Revenge of the Real: Politics for a Post-pandemic World
- Downloads：9426
- Type：Epub+TxT+PDF+Mobi
- Create Date：2021-07-11 06:52:24
- Update Date：2025-09-06
- Status：finish
- Author：Benjamin Bratton
- ISBN：183976256X
- Environment：PC/Android/iPhone/iPad/Kindle
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Reviews
Steve
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This was exactly the thrill ride I needed after wading through the muck of political takes on pandemics， populism， epidemiology， and automation the last year and a half。 Bratton manages to construct， out of the same sloggy material I did not want to step in anymore， a wonderful blueprint for writing， thinking， and articulating post-pandemic life for the next decade。The book begins with a premise too simple to really be acceptable。 It took me a while - maybe 40 pages - to finally get it。 The core This was exactly the thrill ride I needed after wading through the muck of political takes on pandemics， populism， epidemiology， and automation the last year and a half。 Bratton manages to construct， out of the same sloggy material I did not want to step in anymore， a wonderful blueprint for writing， thinking， and articulating post-pandemic life for the next decade。The book begins with a premise too simple to really be acceptable。 It took me a while - maybe 40 pages - to finally get it。 The core argument of Bratton's post pandemic politics is to construct a positive， social justice and humanistic biopolitics as a response to negative biopolitics。 The advantage here is that instead of throwing away all the good by decrying "surveillance" or "authority" or "global order" in totality， we can make partial critiques on these articulations of power in the terms of how well they address human needs。Humans， for Bratton， are much more biological than spiritual。 This again is not a binary， but a wonderful blending of what are often two oppositional tropes in books about governance， Foucault， and power。 Bratton goes to great lengths to show that humanity - even individualism - is a joint。 It's a hang between besties of the biological form and the intellectual feel of the being。 With this as the basis， Bratton works out the need for layers of touch， layers of care， abstraction， and modeling that without a complex understanding of power would be dismissed as a thin excuse for a social control regime。 In the end， Bratton wants to consider governance a global stack of data - theorized as an archive rather than a specific collection modeled for gain （think Facebook） - that can care for the individual by abstracting them as a biological body in a situation and delivering just care。 The impetus for this reimagining is the idea that we have come out of COVID and lockdown into the ultimate dream of neoliberalism - all aspects of society have been dissolved， except for police power。 We need new ways of imagining resistance that are not based solely on immediate care without superstructures or distant organizations or what we will be left with is a governmental organization founded by and within the logic of police control。 This is a refreshing read on biopolitics。 I really like what's being suggested。 It's incomplete and feels like an invitation to us to take up one of the chapters and "flesh it out，" bad pun intended。 Positive biopolitics in service of humanity rather than institutional， rudderless incompetence is what needs to be further theorized。 Bratton says best what his goal is in this book explicity: "Read Foucault better。 The blueprint as been delivered; let's get to writing our way to a better global governance of living and feeling human beings。 。。。more
Leif
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