Introduction: Complicity and Dissent, or Why We Need Solidarity between Struggles

Growing pressure from politicians and corporations has thrown into question the very legitimacy of opposition and critique. A language of political affirmation has confused and misled the public, driving many to adopt a cynical attitude to politics. The result has been a rapid decline of legitimate critique, the rise of populism, and a growing tendency to squelch civil disobedience with a militarized police force. The introduction to the special issue considers the role of the complicit/dissenting intellectual in history and literature, politics and law. It explores the genealogy of the terms, as well as conditions for their appearance in our contemporary world. The introduction follows the advice of leading scholars, who contributed to this issue, in calling for “solidarity between struggles”— when one extends a sense of right and wrong beyond one’s immediate identity or a vague universal understanding of “right.”