From indignation to impasse: decoding the Zhina uprising with Spinoza’s theory of affects and group consciousness

The Zhina uprising, also known as the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement, erupted in Iran in September 2022 following the death of Mahsa Zhina Amini in custody, unleashing a wave of protest unprecedented in its affective intensity and cross-sectional participation. This paper analyzes the movement’s ultimate failure to achieve structural transformation through the integrated theoretical lens of Baruch Spinoza’s theory of affects and a framework of group consciousness derived from Georg Lukács and extended by feminist standpoint theory. It argues that while an initial affective contagion, driven by the passions of indignation and emulation, unified a diverse multitude, this unity proved fragile. The movement’s momentum was ultimately arrested by pre-existing, unmediated fractures in group consciousness—stemming from deeply divided standpoints among urban middle classes, national minorities, and the urban poor. The core thesis of this paper is that state repression, conceptualized not as mere brute force but as the strategic production of ‘sad passions’ (fear, hatred, superstition), actively exploited and exacerbated these internal fractures. This process of affective decomposition systematically eroded the multitude’s collective power (potentia), preventing the formation of a resilient, shared desire for structural change and leading the uprising from a moment of profound indignation to a state of political impasse. The paper offers an affective-cognitive model for analyzing the resilience and collapse of contemporary social movements under resilient authoritarianism.