There’s a ponderousness to ‘citizen’ and ‘comrade’ that doesn’t sound right; it makes casual conversation sound like declamatory dialogue. Still, at least in their conception, citizen and comrade were symptoms of republican modernity, new words for a more equal world. It’s why they sign up to drill every morning, join vigilante militias, perform chest-slicing salutes, and voluntarily disfigure themselves as chowkidars on social media. Without a republican vocabulary of their own, chowkidars use liberalism’s words minus their universality. No service ranks higher than the violent disciplining of suspect citizens, no solidarity is more exhilarating than the swarming of a mob.

Source: The Telegraph May 05, 2019 03:00 UTC