[...]political prisoners

consciousness as reason ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> double sense of being unmoored from explanatory and thus ="trms">causal logics rooted in ='thdf'>the idea of ="trms">interest and expressed as a faith in the liberatory capacity of knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge

bearers of popular political ="trms">agency

mediatized neoliberalizing ="trms">world

="large lg2" stl="font-size:112%"> (identification with middle classness ='lgc'>[its universal ="trms">interests='lgc'>] ='lgc'>='lgc'>-->) aspiring to classlessness

spirit mediums dressing themselves in the costumes of ancient priests

inadvertent and accidental politicization ='lgc'>='lgc'>='lgc'>~=> an awkward form ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> opening to the liberation of the political from ="trms">historical determination and its various teleologies

the fall of Soviet ="trms">socialism ='lgc'>='lgc'>==>
="lsts lst1">•disorientation of structures within which op="trms">position to the injustices of the capitalism could be ="trms">articulated
="lsts lst1">•more ethical conception of democracy


(rethinking the conditions of) posibility for political organization (and political forms)

="prgrph">-(let's not) programmatic politics ='lgc'>--reverting='lgc'>='lgc'>--> to a parodic reinstantiation of older oligarchic forms
="prgrph">-(let's not) reduction of accidental to trauma ='lgc'>[='lgc'>='lgc'>~= incapacity to speak='lgc'>]

crowd='lgc'>: a context in which one can become subject to powers that exceed one ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> for which spirit possession offers a normative form

the crowd lends people an ="trms">instrument by which they can become audible (to the extend that they lose their own particular voice) ='lgc'>='lgc'>~= the medium lends a body to the spirit who can speaks in a voice from elsewhere

='lgc'>[='strcls'>*='lgc'>]crowd='lgc'>: a mode of the (political) ="trms">sublime ='lgc'>: one dies as a subject to be recognized as a citizen(= one who has a voice)

="large lg14" stl="font-size:129%"> ='strcls'>*sorcery='lgc'>: the ="trms">translation of one fact into the form of another='strcls'>*

an antecedent rendered as cause

when we say something needs retrospection, it means ="trms">narration (that allows the accidental to appear as that which will recur, not an ="trms">anxious anticipation, but ='strcls'>*a resolute commitment to an ethics of the event) ='lgc'>=/= retrospection structured only by the ="trms">question of o="trms"nttrm="righ,rigo,riga,rigi,trig,rign">rigin (='lgc'>='lgc'>--> an approach to ='strcls'>*curing trauma='strcls'>*)

="large lg6" stl="font-size:134%"> (sustainable forms of) ="trms">social good and distributive justice

ghosts ='lgc'>='lgc'>~= signs of reason's fai="trms"nttrm="failure,blur,plur,lurk,tallur,slur">lure
="lsts lst1">•fai="trms"nttrm="failure,blur,plur,lurk,tallur,slur">lure ='lgc'>=/= absence of rational faculties
="lsts lst1">•='lgc'>[='strcls'>*='lgc'>]reason='lgc'>: that which arises to transcend a kind of being that would live only in the mode of the accidental

="ppl">="ppl">Morris's ‘giving up ghosts’ ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>***an acknowledgment of the accidental ground on which reason enacts the enabling violence of its regulative ideals='strcls'>***
="prgrph">-='strcls'>*enabling violence='strcls'>* ='lgc'>--='lgc'>{trauma ='lgc'>=/= accident='lgc'>}='lgc'>='lgc'>--> accidental events (such as the convergence of a crowd in a street in Bangkok) can precisely be rendered as the “ground” of ="trms">socially transformative politics and institutional ="trms">interventions (without o="trms"nttrm="righ,rigo,riga,rigi,trig,rign">riginal motivations)

(='qstn'>?what is at stake in elaborating the ="trms">relationship between ='lgc'>[="ppl">Derrida's='lgc'>]='lgc'>:)
="lsts lst1">•grounding ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="trms">gesture of rational calculation and decision making
="lsts lst1">•running ground ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> moment of accident when the boat touches bottom and is immobilized

(we can never) guarantee its own effectivity
(cannot know that if it is effect or cause)

(='lgc'>[can we ever='qstn'>?='lgc'>] resist) melancholy eschatology


(='qstn'>?) the ="trms">gesture of politicization must be made repeatedly='lgc'>='lgc'>---often in ="trms">situations that arise as though accidentally

...how the experience of the political as accidental (in popular mobilization during the 1990s) was also (at least partly) ="trms">written into the ="trms">interior of another discourse about the impossibility of change ='lgc'>[='lgc'>~ neoliberalism's triumph and the end of ="trms">history='lgc'>]

binarism of the war on terror resignifies older more disparate conflicts, and cultivates subjects who conceive of the political in these narrow op="trms">positional terms ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> to define the political as op="trms">position between friends and enemies

='strcls'>***power always works by claiming that the future is al="trms"nttrm="already,spread">ready determined by a ="trms">past ="trms">narrated from its perspective='strcls'>*** (='lgc'><='lgc'>-- ='thdf'>that is why ='mywrk'>my work is about the ="trms">past) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='lgc'>[='mywrk'>my work:='lgc'>] ='strcls'>*learning to think otherwise about both the ="trms">past and the future='strcls'>*

(the fai="trms"nttrm="failure,blur,plur,lurk,tallur,slur">lure of political ="trms">imagination in only speculating about the future)

='strcls'>*(the basis of) the political='lgc'>: transcendence of the accidental='strcls'>*

="ppl">="ppl">Morris shows how the potential force of the political depends on the recognition that it is not merely that which can be relegated to the ="trms">past

="display:block;white-space:nowrap;margin-bottom:-1em;overflow:hidden;">...................................

(Bubandt > ="ppl">="ppl">Morris > in Buli, North Maluku in Indonesia) witch="trms">craft='lgc'>: ambivalent aporia, the ="trms">interminable problem of life ='lgc'>='lgc'>~= empty seashell (shell in which there might or might not be an occupant, provides the de-sexualized figure for doubt that saturates the consciousness of those who inhabit the ="trms">world of witch="trms">craft, an ="trms">internally split subject)

="trms">anthropology of witch="trms">craft
='lgc'>--='not'>✕='lgc'>='lgc'>--> charges of residual exoticism by ="trms"nttrm="already,spread">reading witch="trms">craft ="trms">phenomena as sites at which the transformations of ="trms">modernity are mediated and made available for resignification
="prgrph">-to displace (witch="trms">craft) into the domain of re="trms">presentation ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> capacity to resignify the ="trms">historical real

lethal violence at Marikana (South Africa, August 2012) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> muti magic was a not ="trms">matter of resurgent tradition (for the black South African analysts), rather, magic was a ="trms">visceral, strategically ="trms">instrumentalizable, and absolutely lethal power. the kind that enables people to go to war, the kind that operates at the point where ="trms">language fails (='lgc'>--='qstn'>?='lgc'>='lgc'>--> the use of ="trms">poetic mystical enchantment in ="nms">Iran-Iraq war for sending young soldiers to the battle fields)

witch="trms">craft only becomes visible in the moment of accusation, as a retrospective effect of oracular diagnosis (Evans-Pritchard)
(...no one is sure that he has indeed heard a witch)='lgc'>--Bubandt='lgc'>='lgc'>--> witch="trms">craft='lgc'>: a condition of doubt (='lgc'>=/= a ="trms">system of belief)
='lgc'>--='not'>✕='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="ppl">="ppl">Morris ="trms">questions='lgc'>: doubt ='lgc'>=/=='qstn'>? belief

="ppl">="ppl">Morris asks ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> doubt='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•whether illness is caused by witch="trms">craft='qstn'>?
="lsts lst1">•whether one's neighbor is a witch='qstn'>?
="lsts lst1">•='strcls'>*whether one is oneself a witch='qstn'>?='strcls'>*

in Buli (='lgc'>=/= The Magicians TV series, Harry Potter film version of magic)='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•witch="trms">craft does not explain the ="trms">world
="lsts lst1">•witch="trms">craft is not an alternative mode of reasoning
="lsts lst1">•witch="trms">craft does not permit anyone to control the forces (that assault and wound human being)
="lsts lst1">•witch="trms">craft provides neither certitude nor escape from the ="trms">anxieties that death bears for the living

(the ="trms">interiority of the other is unknown and unknowable ='lgc'>='lgc'>==>)
='lgc'>[='strcls'>*='lgc'>]witch="trms">craft ='lgc'>==provides='lgc'>='lgc'>==>
="lsts lst1">•an idiom in which the ="trms">world's very immunity to explanation is affirmed (often with violent and terrifying consequence)
="lsts lst1">•figures and ="trms">narrative forms in which to address (also reproduce) the opacity and ambivalence of ="trms">sociality

='lgc'>[context:='lgc'>]
the other (like the empty seashell) is unknowable, though we must engage others and seek recognition from them to escape solitude and death ='lgc'>[...='lgc'>] in forms of giving and reciprocation that ="trms">demand generosity but that are also likely to provoke avarice ='lgc'>--emerge='lgc'>='lgc'>--> witch="trms">craft='lgc'>: a relentless ="trms">question about appearances and the problem of knowing what they disclose

="large lg6" stl="font-size:126%"> doubling of genitalia and mouth in Buli dream imagery

(marriage='lgc'>: to manage witch="trms">craft)
tradition “establishes the ideal format for conviviality” ='lgc'>==ensuring='lgc'>='lgc'>==> sexuality and ="trms">consumption are made the basis of ="trms">sociality ='lgc'>=/= witch="trms">craft (as a ="trms">perversion of marriage)

in Buli (against mis="trms">translation or misrecognition of the foreign ="trms">modern)='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•="frds scrmbld"nttrm="Christianson">Christian ="trms">missionization (19th and early 20th century, and again in the 1930s)
="lsts lst1">•="trms">modernist developmentalism and statism under Suharto
="lsts lst1">•="trms">technologization as="trms">sociated with ="trms">natural resource-based capitalism
='lgc'>}='lgc'>--scenario='lgc'>='lgc'>--> effort to become ="trms">modern ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> enter an order of truth and knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge (='lgc'>=/= dissimulation and doubt)

valorization of reciprocity (in Halmahera)

="ppl">="ppl">Morris asks='lgc'>: is not the coimbrication of doubt/belief precisely what the discourses of the Enlightenment ="trms">science, namely knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge through revelation of what is, promised to replace='qstn'>?

(Bubandt's assumptions in ="ppl">Kant/="ppl">="ppl">Morris terms='lgc'>:)
="lsts lst1">•doubt ='lgc'><='lgc'>== ="trms">anxiety, fear, suspicion, rage (='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="trms">affective dimension)
="lsts lst1">•doubt ='lgc'><='lgc'>== an incapacity to transcend the aporia that defines the ="trms">relation between the ="trms">="trms">empirical and the transcendental (='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="trms">epistemological dimension)

="large lg1" stl="font-size:121%"> “I have never seen a cannibal witch” ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="trms">anthropology's ="trms">epistemological conundrum (an a ="trms">priori postulate) ='lgc'>--="ppl">Kant='lgc'>='lgc'>--> an irreducible impasse between the ="trms">="trms">empirical and the transcendental, of the incapacity of sensory experience (intuition) to provide the basis of absolute knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge (='lgc'>=/= merely general knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge)

="ppl">="ppl">Foucault ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> intuition cannot ground knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge of the absolute ='lgc'>='lgc'>='lgc'>~=> knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge of individual human beings and their ="trms">="trms">empirical ="trms">histories cannot provide knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge of “the human”

Evans-Pritchard ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> witch="trms">craft satisfies the ="trms">demands for an explanation of the singular event='lgc'>: this death, of this individual, in this moment (not death in general)
='lgc'>='lgc'>~-> for Bubandt, witch="trms">craft='lgc'>: reproduction and valorization of this aporia (between the transcendental and the ="trms">="trms">empirical)

James Siegel naming the witch (not only a political ="trms">history but an investigation into the entire ="trms">history of ="trms">anthropological discourse on witch="trms">craft and sorcery)
="prgrph">-he links the crisis of recognition brought on by the collapse of an ="trms">authoritarian state that ='strcls'>*had appropriated for itself the function of recognition='strcls'>*, to the rise of witch="trms">craft accusations, to efforts to name a witch ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> witches and not witch="trms">craft were seen to proliferate after the fall of Suharto
="lsts lst1">•how the labor to designate the source of a menace that exceeds the ="trms">="trms">empirical and that fails to explain the singular is inevitably failed
="lsts lst1">•the misrecognizing belief that eliminating witches could eliminate witch="trms">craft

discern death drive in the very place that there is an effort to escape death

='lgc'>{ radical ="trms">="trms">empiricism='lgc'> = close ="trms"nttrm="already,spread">reading ='lgc'>}='lgc'>='lgc'>==> attentive ="trms"nttrm="listen,alist,ilist,llist,olist,ylist,ulist">listening

="display:block;white-space:nowrap;margin-bottom:-1em;overflow:hidden;">...................................
="large lg14" stl="font-size:110%">
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/689012

(two competing conceptions and aspirations,) two paradigms of ="trms">communication='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•an ideal public sphere that recognizes the task of mediation but also requires its effacement
="lsts lst1">•to bypass mediation through apparently immediate forms of speech that range from visual slogans to messianic utterances that can be heard even by the dead (='lgc'>='lgc'>--> frustrated by deferral)

="ppl">="ppl">Morris='lgc'>: the ="trms">social s="trms">cene is ="trms">technologically heterogeneous ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> epochal and ="trms">ontological schemata of mediatic displacement must thus be rethought

structure='lgc'>: an eruption of the mediaticity of the medium ="trms">onto the horizon of reflexive consciousness (="ppl">Kittler)

(in still decolonizing nations) the function of mediation has implicitly emerged as an agonistic exchange about the very possibility of exchange (not of deliberation) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> possibility of political re="trms">presentationalism

..stranded in its ="trms">imaginary between the twin phantasms of the mining town in postapartheid South Africa

aspiring to a radical openness and threatened by it...
limits and the contra="trms">dictions of democratic consciousness

environment as a ="trms">monstrous hybrid of statistical hysteria and ="trms">narrative compulsion as well as real violence (that takes its shape under conditions of largely racialized economic inequality)

='lgc'>[i have been working and ="trms"nttrm="listen,alist,ilist,llist,olist,ylist,ulist">listening to that which='lgc'>] call our attention to ='strcls'>***other spaces, identities, and structures of ="trms">obligation='strcls'>*** (='lgc'>=/= defensive strategies)

cell phones
="lsts lst1">•="trms">technological mediums of absent voices
="lsts lst1">•lighting up, buzzing, or ringing
="lsts lst1">•ciphers of a profane immanence
="lsts lst1">•fetishes in which are concealed the ="trms">histories of mining and labor elsewhere
="lsts lst1">•promise contact with elsewhere ='lgc'>+ obstacles to the desire for full ="trms">presence and the performative power of words ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> frustrated desire

a public whose ="trms">membership cannot be known in advance='lgc'>--even when ex="trms">="trms"nttrm="cluster,club">clusionary limits are constitutive of its domain ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='lgc'>[='strcls'>*='lgc'>]public sphere='lgc'>: ="trms">social formations enabled by ="trms">technomedia ="trms">phenomena (='lgc'>=/= spaces of rational deliberation and con="trms">sensus making='lgc'>--as in liberal political theory, public sphere characterized by deliberative processes)
='strcls'>*s="trms">cenes of overhearing='strcls'>* ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> public speaking makes that overhearing its goal

“migrant pirates of deindustrialization” (speak only to threaten) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> liberal op="trms">position between ="trms">language and violence ='lgc'>='lgc'>~='lgc'>~='lgc'>='lgc'>--> the ="trms">rhetorical grace appropriate to leadership (inauguration speech of Obama, his charisma emanated from his identification with a ="trms"nttrm="righ,rigo,riga,rigi,trig,rign">righteous struggle ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>*his being more than himself='strcls'>* ='lgc'>[='lgc'><='lgc'>-- young artist selflessness syndrome in aspiration with the ="trms"nttrm="righ,rigo,riga,rigi,trig,rign">right politcal cause='lgc'>])
zamazamas’ il="trms">literacy, not eligible for a public sphere that depends on ="trms">literacy. for without ="trms">literacy, they cannot submit to the law. ='strcls'>*defined in its essence by legality='strcls'>* (sustained by a desired op="trms">position between ="trms">language and violence)

a sig="trms">nature (sign your own name)='lgc'>: a form of ="trms">writing recognizable across all (mainly romanized) ="trms">languages and is the ideal condition of possibility of recognition from within its constitutional order

mimic the address of someone wit charisma (='lgc'>='lgc'>~= ="trms">authority)


(="ppl">="ppl">Morris on) mediaticity of speech (and not merely of media ="trms">technologies)

="ppl">="ppl">Morris ="trms"nttrm="already,spread">reading of a s="trms">cene (of quotidian exchange) in HIV/AIDS NGO office='lgc'>: a metonym and a ="trms">="trms"nttrm="metaph,metamorph,metabol,metal">metaphor for a kind of South African public sphere that aspires to in="trms">="trms"nttrm="cluster,club">clusiveness but is terrorized by its incapacity to know what that opens it up to
="lsts lst1">•arms itself against potentially aggressive others
="lsts lst1">•="trms">narratives of violence work ='strcls'>*to reinforce the sense of necessity='strcls'>* (for a general securitization)
="lsts lst1">•work in the mode of a ='strcls'>**negative meritocracy='strcls'>** (= those who would violate the ="trms"nttrm="righ,rigo,riga,rigi,trig,rign">rights of others are to be ex="trms"nttrm="cluster,club">cluded, but no others ='lgc'>--but='lgc'>='lgc'>--> how to know in advance who has perpetrated or intends to perpetrate such a violation='qstn'>?)

...in the shadow of ="trms">communicational ="trms">technology's ="trms">fashion industry
...bountiful banality of the ="trms">technologies and artifacts of mass reproducibility

='lgc'>[...='lgc'>] ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> lithography ='lgc'>--(superseded by)='lgc'>='lgc'>--> photography ='lgc'>--(gives way to)='lgc'>='lgc'>--> cinema ='lgc'>--(transformed by)='lgc'>='lgc'>--> sound ="trms">technology ='lgc'>--(displaced by)='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="trms">integrated and multiplatform digital media ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='lgc'>[...='lgc'>]
(teleological fantasy='lgc'>:) ="trms">ontologized in epochal schema (these sequences become something more and ="trms">different) ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> analog media are said to be displaced by digital media ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> logic of re="trms">presentation gives way to that of information
='lgc'>=/= (="ppl">="ppl">Morris ="trms">questioning) the conflation of media with mediation, which is itself ="trms">symptomatic of both a ="trms">technological determinism and an effort to ="trms">ontologize ="trms">technology ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> a crises of mediation (not media)='lgc'>: the ="trms">communicative aspiration and the presumptive unity of medium and message in ="trms">language are brought to their limit (='lgc'>='lgc'>--> media ="trms">technologies play a role in this drama, but they do not explain it. ='at'>@OSP ='and'>& ="frds scrmbld">Femke)

="prgrph">-women's understanding of improper English of Zuma's speech='lgc'>: a ="trms">communicational fail that (from their perspective) is as="trms">sociated with illegality, corruption, and violence

(not to embrace) the kind of logocentric ="trms">historiography that ="trms">imagines ="trms">literacy to constitute a secondary mediation of a primal and auto="trms">affective orality

witches='lgc'>: ='strcls'>*="trms">technicians of a speech='strcls'>* in which the identity between word and ="trms">world reaches its maximal extent, when the mere utterance of a spell (even when that utterance is non="trms">verbal) is thought to cause things to happen

zamazama's ="trms">literacy='lgc'>: the means for ="trms">communication across ="trms">difference ='lgc'>='lgc'>==> the mastery of mediation and thus its effacement (='lgc'>=/= signify the secondary mediation of a primary orality)

="large lg3" stl="font-size:112%"> ...a ="trms">society that is being reconstituted around a commitment to constitutional multi="trms">lingualism and democratic proceduralism

rituals of governmentality
delay and deferral

fantasy of immediacy ='lgc'>='lgc'>-->
="lsts lst1">•messianic movements
="lsts lst1">•direct-action politics
="lsts lst1">•various kinds of violence
="lsts lst1">•
='lgc'>}='lgc'>='lgc'>==> ="trms">language
="lsts lst1">•hollowed out of ambiguity
="lsts lst1">•pried away from subjectivity
="lsts lst1">•="trms">instrumentalized in slogans and catchphrases (from obsolescent ideological programs)

='strcls'>*violent drive to immediacy='strcls'>* (='lgc'>='lgc'>~= direct-action politics)

(more than) the leakage of ="trms">affect into a ritually rationa="trms"nttrm="listen,alist,ilist,llist,olist,ylist,ulist">list space

="large lg4" stl="font-size:110%"> trans="trms">mission and identification needs and secures the appearance of their exteriority

slogan ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ="trms">traverse the gap between word and deed, convert the difficult tasks of education and redistribution into the clarion call ='lgc'>='lgc'>~-> pop songs (anyone can utter these words and in so doing find themselves enthralled by the strange sensation of speaking someone else's words and ="trms">simultaneously experiencing them as one's own)
='strcls'>*slogan='lgc'>: a deeply reified speech (at once vacuous and overfull) at the point were the boundary between ="trms">language and thing threatens to dissolve ='lgc'>='lgc'>-->
="lsts lst1">•(its ="trms">communicative function='lgc'>:) ='strcls'>*soli="trms">citation of identity among speakers='strcls'>*
="lsts lst1">•(its primary signification='lgc'>:) the fact of ='strcls'>*collective utterance='strcls'>* (='lgc'>=/= dialogism)
='lgc'>[='strcls'>*='lgc'>]slogan='lgc'>: ="trms">litera="trms"nttrm="listen,alist,ilist,llist,olist,ylist,ulist">list ="trms">response to the mundane crises of mediation (in a political rally) ='lgc'>[reduced to the most ="trms">instrumental dimension='lgc'>][...]