Living the Hyperobject: Structures of Feeling as COVID and Black Lives Matter

Mercy-wear: “I won't hurt you,” an orientation to the future 

In Hell I argue that COVID and Black Lives Matter (simultaneous!) are (not just were) planet-scale political awareness being born. Living the hyperobject. Elad Nehorai has written something very important about this. 

I feel them. You feel them. Others feel them but they might not know. The might not grok the magnitude. “Structure of feeling” is an under-theorized Marxist concept in the work of Raymond Williams which I have sharpened in my recent work to mean proto-ideology, ideology (how we live our world) from the future. Black Lives Matter and the concurrent COVID vibes were and are structures of feeling that literally shaped or structured how people voted. Around the world, people threw out existing governments in the wake of COVID. 

This essay, recommended by erstwhile NAACP LDF director Sherilyn Ifill, really really gets to this. Ifill has penned the most significant essays on why Kamala lost of all, so if she's recommending something, it's good. Period. 

Read this and then watch what I also take to be a related and very important approach, that of Bandy Lee and her World Mental Health Coalition, which I'll embed next. 

Here are links to my reading of Ifill's brilliant essays: 

Part 1

Part 2

I thank my friend Andy Wilson for helping me think about this these last couple of days. 

The Deeper Reasons Democrats Lost by Elad Nehorai

It wasn't just that Trump got more votes. It wasn't just that Harris had lower turnout. A deep dive into the psychological, existential, and systemic reasons Harris and Democrats didn't win in 2024.

Read on Substack