of a series of ambiguous ideals. The multifaceted experience of history here becomes flattened out into a singular triumphalist perspective, framing the nation-state as the only means to mete out justice and maintain control of the global political apparatus, and the only vehicle around which to rally in the construction of political ideals.<\/p><p class=\\\"_DefaultQ\\\">Across the Atlantic, Reagan\u2019s partner in crime, Margaret Thatcher, used her own abstracted definition of <em>Greatness<\/em> rather to imagine\u2014in lieu of any deeper points of historical reference\u2014Victorian Britain as the apex of cultural, moral, and social values. Against the oppressive arm of the state, the \u2018greatness\u2019 Thatcher found in Victorian Britain was a consequence of individual industriousness and para-state systems of welfare and support. Thatcher\u2019s nostalgia for a Victorian Britain\u2014which she champions in the same breath as acknowledging the deep social inequality and poverty that defined the late eighteenth century\u2014rather serves as an anti-state vehicle. By harkening back to a Britain made powerful by a global network of colonial and imperial power, while simultaneously ignoring this fact, Thatcher purports an imaginary of England as a moralistic, benevolent, and fundamentally powerful nation. Like Adam Smith\u2019s understanding of <em>homo economicus<\/em>, Thatcher imagined a world of self-sufficient individuals, acting in their own rational self-interest, as an objective element of a historical past. This is, of course, to totally misrecognise the role of the state in Victorian Britain, which provided the legislative and economic support that allowed for the colonisation of 25% of the world\u2019s population. This abstract subject of history\u2014and its relationship to the state\u2014ossified into a system of political values, values used to justify the rolling back of the state, the destruction of the post-war consensus, and the dissolution of hard-earned welfare provisions and again historical imagination materialized in its present.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p>\",\r\n      \"align\": \"top\",\r\n      \"row\": 13,\r\n      \"col\": 2,\r\n      \"colspan\": 8,\r\n      \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n      \"offsety\": 0,\r\n      \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n      \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n      \"yvel\": 1,\r\n      \"push\": 0,\r\n      \"relid\": 17\r\n    },\r\n    {\r\n      \"type\": \"img\",\r\n      \"cont\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/4.-Drawing_Bernese_Alps_Switzerland_August_1868_CH_18197475.jpeg\",\r\n      \"align\": \"top\",\r\n      \"row\": 13,\r\n      \"col\": 10,\r\n      \"colspan\": 2,\r\n      \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n      \"offsety\": 0,\r\n      \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n      \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n      \"yvel\": 1,\r\n      \"push\": 0,\r\n      \"relid\": 389,\r\n      \"attid\": 177,\r\n      \"sizes\": {\r\n        \"full\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/4.-Drawing_Bernese_Alps_Switzerland_August_1868_CH_18197475.jpeg\",\r\n        \"_1280\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/4.-Drawing_Bernese_Alps_Switzerland_August_1868_CH_18197475-1280x824.jpeg\",\r\n        \"_1024\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/4.-Drawing_Bernese_Alps_Switzerland_August_1868_CH_18197475-1024x659.jpeg\",\r\n        \"_768\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/4.-Drawing_Bernese_Alps_Switzerland_August_1868_CH_18197475-768x495.jpeg\",\r\n        \"_512\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/4.-Drawing_Bernese_Alps_Switzerland_August_1868_CH_18197475-512x330.jpeg\",\r\n        \"_265\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/4.-Drawing_Bernese_Alps_Switzerland_August_1868_CH_18197475-265x171.jpeg\"\r\n      },\r\n      \"w\": 1365,\r\n      \"h\": 879,\r\n      \"ar\": 0.643956043956044,\r\n      \"alt\": \"\",\r\n      \"caption\": \"<p style=\\\"line-height: 0.6;\\\"><span style=\\\"font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0em;\\\">Drawing of the Bernese Alps (1868), by Frederic Edwin Church. From Wikimedia Commons.<\/span><\/p>\"\r\n    },\r\n    {\r\n      \"type\": \"text\",\r\n      \"cont\": \"<p class=\\\"_Source\\\"><strong>7<\/strong> Margaret Thatcher, \u2018Victorian Values\u2019 TV Interview for London Weekend Television Weekend World. Transcript accessed at: https:\/\/www.margaretthatcher.org\/document\/105087.<span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\",\r\n      \"align\": \"top\",\r\n      \"row\": 14,\r\n      \"col\": 1,\r\n      \"colspan\": 5,\r\n      \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n      \"offsety\": 0,\r\n      \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n      \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n      \"yvel\": 1,\r\n      \"push\": 1,\r\n      \"relid\": 21,\r\n      \"frameOverflow\": \"\"\r\n    },\r\n    {\r\n      \"type\": \"img\",\r\n      \"cont\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/8.-Photograph_of_President_Reagan_walking_with_Prime_Minister_Margaret_Thatcher_at_Camp_David_-_NARA_-_198578.jpg\",\r\n      \"align\": \"top\",\r\n      \"row\": 15,\r\n      \"col\": 0,\r\n      \"colspan\": 4,\r\n      \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n      \"offsety\": 0,\r\n      \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n      \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n      \"yvel\": 1,\r\n      \"push\": 0,\r\n      \"relid\": 97,\r\n      \"attid\": 176,\r\n      \"sizes\": {\r\n        \"full\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/8.-Photograph_of_President_Reagan_walking_with_Prime_Minister_Margaret_Thatcher_at_Camp_David_-_NARA_-_198578.jpg\",\r\n        \"_1920\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/8.-Photograph_of_President_Reagan_walking_with_Prime_Minister_Margaret_Thatcher_at_Camp_David_-_NARA_-_198578-1920x2811.jpg\",\r\n        \"_1280\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/8.-Photograph_of_President_Reagan_walking_with_Prime_Minister_Margaret_Thatcher_at_Camp_David_-_NARA_-_198578-1280x1874.jpg\",\r\n        \"_1024\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/8.-Photograph_of_President_Reagan_walking_with_Prime_Minister_Margaret_Thatcher_at_Camp_David_-_NARA_-_198578-1024x1499.jpg\",\r\n        \"_768\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/8.-Photograph_of_President_Reagan_walking_with_Prime_Minister_Margaret_Thatcher_at_Camp_David_-_NARA_-_198578-768x1124.jpg\",\r\n        \"_512\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/8.-Photograph_of_President_Reagan_walking_with_Prime_Minister_Margaret_Thatcher_at_Camp_David_-_NARA_-_198578-512x750.jpg\",\r\n        \"_265\": \"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/8.-Photograph_of_President_Reagan_walking_with_Prime_Minister_Margaret_Thatcher_at_Camp_David_-_NARA_-_198578-265x388.jpg\"\r\n      },\r\n      \"w\": 2049,\r\n      \"h\": 3000,\r\n      \"ar\": 1.4641288433382138,\r\n      \"alt\": \"\",\r\n      \"frameOverflow\": \"left\",\r\n      \"caption\": \"<p style=\\\"line-height: 0.6;\\\"><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 12px;\\\">Photograph<\/span><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0em;\\\"> of Reagan walking with Thatcher at Camp David (1986). From the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, via Wikimedia Commons.<\/span><\/p>\"\r\n    },\r\n    {\r\n      \"type\": \"text\",\r\n      \"cont\": \"<h1 class=\\\"_HeadlineS\\\">Then and Now<\/h1><p class=\\\"_DefaultQ\\\">Under the cyclical movement of history, we can see clearly these conditions remerging. Parallel with the particularly American brand of nostalgia that fuelled Trump\u2019s campaign of Greatness, the last 10 years of British parliamentary politics can be understood to have the same Thatcherite-Reaganist reverie for an imagined nation. The appointment of George Osborne, former Conservative chancellor of the exchequer, as director of the British Museum is perhaps the most patent cultural expression of this.<\/p><p class=\\\"_DefaultQ\\\">In Osborne\u2019s appointment, the constitution of history is recognised as integral in providing a legitimising backdrop for the contemporary Conservative Party\u2019s ideals. As this nostalgia for a Britain past becomes further entrenched in its institutions, the position of the state to reproduce this mythologised past continues to develop momentum. While Osborne\u2019s appointment may be more symbolic than practical, it is at the very least emblematic of the understanding of the importance of holding authority over the definition of one\u2019s political and cultural heritage. As Benjamin states, Whoever has emerged victorious participates to this day in the triumphal procession in which the present rulers step over those who are lying prostrate.<\/p><p class=\\\"_DefaultQ\\\">From its inception, even as a medical condition, nostalgia emerged as a politicised phenomenon. In binding it to a space, notably to that of an imagined homeland, rather than a specific body, nostalgia was made geo-politically efficacious. As its medical definition dissolved, its social power rose.<\/p><p class=\\\"_DefaultQ\\\">We must recognise then, against moralising, that political myth is not simply a tool in the battle for legitimacy. Political myth is the tool by which both hearts and minds are captured, and its binding to the conceptualisation of the nation-state and its civil subject has proven efficacious. Against any claims to a post-truth age, in this mode, history provides no evidence to be presented in a debate of veracity, but rather a framework in which to read events through a political lens. Benjamin\u2019s enemies are those with control over the framing of history, which of course is always written by its victors, the holders of state (and thus discursive) power. It is the function of history to intervene in these debates, to produce myths and imaginaries beyond their binding to the nation-state. We must maintain, construct, and distribute images of the past in which we can find the agency of those who would lead us to a less barbarous future.<\/p>\",\r\n      \"align\": \"top\",\r\n      \"row\": 15,\r\n      \"col\": 4,\r\n      \"colspan\": 6,\r\n      \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n      \"offsety\": 0,\r\n      \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n      \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n      \"yvel\": 1,\r\n      \"push\": 0,\r\n      \"relid\": 20,\r\n      \"frameOverflow\": \"\"\r\n    },\r\n    {\r\n      \"type\": \"text\",\r\n      \"cont\": \"<p class=\\\"_Source\\\"><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\"><strong>8<\/strong> Benjamin, \u201cTheses on the Philosophy of History,\u201d in <em>Illuminations<\/em>, 256.<\/span><span style=\\\"font-weight: 400;\\\"><br \/><br \/><\/span><\/p>\",\r\n      \"align\": \"top\",\r\n      \"row\": 16,\r\n      \"col\": 4,\r\n      \"colspan\": 5,\r\n      \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n      \"offsety\": 0,\r\n      \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n      \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n      \"yvel\": 1,\r\n      \"push\": 4,\r\n      \"relid\": 23\r\n    },\r\n    {\r\n      \"type\": \"text\",\r\n      \"cont\": \"<p class=\\\"_DefaultQ\\\"><br \/><strong>George Jepson<\/strong> is a writer, researcher, and editor. Currently, he is a Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain funded PhD Candidate at the Architectural Association in London. He tutors students in History and Theory at both the Architectural Association and is course assistant on the Projective Cities MPhil programme at the AA and has taught at the Royal College of Art, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh, and University of Manchester. For Summer 2022, he was a doctoral resident at the Canadian Centre for Architecture and is Gilles Worsley Fellow 2022\/23 at the British School at Rome.<\/p>\",\r\n      \"align\": \"top\",\r\n      \"row\": 18,\r\n      \"col\": 3,\r\n      \"colspan\": 6,\r\n      \"offsetx\": 0,\r\n      \"offsety\": 0,\r\n      \"spaceabove\": 0,\r\n      \"spacebelow\": 0,\r\n      \"yvel\": 1,\r\n      \"push\": 3,\r\n      \"relid\": 19,\r\n      \"frameOverflow\": \"\"\r\n    }\r\n  ]\r\n}","phonegrid":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kajetjournal.com\/thefutureof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}