Abstract
This article argues for the value of “bad collectivity” to educate and encourage citizens estranged from democratic practices, traditions, and institutions, to participate in the process of democratic will-formation. Originating in Ben Lerner’s novel 10:04, bad collectivity refer to moments of collective identification with injury that briefly transcend a culture of individualism which identifies freedom in terms of legal rights, rather than association, and a splintered and increasingly privatized public sphere. Considering Black Lives Matter an example of bad collectivity, I show how the movement has made injury rather than a progressive historical narrative the normative basis of participation.
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