Subversive Aesthetics: José Ortega y Gasset and the Revolt of the Alt-Right

• In Event: Revisiting The Revolt of the Masses in an Age of Global Populism

Abstract

In the 1930s, José Ortega y Gasset’s The Revolt of the Masses was held up as offering political and economic nostrums for addressing the rise of fascism and totalitarianism. Today, with the resurfacing of populist rebellion against conventional politics, Ortega is again being called upon to diagnose the political ills of the Western world. But unfortunately, now as then, Ortega is more often a stand-in for preconceived political positions rather than someone whose thought is carefully engaged and analyzed. This paper provides a new perspective on Ortega by supplying a nuanced analysis of Ortega’s understanding of the “mass-man” phenomenon alongside a reading of Ortega’s aesthetic philosophy. Drawing on Ortega’s aesthetics, as found in his Dehumanization of Art, allows us to better conceptualize the subversive nature of the mass-man’s revolt. The paper then applies this understanding of the “revolt of the masses” to a concrete contemporary phenomenon: the meme culture of the American “alt-right.” The paper analyzes the use of memes by the alt-right through an ortegan lens, showing that their use of memes can be understood as a means of subverting conventional politics and morality. Their memes “dehumanize” the content of their politics in such a way as to facilitate the easy transmission of what are generally accepted to be reprehensible ideas. Humor and irony enable them to broach topics that would otherwise be deemed taboo. Ortega helps to throw the subversive nature of these memes into high relief.

Author

• Brendon Westler, St. Olaf College