Tiqqun’s concept of “the Bloom” comes from their 1999 text "Introduction to Civil War" a provocative, poetic, and philosophical critique of modern subjectivity under capitalism and the state.
The Bloom is Tiqqun’s name for the contemporary anonymous individual produced by modern capitalist society—a person stripped of social bonds, cultural rootedness, or collective identity. It draws its name from Leopold Bloom, the alienated, wandering protagonist of James Joyce’s Ulysses, who Tiqqun sees as a prototype of this depersonalized modern figure.
For Tiqqun, understanding the Bloom is key to diagnosing the condition of modern subjectivity. They argue that to resist the system, people must first recognize their Bloom-like condition and then find ways to reconstitute new forms of community, solidarity, and revolt.
While Tiqqun presents the Bloom as a symptom of alienation and control, they also suggest that this very emptiness and disconnection can become the basis for revolt. If Blooms can recognize each other in their shared estrangement, they might begin to build new forms of relation and resistance, outside the frameworks of state, work, and identity.
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