Sartre's second century

212 Chapter Fourteen
never fail to remind us. I would argue that if any such alternative ever
emerges, Sartre's work is likely to be intrinsic to its theoretical foundation.
However, for the moment we have sought to consider his philosophy in
relation to the infestation of contemporary obscurantisms. It surely
provides an invaluable basis for understanding "how mumbo-jumbo
conquered the world", to cite the title of Francis Wheen's recent volume, 23
as a prelude to this quotation from Aronson:
Whatever struggles may now occur, however fierce they may become, they
will take place within "the framework of retotalized retotalization." This is
the key to understanding the relationship between groups and masses in
history. But it is ignored by positivist historians [emphasis added] who see
only active forces acting on the passive masses—as if a physical force is
engaged in some "natural" process. Sartre's theme of "retotalization" on
the contrary allows us to grasp the intelligibility of this otherwise puzzling
phenomenon: "the action of action on action". The totalizing action of the
leaders (the totalization of directed retotalizations) depends on the action of
the led (retotalized totalizations) for its success. 24
Aronson is also the author of The Dialectics of Disaster: A Preface to
Hope. It was published over twenty years ago, when the menace of nuclear
war was still regarded as the most threatening planetary issue. Possibly it
would now be appropriate to reverse the terms of the title, and write
instead on the theme of: "The dialectic of hope: a preface to disaster"—
something which Sartre would have been admirably equipped to do. The
loss of the transcendent hope represented by socialism in its different
varieties (or its pale welfare equivalent in the USA), of the presumption
that a different order of things was possible from that of the commodification
of human relationships with the market as supreme arbiter, has
opened the door to the entry, on a mass scale, of ancient prejudices into the
public consciousness as ersatz substitutes. However, not in their ancient
form, 25 but subject to the dialectic of modernity, which is liable, if
anything, to render them not less obscurantist but, on the contrary, even
more so.
It is indicative that the anti-globalisation movements, whatever their merits,
concentrate on negative critique and do not propose an alternative economic order
that will stand up to scrutiny.
23
Wheen does not in fact explain how, but rather confines himself to describing
the species of mumbo-jumbo.
24
Aronson, Second Critique, 136.
25
See for example Ernest Gellner, Postmodernism, Reason and Religion, 1992.