Re: <nettime> 10 Preliminary Theses on Trump

[Ian Alan Paul <ianalanpaul@gmail.com>]

   "Is you 10th thesis calling for a revolution without using the word.

   If so why not? Why avoid the word? Has it become tarnished by
   carrying too much historical baggage ? Or does te word simply
   not cover what it is you are trying to say?"

   Thank you for this question David ~ I certainly think it's an important
   one. Especially now.

   I hesitate to use the word revolution because the relationship between
   what we might call the "history of revolutionary movements" and the
   present remains unclear to me (this is also why I hesitate to use the
   term "fascism" in this text).

   When I drew attention to the absence of the word "revolution" during my
   talk in Amsterdam a few days ago, it was in connection to two other
   points I was trying to make:

   (1) : The tendency of those in attendance to describe them/ourselves as
   "radical leftists," another term which I think I would like to hold
   onto in some regard but am also unsure of how it maps onto the present
   conjuncture. It's possible we're in a moment where a left/right
   distinction is becoming less important in some ways, particularly in
   the political space of the state, and so perhaps it's time to either
   leave the term behind or alternatively to forcefully redefine it by
   laying out the new kinds of stakes that this situation requires of us.

   (2) : As my talk was reflecting on the historical emergence of
   Disciplinary Societies, and in turn Control Societies, I wanted to
   intentionally trouble forms of resistance that imagined that a
   reconsolidation of power could be an effective means of opposing recent
   developments (as you'll recall, some of the talks openly proposed that
   we should invest in Control Societies as a means of pushing back
   against Brexit/Trump/etc., something which I oppose). This of course is
   also part of the history of revolutions (the tendency of resistance to
   call forth new forms of power), and so I wanted to make this dynamic
   explicit in some sense for our thinking.

   One thing that remains perfectly clear to me is that we lack models for
   what successfully resistance looks like in the present, and so now is
   the time for what I would call speculative or experimental resistance.
   I think we should be striking out in different directions both as a
   kind of cartographic activity (as a means of understanding the current
   configurations/limits/concentrations/flows of power) and as a means of
   perhaps finding ourselves finally able to, as I say in my text, "make
   possible that which cannot be under capitalism."

   Best,

   ~i

On Thu, Jan 26, 2017 at 11:22 AM, David Garcia <d.garcia@new-tactical-research.co.uk> wrote:

     Thank you Ian for these cogent thoughts..
     I have one question for you:
 <...>

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