[Book review] Politics of indignation : imperialism, postcolonial disruptions and social change, by Peter Mayo

Abstract

Around the end of 2010, Peter Mayo decided to explore writing online. I was quietly intrigued to see that Mayo had taken up ‘blogging’ and publishing online op-eds, since we had often discussed the opportunity social technologies afford academics wishing to reach out to people who would not normally gravitate towards university libraries, or who do not have access to academic journals online. Between 2010 and 2012, Mayo published several posts in online media outlets such as Truthout, Counterpunch and Gramsci Oggi, and clearly relished the new-found freedom to write and publish in real time, with a sense of urgency, about global events. The majority of the twelve articles in The Politics of Indignation are reworked versions of these original posts. Together with new material, the end result is what Mayo calls a compendium for our ‘hard though interesting times’ (p. 1): a slim book in which there is much to savour and unravel. There are two overarching, interrelated themes in this book. The first is an impassioned attack on the workings of neoliberalism and the vagaries of the marketplace; the second is a call to arms to resist the gradual destruction of critical spaces, not least spaces for critical education.