Why mass mobilizations don’t last. A conversation with Rodrigo Nunes

Why is it that when masses become politically engaged on a worldwide scale, those great mobilizations often dissolve just as fast as they appeared before achieving their ultimate goals? Is there something we get wrong about political organizing that prevents people from organizing effectively? In his book Neither Vertical nor Horizontal. A Theory of Political Organization, Rodrigo Nunes argues that the left gets stuck on ideological fallacies that prevent them from ever having a chance at being effective. Nunes is a brasilian philosopher who promotes an approach based on pragmatism rather than on fixed models. According to Nunes, an organization should always consider the ecology of the political environment and choose its strategy focusing on the best possible result achievable with the available means. Should organization be more hierarchical or more democratic? Is the local dimension irrelevant with respect to the great scheme of the global economy and great geopolitical events? These and other questions we will try to answer in this conversation with Nunes. We hope this interview will help current political movements and activists to avoid the mistakes of the past and learn how to better approach the many great tragedies of our time.