History's sides: How people morally inscribe themselves into fractured times

Abstract

This article considers how people think about history in terms of its ‘sides’. When people claim to be on the ‘right side’ – or denounce others as being on the ‘wrong side’ – of history, they simultaneously evoke a (culturally specific) concept of ‘history’ and morally evaluate its passage. This article thinks about this process with reference to the interplay between what Michael Lambek identifies as ‘historical consciousness’ and ‘historical conscience’. In a global sociopolitical context which is increasingly fragmenting and where the old order is challenged, the evocation of history's sides is a means by which people find fixity and morally inscribe themselves into time.