My Take | How to make sense of politics in a world of confusion
- New book by Canadian author Naomi Klein teaches how to be intellectually ‘non-binary’ in an age where old political categories are falling apart or morphing into each other
Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World, by Naomi Klein
For the longest time, I confused Naomi Klein, the Canadian political writer and leftist activist, with Naomi Wolf, the one-time feminist icon and now full-time conspiracy theorist and anti-vaxxer par excellence. Both are famous journalists and bestselling authors. Both are Jewish and, at one time, had partners/husbands named Avi.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who was confused. The phenomenon plagued Klein for much of her career and bothered her so much she finally wrote a book about it.
The literary conceit was intriguing; I am not sure it worked out in the end. Here, there seems to be two books. One is amusing, often funny, and full of anecdotes like the time when she was in a public toilet while two women outside complained about how much Naomi Klein had changed from writing cogent political critiques to now advocating outlandish claims about the “tyranny” of Covid vaccine mandates.
The other book which is dying to come out may have been one of the most important political analyses of our age – about the cross-overing and disintegration of political and economic categories, or in the case of people – how they become their double or doppelganger.
Of course, the phenomenon is not new, but its contemporary iteration must be understood for us to appreciate why it’s so difficult to talk sense or debate current affairs. Many of yesterday’s categories and labels are not fit for purpose any more.