What is Existential Politics?

Hello, my name is Ben Cobley and this is Existential Politics. You may be asking what on earth does ‘existential politics’ mean? As I see it, it is a way of approaching politics, not just as the stuff that politicians do but as the way we all relate to each other and the world more generally. There is so much interesting stuff going on beneath the surface of life which is often left untapped by normal political discourse. These are the things I will seek to explore.

This is the same sort of approach I used in my book, The Tribe: the liberal-left and the system of diversity, which is focused on contemporary identity politics associated with the liberal-left. Here, I will continue to explore those same themes. However I am looking to apply the approach more widely, for example in looking at the fundamentally progressive nature of our politics, culture and institutional life – not just in the United Kingdom, but elsewhere too.

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I am offering a mix of ‘public’ and paid-for content. If you wish to subscribe just for free stuff, you will receive an estimated one article per month to your inbox. Paid subscribers (at either US$5/£3.70 per month or US$40/£30 per year) will receive a minimum of two or three additional posts per month with a much more personalised perspective – discussing events, people, books and institutions in a more frank, informal manner, in a way I wouldn’t do in public posts. There will be an emphasis on critique: and not just of easy targets.

Paid subscribers will also be able to comment on posts and gain full access to my archive, including well over a hundred blog posts from my old blog, A Free Left Blog.

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British writer Ben Cobley's distinctive, existential take on politics and culture.

People

Writer and journalist. Author of 'The Tribe: the liberal-left and the system of diversity' (Societas, 2018). Ex-Labour. Into books, thought, classical music.