The Aestheticisation of Politics: When Anger Becomes Art and Art Becomes Policy

Walter Benjamin's observation, from his 1935 essay on the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction, was precise and terrifying: fascism seeks to "introduce aesthetics into political life." This aestheticisation serves a specific function — it channels genuine political grievances into spectacular forms that create a sense of participation without altering the underlying structure of power.

The political rally becomes a theatrical production. The leader becomes a performer whose audience participates not in deliberation but in affect. Policy is replaced by atmosphere. Complexity is replaced by beauty, or by its inverted form: the beautiful simplicity of hatred, which is to say, the relief of having a coherent explanation for one's suffering.

The Contemporary Form

Benjamin's analysis was written in response to a specific political formation with a specific aesthetic programme. The contemporary equivalent is structurally similar but aesthetically dispersed. It does not operate through the monumental rally or the unified visual grammar of a regime. It operates through the feed — the infinite, personalised, algorithmically curated stream of images, clips, and statements, each optimised for emotional impact rather than informational content.