ORIGINALLY published in 2007 as Dream, this polemic from Stephen Duncombe has been retitled to reflect the recent resurgence of ultra-conservative politics.

Fascinating but flimsily argued, it calls for a reassessment of progressive approaches to campaigning and persuading. Duncombe’s thesis is that the left tends to “uncritically privilege rationality, reason and self-revelatory truth,” while the right has shifted to a more successful approach based on improvisation, spectacle and “dreampolitik” — the creation of political fantasies — and it is argued that we live in an age of fantasy.

During the George W Bush administration, a presidential aide suggested the world was analysed by “the reality-based community” while reality was created and acted upon by conservatives. Duncombe believes the left is drifting into irrelevance due to our preference for “the solace of the known” and reverence for logical evidence.  

In the 1960s, the Situationists sought to disrupt rational thought and build a post-capitalist reality and the author argues that we need to return to a loosely defined form of politics, attuned to popular culture and based on the power of the imagination.

He acknowledges that there is no guarantee that this strategy will succeed but we should attempt to implement it because the current dominance of the right means we have little to lose and he adopts a hectoring tone: “The rationality and reason that once freed us from authority now make us equivocating cowards.”

In spite of this, Duncombe accepts that the history of such leaps of faith have been ones of anti-democratic and anti-worker initiatives — the flipside of the Situationist actions is the Nuremberg Rallies.

A range of transformational models is presented, with Las Vegas described as a spectacle that respects its audience. The carjacking fantasies of Grand Theft Auto become a safe expression of dangerous desire and it is claimed the tools of advertising can foster aspirations for a better world.

I accept the author’s contention that the left needs to be less precious about its messages and methods but Duncombe’s thinking seems grounded in an ethos of winning at all costs. If we embrace the culture of mainstream capitalism, the cost may be any chance of meaningful social change.

Duncombe presents his position as optimistic but the “nothing to lose” argument smacks of defeatism. His justification for an embrace of dreampolitik is based on the stark assertion that public life no longer occurs in the well-ordered realm of the rational.

But is this true? There is little evidence that the election of Boris Johnson in 2019 was secured through the Tories’ “willingness to dream.” The realpolitik of a media controlled by Tory-supporting owners and executives was a more significant factor.

Dream or Nightmare is absorbing but it’s a deeply flawed assessment of the challenge of communicating progressive ideas.

Published by OR Books, £15.