Description
A central node in this contribution to the Handbook is the Digital Pale, understood as a kind of modified or updated version of the digital divide. It has specific resonance in the Irish case; for centuries ‘The Pale’ was a zone of British colonial governance on the east coast of Ireland that was ‘settled’ and considered ‘safe,’ while ‘beyond the pale’ was considered a zone barbarism. Through an engagement with Mark Fisher’s work on capitalist realism, the paper then discusses the continued salience of socialist strategy: After a long hiatus or diversion into some of the worst aspects of new left politics, such as an overly optimistic appraisal on the potential of multiplicity, localism, the politics of irony and flannerie, but above all a rejection of the utility of working thru the state (the popularity of which we can claim is symptomatic of the victory of neoliberalism not only in destroying social institutions, but also our very confidence in collective action), material pressures are such in the next 20-50 year timeframe that left party politics returns!
