Political despair: that's what we should guard against, W. says. Political defeatism.
The danger is that we are love the loss of politics, W. says. That we are happy with it; that we depend on it. That we love Britain, even as we pretend to hate it. That we love our own inertia, our attachment to failure.
Didn't Benjamin warn us of left-wing melancholy?, W. says. Didn't he fear that what interests us least is the possibility of politics?, he says. The danger is that we no longer believe in politics. That we do not hate capitalism strongly enough! That we do not hate Britain with sufficient strength!
How can we transform despair into hope?, W. wonders. How, a sense of the end of politics into the dawn of politics?