ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
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The weakness of the radical right
GAVIN O’TOOLE welcomes an analysis of the radical right in Latin America as polarising ‘influencers’ who ignore material values
THE BOLSONARO EFFECT: Illegal logging at the Gurupi Biological Reserve and the Caru and Alto Turiacu indigenous lands in Maranhao province in northeastern Brazil
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
MICK McSHANE rubs shoulders with Mod legend Steve Craddock and joins in with the joyous Glasgow choir
DENNIS BROE sifts out the ideological bias of the newest TV series offerings, and picks out what to see, and what to avoid
The Recasting of the Latin American Right: Polarisation and Conservative Reactions
Edited by Andre Borges, Ryan Lloyd, and Gabriel Vommaro, Cambridge University Press, £29.99
THE hidden backdrop to the rise of the far right in Europe has been the “silent revolution” of post-materialism identified in the late 1970s by Ronald Inglehart.
The embrace by a materially comfortable new generation of values reflecting non-material goals — from gender diversity to radical decolonial and racial theories — goes a long way towards explaining the positions staked out by the left in today’s culture wars.
The long-term secular trend suggests that those positions, however, are destined to fail, because not only has the mainstream left largely abandoned class as the organising principle of mobilisation, it is also losing the ephemeral cultural battles it has chosen to fight in its stead.
Latin America may still have a chance to avoid this historic error, even if all the signs suggest that the radical right in the region, witnessing their own left-wing adversaries repeat the mistakes of their European counterparts, has smelled blood.
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