In an age thick with anger and fear, we live in bodies that feel increasingly unsafe. We might dream of a purely rational politics but it would be a denial of our human nature.
We live in bodies that feel increasingly unsafe. Pandemics, climate change, sexual assault, systemic racism, the pressures of gig-economy jobs, the crisis of liberal democracy – these phenomena create feelings of vulnerability that are, quite literally, visceral. They are visceral in the sense that emotional experience arises from how our physiological organs – from our guts and lungs to our hearts and hormonal systems – respond to an ever-changing world. They’re also political, in that our feelings affect and are affected by political decisions and behaviour. What does it mean to be a 'political animal' in the 21st century of ‘emo-cratic’ politics?
Visceral politics lies at the intersection of the body’s physiology and political behaviour. It’s informed by aligning the life sciences, social sciences and humanities to provide insights into how human emotions are created and experienced.
Read this Essay on #visceralpolitics published in Aeon
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