WEBVTT

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and welcome to the wall exchange my name

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is Janice Sarah and I'm the director of

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the Peterborough Institute for Advanced

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Studies and a professor of law the Royal

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Exchange is a series of downtown

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lectures sponsored by the Peter wah

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Institute of Advanced Studies at the

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University of British Columbia and it's

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really dedicated to trying to advance

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innovative and fundamental research by

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bringing people together in a fulsome

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conversation about timely topics that

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are highly important to us as members of

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society and certainly tonight's

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conversation promises I think to

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generate a provocative and stimulating

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debate I'd like to thank the Georgia

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Strait magazine for co-sponsoring this

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event and to thank CBC Radio one ideas

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program its producer Kathleen flattery

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en

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I would ask you to please turn your cell

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phone ringer Soph I know people might be

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tweeting and things but we'd really like

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not to have the noise so just briefly to

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talk about the program this evening dr.

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Butler is going to speak for about 50

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minutes Charlie Smith will then serve as

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moderator for a 45-minute question and

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answer period Charlie Smith is an

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accomplished journalist senior editor of

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the Georgia Strait and former associate

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producer of CBC Radio one it gives me

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great pleasure to introduce Judith

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Butler dr. Butler is the Maxine Elliot

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professor in the department's of

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rhetoric and comparative literature and

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co-director of the program of critical

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theory at the University of California

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Berkeley she holds the Hannah Aaron

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chair at the European Graduate School in

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Switzerland she received her PhD in

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philosophy from Yale University and has

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been awarded the brudno Prize for

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lifetime achievement at that University

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Judith Butler has been called simply one

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of the most probing challenging and

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influential thinkers of our time one of

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America's pre-eminent philosophers she

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has challenged the financial beliefs

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that anchor our cultural norms a

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prolific scholar of diverse interests

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she has published significant works on

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feminist and queer theory literary

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theory modern philosophy political

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ethics warning and a course war

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dr. Butler applies her extraordinary

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theoretical knowledge to real-world

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situations and her ideas and insights

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have both informed and transformed

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current thought she currently holds the

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Andrew Mellon Award for distinguished

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academic achievement in humanities in

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her recent article in title dr. Butler

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wrote on precarity embodiment in the

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politics of public space to quote her

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when bodies gather as they do they

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express their to express their

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indignation and to enact their plural

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existence in public space they are also

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making broader demands they are

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demanding to be recognized and to be

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valued they are exercised

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a right to appear and to exercise

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freedom they are calling for a livable

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life

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these values are presupposed by

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particular demands but they also demand

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a more fundamental restructuring of our

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socio-economic and political order

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please join me in welcoming dr. Butler

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thank you

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thank you very much

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I'm enormous ly pleased to be here in

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Vancouver today and I want first of all

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to thank the Peter Wall Institute for

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this wonderful invitation I'd like also

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to acknowledge that we are on the

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traditional lands of the Coast Salish

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peoples

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I'm particularly grateful to Joanna

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Forbes and Janice Sara of the Peter wall

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Institute the wall family including

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Sonja wall who I believe is with us this

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evening and the kind people at the vogue

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see her at Georgia Strait and of course

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the fabulous people of Vancouver thank

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you I have said that I would speak about

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bodies in the street and that is surely

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what I plan to address but I want to

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take a moment with you to pause and

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think about what such a lecture can be

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an attempt to set aside some of the

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misconceptions that can easily arise

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from such a title it may be thought that

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I will say that bodies in the street are

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a good thing that we should celebrate

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mass demonstrations and that bodies

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together on the street form a certain

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ideal of community or even a new

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politics worthy of praise though

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sometimes bodies assembled on the street

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are clearly cause for joy even for hope

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let us remember that the phrase bodies

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on the street can refer equally well to

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right-wing demonstrations as military

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soldiers assembled to quell

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demonstrations and two forms of military

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occupation so from the start we have to

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be prepared to ask under what conditions

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do we find bodies assembled on the

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street to be cause for celebration or

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what forms of assembly actually work in

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the service of realizing greater ideals

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of justice and equality minimally we can

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say that those demonstrations that seek

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to realize justice and equality are

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worthy of praise but even then we are

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called upon to define our terms since as

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we know there are conflicting views

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about justice to be sure and there are

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sure then there are many disparate ways

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of thinking and valuing equality to more

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problems immediately present themselves

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in certain parts of the world political

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asylum alliances do not or cannot take

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the form of Street assemblies think

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about conditions of intense police

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surveillance or military occupation

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crowds cannot swell on the streets

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without risking imprisonment injury or

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death and so alliances are sometimes

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made in other forms ones that seek to

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minimize Bottle the exposure to violence

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at the same time that demands for

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justice are made hunger strikes within

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prisons as we recently saw in Palestine

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our forms of resistance that must take

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place in spaces of enforced confinement

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they are themselves bodily demands for

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public space and public freedom so let

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us remember that heightened bodily

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exposure is not always a political good

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or at least not always the most

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successful strategy the Israeli

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occupation of Palestine is a case in

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point further we have to consider as

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well that some forms of political

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assembly do not take place on the street

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or in the square precisely because

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streets are not at the center of that

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political action for instance a movement

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may be galvanized for the purposes of

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establishing adequate infrastructure we

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can think about the continuing shanty

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towns of South Africa Kenya Pakistan in

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sites constructed outside the border of

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Europe but also the Barrios of Venezuela

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or the baracus of Portugal these are

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more often than not groups of people

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immigrants squatters and/or Roma who are

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struggling precisely for running water

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working toilets paved streets for work

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and provisions indeed the street is not

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the only site that

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we can take for granted for certain

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kinds of public assemblies because the

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street is also a public good for which

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people fight an infrastructural

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necessity that forms one of the demands

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of certain forms of mobilization and I

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would add certain forms of mobilization

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against precarity and yet I think we can

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see that in such situations with or

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without streets some basic requirements

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of the body are at the center of

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political mobilizations

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we could certainly make a list of those

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bodies require food and shelter

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protection from injury and destruction

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freedom to move employment healthcare

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bodies require other bodies for support

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for passion for survival and it matters

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what age those bodies are and whether

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they are able-bodied since in all forms

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of dependency bodies require not just

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one other person but social systems of

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support that are complexly human and

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technical but if I say this then another

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set of questions emerge emerges are we

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speaking only about human bodies and can

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we speak about bodies at all without the

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environments of the machines and the

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complex systems of social

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interdependence e upon which they rely

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which form the conditions of their

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existence and survival and finally even

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if we come to understand and enumerate

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the requirements of the body do we

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struggle only for those requirements to

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be met or do we struggle as well for

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bodies to thrive it is one thing to

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demand that bodies have what they need

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to survive and indeed survival is a

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precondition for all the other claims we

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might make and yet it seems that we

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survive precisely in order to live and

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life as much as it requires survival

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must be more than survival in order to

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be livable so how do we think about a

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livable life without positing a single

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or uniform ideal for that life

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it is not a matter in my view of finding

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out what the human really is or what the

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human really should be since it has

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surely been made plain that humans are

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animals too and that they're very bodily

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existence depends upon systems of

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support that include human and non-human

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dimensions so to a certain extent I

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follow my colleague Donna Haraway

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in asking us to think about the complex

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relation a letís that constitute bodily

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life and to suggest that we do not need

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any more ideal forms of the human but

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rather complex ways of understanding

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those sets of relations without which we

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do not exist at all

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perhaps I've gotten ahead of myself

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or perhaps I keep lagging behind the

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topic that forms the purpose of my

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remarks this evening but I wanted to

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pause at the beginning to make sure that

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there are no unnecessary

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misunderstandings although there are

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those who will say that active bodies

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assembled on the street constitute a

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surging multitude one that in itself

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constitutes a radical Democratic event

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or action I am only partially in

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agreement with that view there are all

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sorts of surging multitudes I don't want

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to endorse and they would include racist

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or fascist congregations and mass

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movements I don't think the point of

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politics is simply to surge forth

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together constituting a new sense of the

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people although sometimes for the

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purposes of radical Democratic Change

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which I do endorse and for which I

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struggle it is important to surge forth

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in ways that claim and alter the

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attention of the world something has to

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hold together such a group some demand

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some felt sense of injustice some lived

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experience of the possibility of change

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and that change has to be fueled by a

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resistance to

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minimally existing and expanding

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inequalities ever increasing conditions

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of precarity for many populations both

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locally and globally resistance to forms

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of authoritarian and security and

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control that seek to suppress democratic

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movements on the one hand there are

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bodies that assemble on the street or

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online or through other less visible

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networks of solidarity especially in

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prisons whose political claims are made

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through language action gesture and

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movement through linking arms the

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refusing to move to forming bodily modes

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of obstruction to police and state

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authorities in making contact in ways

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that are difficult to trace and in this

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sense we can say that these bodies form

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networks of resistance together

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remembering that bodies are not just

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active agents of resistance but also

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fundamentally in need of support so

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those movements when they work provide

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provisional support in order to

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facilitate the broader demand for forms

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of support that make life livable so on

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the one hand bodies assemble precisely

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to show that they are bodies and they

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let it be known politically what it

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means to persist as a body in this world

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what requirements must be met for bodies

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to survive and what conditions make of

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bodily life which is the only life we

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have finally livable so on the one hand

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as I'm saying bodies form in networks of

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resistance on the other hand as I hope

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to make clear bodies form in order to

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produce not only structures of support

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and in dependency but to events or enact

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ideas of community and equality for

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which the movement struggles it's not

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only or primarily as abstract subjects

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bearing rights that we take to the

00:15:47.980 --> 00:15:50.470
streets we take to the streets because

00:15:50.470 --> 00:15:53.140
we need to walk or move there we need

00:15:53.140 --> 00:15:55.930
streets to be structured so that whether

00:15:55.930 --> 00:15:58.610
or not we are in a chair we can move

00:15:58.610 --> 00:16:00.199
and we can move there without

00:16:00.199 --> 00:16:02.509
obstruction harassment administrative

00:16:02.509 --> 00:16:06.139
detention fear of injury or death if we

00:16:06.139 --> 00:16:08.029
are on the street it is because we are

00:16:08.029 --> 00:16:10.850
bodies that require infrastructural

00:16:10.850 --> 00:16:14.209
support for our continuing existence and

00:16:14.209 --> 00:16:18.860
for living a life that matters so if I

00:16:18.860 --> 00:16:21.709
caution against an easy celebration of

00:16:21.709 --> 00:16:22.910
active bodies

00:16:22.910 --> 00:16:26.119
I'm also cautioning against the idea

00:16:26.119 --> 00:16:29.569
that activism requires that we think of

00:16:29.569 --> 00:16:33.619
the body only as active as a Gentek if

00:16:33.619 --> 00:16:37.399
the body were by definition active then

00:16:37.399 --> 00:16:39.110
we would not need to struggle for the

00:16:39.110 --> 00:16:41.809
conditions that allow the body it's free

00:16:41.809 --> 00:16:43.850
activity in the name of social and

00:16:43.850 --> 00:16:46.759
economic justice and though I do not

00:16:46.759 --> 00:16:49.699
want to rest easily with an idea of the

00:16:49.699 --> 00:16:53.449
body as vulnerable or indeed as passive

00:16:53.449 --> 00:16:56.389
I do think that we cannot understand the

00:16:56.389 --> 00:16:59.299
forms of interrelation allottee that

00:16:59.299 --> 00:17:02.749
constitute our bodily lives if we do not

00:17:02.749 --> 00:17:06.159
understand the complex relation between

00:17:06.159 --> 00:17:08.299
vulnerability and those forms of

00:17:08.299 --> 00:17:11.118
activity that come to constitute our

00:17:11.118 --> 00:17:15.260
political resistance indeed even in the

00:17:15.260 --> 00:17:18.230
moment of appearing on the street we are

00:17:18.230 --> 00:17:21.019
vulnerable this is especially true for

00:17:21.019 --> 00:17:22.760
those who appear on the street without

00:17:22.760 --> 00:17:25.549
permits who are opposing the police or

00:17:25.549 --> 00:17:28.240
the military or other security forces

00:17:28.240 --> 00:17:31.970
one is shorn of protection to be sure

00:17:31.970 --> 00:17:34.010
but this does not mean that one is

00:17:34.010 --> 00:17:37.580
reduced to some sort of bare life on the

00:17:37.580 --> 00:17:40.639
contrary to be shorn of protection is a

00:17:40.639 --> 00:17:43.370
form of political exposure at once

00:17:43.370 --> 00:17:46.070
concretely vulnerable and potentially

00:17:46.070 --> 00:17:48.740
defiant how do we understand this

00:17:48.740 --> 00:17:51.500
connection between vulnerability and

00:17:51.500 --> 00:17:56.720
defiance within activism of course

00:17:56.720 --> 00:18:00.200
feminist theorists have for a long time

00:18:00.200 --> 00:18:03.110
argued that women suffer social

00:18:03.110 --> 00:18:06.080
vulnerability disproportionately and

00:18:06.080 --> 00:18:08.149
though there is always a risk in

00:18:08.149 --> 00:18:09.860
claiming that women are especially

00:18:09.860 --> 00:18:12.290
vulnerable given how many of

00:18:12.290 --> 00:18:14.960
groups can certainly make that claim

00:18:14.960 --> 00:18:17.660
there is perhaps something important to

00:18:17.660 --> 00:18:19.870
be taken from this tradition of

00:18:19.870 --> 00:18:23.630
argumentation the claim can sometimes be

00:18:23.630 --> 00:18:25.640
taken to mean that women have an

00:18:25.640 --> 00:18:28.280
unchanging and defining vulnerability

00:18:28.280 --> 00:18:30.590
and that and that kind of argument makes

00:18:30.590 --> 00:18:33.920
the case for paternalistic protection if

00:18:33.920 --> 00:18:36.380
women are especially vulnerable then

00:18:36.380 --> 00:18:38.390
they seek protection it becomes the

00:18:38.390 --> 00:18:40.190
responsibility of the state or other

00:18:40.190 --> 00:18:42.440
paternal powers to provide that

00:18:42.440 --> 00:18:45.230
protection on that model feminist

00:18:45.230 --> 00:18:48.020
activism not only petitions paternal

00:18:48.020 --> 00:18:50.390
Authority for special dispensations and

00:18:50.390 --> 00:18:53.540
protections but affirms that inequality

00:18:53.540 --> 00:18:55.760
of power that situates women in a

00:18:55.760 --> 00:18:58.070
powerless position and by implication

00:18:58.070 --> 00:19:01.700
men in a more powerful one or it invests

00:19:01.700 --> 00:19:04.970
the state with the responsibility for

00:19:04.970 --> 00:19:07.790
facilitating the achievement of feminist

00:19:07.790 --> 00:19:11.060
goals such a view is very different from

00:19:11.060 --> 00:19:14.210
one from one that claims for instance

00:19:14.210 --> 00:19:17.390
that women are vulnerable and capable of

00:19:17.390 --> 00:19:19.700
resistance that vulnerability and

00:19:19.700 --> 00:19:22.490
resistance can and do happen at the same

00:19:22.490 --> 00:19:25.640
time as we see in certain forms of

00:19:25.640 --> 00:19:28.490
feminist self-defense or even in certain

00:19:28.490 --> 00:19:30.860
openly political movements of women in

00:19:30.860 --> 00:19:32.840
the public sphere where they are not

00:19:32.840 --> 00:19:36.050
generally allowed to appear we can think

00:19:36.050 --> 00:19:38.750
of the walks or we can think about

00:19:38.750 --> 00:19:41.990
those who oppose harassment or injury by

00:19:41.990 --> 00:19:44.210
virtue of appearing as they do this

00:19:44.210 --> 00:19:46.970
would in my mind also include Muslim

00:19:46.970 --> 00:19:49.460
women wearing full veils in France who

00:19:49.460 --> 00:19:55.550
are unjustly subject to to arrest and

00:19:55.550 --> 00:20:00.260
and and and fines of course there are

00:20:00.260 --> 00:20:02.120
good reasons to argue for the

00:20:02.120 --> 00:20:04.700
differential vulnerability of women they

00:20:04.700 --> 00:20:06.500
do suffer disproportionately from

00:20:06.500 --> 00:20:10.220
poverty and literacy two very important

00:20:10.220 --> 00:20:12.590
dimensions of any global analysis of

00:20:12.590 --> 00:20:15.080
women's condition so when I'm asked for

00:20:15.080 --> 00:20:18.200
instance are you a post feminist I say

00:20:18.200 --> 00:20:20.630
well as long as women suffer

00:20:20.630 --> 00:20:23.450
disproportionately from from poverty and

00:20:23.450 --> 00:20:25.700
literacy and our disproportionate

00:20:25.700 --> 00:20:28.250
vulnerable to violence I'm still a

00:20:28.250 --> 00:20:38.450
feminist so the question that emerges

00:20:38.450 --> 00:20:42.380
and forms the focus of my question here

00:20:42.380 --> 00:20:44.779
is how to think about the vulnerability

00:20:44.779 --> 00:20:46.730
of women in conjunction with feminist

00:20:46.730 --> 00:20:49.370
modes of agency and how to think both in

00:20:49.370 --> 00:20:51.769
light of global conditions and emerging

00:20:51.769 --> 00:20:54.950
possibilities of Global Alliance this

00:20:54.950 --> 00:20:57.799
task is made all the more difficult as

00:20:57.799 --> 00:20:59.990
state structures and institutions of

00:20:59.990 --> 00:21:02.840
social welfare lose their own resources

00:21:02.840 --> 00:21:05.269
thus exposing more populations to

00:21:05.269 --> 00:21:08.480
homelessness unemployment illiteracy and

00:21:08.480 --> 00:21:11.179
inadequate health care so the struggle

00:21:11.179 --> 00:21:13.519
in my view is how to make the feminists

00:21:13.519 --> 00:21:16.190
claim effectively that such institutions

00:21:16.190 --> 00:21:19.429
are crucial to sustaining lives at the

00:21:19.429 --> 00:21:22.250
same time that feminists resist modes of

00:21:22.250 --> 00:21:24.950
paternalism that reinstate relations of

00:21:24.950 --> 00:21:28.580
inequality in some ways vulnerability

00:21:28.580 --> 00:21:30.919
has been regarded as a value in feminist

00:21:30.919 --> 00:21:32.269
theory in politics

00:21:32.269 --> 00:21:34.639
this means neither that women are more

00:21:34.639 --> 00:21:37.460
vulnerable than men nor that women value

00:21:37.460 --> 00:21:40.309
vulnerability more than men do rather

00:21:40.309 --> 00:21:42.830
certain kinds of gender defining

00:21:42.830 --> 00:21:45.529
attributes like vulnerability and

00:21:45.529 --> 00:21:48.139
invulnerability are distributed

00:21:48.139 --> 00:21:51.769
unequally and for purposes of shoring up

00:21:51.769 --> 00:21:53.870
certain regimes of power that

00:21:53.870 --> 00:21:56.720
disenfranchised women we think about

00:21:56.720 --> 00:21:59.990
goods as as distributed unequally under

00:21:59.990 --> 00:22:03.460
capitalism we think about opportunities

00:22:03.460 --> 00:22:06.230
distributed unequally under capitalism

00:22:06.230 --> 00:22:08.269
we think about natural resources

00:22:08.269 --> 00:22:11.299
especially water distributed unequally

00:22:11.299 --> 00:22:14.450
but we should also surely consider that

00:22:14.450 --> 00:22:17.269
one way of managing populations is to

00:22:17.269 --> 00:22:20.149
distribute vulnerability unequally in

00:22:20.149 --> 00:22:23.570
such a way that vulnerable populations

00:22:23.570 --> 00:22:25.730
are established within discourse and

00:22:25.730 --> 00:22:29.480
policy more recently we note that social

00:22:29.480 --> 00:22:32.240
movements and policy analysts refer to

00:22:32.240 --> 00:22:34.760
precarious populations and that

00:22:34.760 --> 00:22:36.830
political strategies are accordingly

00:22:36.830 --> 00:22:38.200
devised to think

00:22:38.200 --> 00:22:40.330
about ameliorating conditions of

00:22:40.330 --> 00:22:43.570
precarity as we extend the economic

00:22:43.570 --> 00:22:45.880
notion of unequal distribution to

00:22:45.880 --> 00:22:48.820
broader social and cultural spheres we

00:22:48.820 --> 00:22:51.250
are also confronted especially during

00:22:51.250 --> 00:22:54.430
times of war with the uneven grieve

00:22:54.430 --> 00:22:58.390
ability of populations that is the idea

00:22:58.390 --> 00:23:01.030
that certain lives if lost are more

00:23:01.030 --> 00:23:03.580
worthy of memorialization and public

00:23:03.580 --> 00:23:06.430
grieving than others populations

00:23:06.430 --> 00:23:09.040
targeted for injury and destruction in

00:23:09.040 --> 00:23:12.130
war are often considered unbelievable

00:23:12.130 --> 00:23:14.680
from the start but so too are

00:23:14.680 --> 00:23:17.860
populations whose labor is episodic and

00:23:17.860 --> 00:23:20.110
precarious or who are considered

00:23:20.110 --> 00:23:23.040
abandoned through systematic forms of

00:23:23.040 --> 00:23:27.250
negligence when vulnerability is

00:23:27.250 --> 00:23:30.190
distributed unequally then certain

00:23:30.190 --> 00:23:32.830
populations are effectively targeted as

00:23:32.830 --> 00:23:37.050
endurable with impunity or disposable

00:23:37.050 --> 00:23:41.110
without reparation this kind of explicit

00:23:41.110 --> 00:23:44.200
or implicit marking can work to justify

00:23:44.200 --> 00:23:46.840
the infliction of injury upon them as we

00:23:46.840 --> 00:23:49.390
see in times of war or in state violence

00:23:49.390 --> 00:23:52.810
against undocumented citizens or we can

00:23:52.810 --> 00:23:55.360
see such populations as responsible for

00:23:55.360 --> 00:23:58.030
their own position or conversely in need

00:23:58.030 --> 00:24:00.160
of protection from the state or other

00:24:00.160 --> 00:24:03.640
institutions of civil society it's

00:24:03.640 --> 00:24:06.270
important to note that when such

00:24:06.270 --> 00:24:09.370
redistributive strategies abound than

00:24:09.370 --> 00:24:11.920
other populations usually the ones

00:24:11.920 --> 00:24:14.350
orchestrating or affecting the processes

00:24:14.350 --> 00:24:18.210
of redistribution posit themselves as

00:24:18.210 --> 00:24:21.580
invulnerable if not impermeable and

00:24:21.580 --> 00:24:24.580
without any such needs of protection

00:24:24.580 --> 00:24:27.460
this approach takes vulnerability and

00:24:27.460 --> 00:24:30.460
invulnerability as political effects

00:24:30.460 --> 00:24:33.370
unequally distributed effects of a field

00:24:33.370 --> 00:24:35.830
of power that acts on and through bodies

00:24:35.830 --> 00:24:38.590
if vulnerability has been culturally

00:24:38.590 --> 00:24:40.990
coded feminine then how are certain

00:24:40.990 --> 00:24:43.840
populations effectively feminized when

00:24:43.840 --> 00:24:46.180
designated as vulnerable and others

00:24:46.180 --> 00:24:48.550
construed as masculine when laying claim

00:24:48.550 --> 00:24:50.539
to impermeable

00:24:50.539 --> 00:24:53.239
once again these are not essential

00:24:53.239 --> 00:24:56.600
features of men or women but processes

00:24:56.600 --> 00:25:00.320
of gender formation effects of power

00:25:00.320 --> 00:25:03.169
that have as one of their aims the

00:25:03.169 --> 00:25:05.779
production of gender differences along

00:25:05.779 --> 00:25:08.840
lines of inequality this has led

00:25:08.840 --> 00:25:11.570
psychoanalytic feminists to remark that

00:25:11.570 --> 00:25:14.119
the masculine position construed in such

00:25:14.119 --> 00:25:16.879
a way is effectively built through a

00:25:16.879 --> 00:25:18.970
denial of its own constitutive

00:25:18.970 --> 00:25:22.279
vulnerability this denial or disavowal

00:25:22.279 --> 00:25:25.210
requires the political institution of

00:25:25.210 --> 00:25:27.559
oblivion or forgetfulness

00:25:27.559 --> 00:25:30.379
more specifically the forgetting of

00:25:30.379 --> 00:25:33.529
one's own vulnerability its projection

00:25:33.529 --> 00:25:37.190
and displacement elsewhere the one who

00:25:37.190 --> 00:25:39.049
achieves this impermeability

00:25:39.049 --> 00:25:43.220
erases or externalizes all trace of a

00:25:43.220 --> 00:25:46.099
memory of vulnerability the person who

00:25:46.099 --> 00:25:49.070
considers himself by definition to be

00:25:49.070 --> 00:25:52.009
invulnerable aspect effectively says I

00:25:52.009 --> 00:25:55.039
was never vulnerable and if I was it

00:25:55.039 --> 00:25:58.039
wasn't true and I have no memory of that

00:25:58.039 --> 00:26:02.090
condition an obviously contradictory

00:26:02.090 --> 00:26:04.099
statement it nevertheless shows us

00:26:04.099 --> 00:26:06.679
something of the political syntax of

00:26:06.679 --> 00:26:09.440
disavowal but it also tells us something

00:26:09.440 --> 00:26:12.769
about how histories can be told in order

00:26:12.769 --> 00:26:15.679
to support an ideal of the self one

00:26:15.679 --> 00:26:16.970
wishes were true

00:26:16.970 --> 00:26:19.549
such histories depend on disavowal for

00:26:19.549 --> 00:26:22.039
their coherence and this coherence is

00:26:22.039 --> 00:26:26.710
also thereby rendered suspect although

00:26:26.710 --> 00:26:28.879
psychoanalytic perspectives such as

00:26:28.879 --> 00:26:31.249
these are important as a way of gaining

00:26:31.249 --> 00:26:34.070
insight into this particular way that

00:26:34.070 --> 00:26:36.529
vulnerability is distributed along

00:26:36.529 --> 00:26:39.049
gender lines it only goes part of the

00:26:39.049 --> 00:26:41.659
way toward the kind of analysis needed

00:26:41.659 --> 00:26:45.679
here since if we say that some person or

00:26:45.679 --> 00:26:49.759
some group denies vulnerability we are

00:26:49.759 --> 00:26:51.799
assuming not only that the vulnerability

00:26:51.799 --> 00:26:55.700
was already there but also that it is in

00:26:55.700 --> 00:27:00.259
some sense deniable of course one cannot

00:27:00.259 --> 00:27:03.140
make an easy analogy between in

00:27:03.140 --> 00:27:06.020
vidual and group formations and yet

00:27:06.020 --> 00:27:08.960
modes of denial or disavowal can be seen

00:27:08.960 --> 00:27:12.950
to traverse them both for instance to

00:27:12.950 --> 00:27:14.990
certain defenders of the military

00:27:14.990 --> 00:27:16.730
rationale for the destruction of

00:27:16.730 --> 00:27:19.520
targeted groups or populations we might

00:27:19.520 --> 00:27:22.880
say you act as if you yourself were not

00:27:22.880 --> 00:27:25.250
vulnerable to the kind of destruction

00:27:25.250 --> 00:27:28.490
you caused or to defenders of certain

00:27:28.490 --> 00:27:31.610
forms of neoliberal economics you act as

00:27:31.610 --> 00:27:34.370
if you yourself could never belong to a

00:27:34.370 --> 00:27:37.010
population whose work and life is

00:27:37.010 --> 00:27:40.880
considered disposable precarious who can

00:27:40.880 --> 00:27:43.160
suddenly be deprived a base of basic

00:27:43.160 --> 00:27:45.680
rights of access to housing or health

00:27:45.680 --> 00:27:49.160
care or who lives with anxiety about how

00:27:49.160 --> 00:27:52.490
and whether work will ever arrive in

00:27:52.490 --> 00:27:55.490
this way then we assume that those who

00:27:55.490 --> 00:27:58.340
seek to expose others to such positions

00:27:58.340 --> 00:28:00.950
of Honor ability or those who seek

00:28:00.950 --> 00:28:03.620
deposit and maintain a position of

00:28:03.620 --> 00:28:07.880
invulnerability for themselves deny a

00:28:07.880 --> 00:28:09.980
vulnerability by which they are in fact

00:28:09.980 --> 00:28:13.810
bound to the ones they seek to subjugate

00:28:13.810 --> 00:28:16.700
this last claim it's a claim I'm willing

00:28:16.700 --> 00:28:19.430
to make moves in the direction of a

00:28:19.430 --> 00:28:22.580
common or shared vulnerability but this

00:28:22.580 --> 00:28:25.490
has meant less as an existential thesis

00:28:25.490 --> 00:28:28.940
than as a general claim about how bodies

00:28:28.940 --> 00:28:33.080
are invariably dependent upon enduring

00:28:33.080 --> 00:28:36.050
viable social relations and institutions

00:28:36.050 --> 00:28:40.060
for their survival and their well-being

00:28:40.060 --> 00:28:43.100
although this claim can be understood as

00:28:43.100 --> 00:28:46.130
an existential one it belongs in my view

00:28:46.130 --> 00:28:49.160
more properly to the articulation of a

00:28:49.160 --> 00:28:52.010
social ontology that I am trying in a

00:28:52.010 --> 00:28:54.860
preliminary way to suggest can become

00:28:54.860 --> 00:28:58.190
the basis for new forms of coalition one

00:28:58.190 --> 00:29:01.040
that we see episodically instanced in

00:29:01.040 --> 00:29:04.420
the contemporary politics of the street

00:29:04.420 --> 00:29:07.340
even though i see the two levels of this

00:29:07.340 --> 00:29:09.920
analysis i want to suggest that these

00:29:09.920 --> 00:29:12.370
are not two forms of vulnerability

00:29:12.370 --> 00:29:15.680
rather i want to argue that for

00:29:15.680 --> 00:29:18.830
bodily vulnerability presupposes a

00:29:18.830 --> 00:29:21.530
social world that we are as bodies

00:29:21.530 --> 00:29:24.560
vulnerable to others and to institutions

00:29:24.560 --> 00:29:27.200
and that this vulnerability constitutes

00:29:27.200 --> 00:29:29.990
one aspect of the social modality

00:29:29.990 --> 00:29:33.260
through which bodies persist and then

00:29:33.260 --> 00:29:35.720
secondly I want to suggest that the

00:29:35.720 --> 00:29:39.280
issue of my vulnerability or your

00:29:39.280 --> 00:29:42.380
vulnerability implicates us in a broader

00:29:42.380 --> 00:29:45.350
political problem of equality and

00:29:45.350 --> 00:29:48.440
inequality since vulnerability can be

00:29:48.440 --> 00:29:51.170
projected and denied psychological

00:29:51.170 --> 00:29:53.900
categories but also exploited and

00:29:53.900 --> 00:29:56.420
manipulated social and economic

00:29:56.420 --> 00:29:59.050
categories in the production of

00:29:59.050 --> 00:30:02.480
inequality this is what is meant by the

00:30:02.480 --> 00:30:06.460
unequal distribution of vulnerability

00:30:06.460 --> 00:30:09.470
vulnerability constitutes one aspect of

00:30:09.470 --> 00:30:12.050
the political modality of the body where

00:30:12.050 --> 00:30:14.750
the body is surely human understood as a

00:30:14.750 --> 00:30:17.870
human animal vulnerability to one

00:30:17.870 --> 00:30:20.570
another that is to say even when

00:30:20.570 --> 00:30:24.200
conceived as reciprocal marks a pre

00:30:24.200 --> 00:30:26.840
contractual dimension of our social

00:30:26.840 --> 00:30:29.960
relations this means as well that at

00:30:29.960 --> 00:30:32.630
some level it defies the instrumental

00:30:32.630 --> 00:30:35.750
logic that claims I will only protect

00:30:35.750 --> 00:30:38.920
your vulnerability if you protect mine

00:30:38.920 --> 00:30:41.450
according to which politics becomes a

00:30:41.450 --> 00:30:44.740
matter of brokering a deal or making a

00:30:44.740 --> 00:30:48.020
calculation or strategically entering

00:30:48.020 --> 00:30:51.470
into a contract in fact it constitutes

00:30:51.470 --> 00:30:53.480
the conditions of sociality and

00:30:53.480 --> 00:30:56.270
politically fit of political life that I

00:30:56.270 --> 00:30:58.660
would argue cannot be contractually

00:30:58.660 --> 00:31:01.160
stipulated and whose denial and

00:31:01.160 --> 00:31:03.980
manipulable 'ti constitutes an effort to

00:31:03.980 --> 00:31:06.850
destroy or manage a condition of

00:31:06.850 --> 00:31:11.330
potential equality I don't mean to

00:31:11.330 --> 00:31:14.030
suggest by this last formulation that

00:31:14.030 --> 00:31:16.970
there's a single subject sovereign who

00:31:16.970 --> 00:31:19.520
allocates vulnerability differentially

00:31:19.520 --> 00:31:23.330
or unequally these modes of allocation

00:31:23.330 --> 00:31:26.020
and even disavowal can be built into

00:31:26.020 --> 00:31:28.519
institutional rationalities and stress

00:31:28.519 --> 00:31:31.820
oh geez and so become forms of power

00:31:31.820 --> 00:31:34.700
that operate without this the conceit of

00:31:34.700 --> 00:31:40.969
a single deciding subject and so efforts

00:31:40.969 --> 00:31:43.359
to challenge and contest these issues

00:31:43.359 --> 00:31:45.559
something that happens more often than

00:31:45.559 --> 00:31:48.769
not under the name of precarity takes

00:31:48.769 --> 00:31:50.869
aim not only at individuals who make

00:31:50.869 --> 00:31:53.989
policy but more fundamentally at the

00:31:53.989 --> 00:31:56.539
forms of rationality representation and

00:31:56.539 --> 00:32:01.129
strategy that inform this condition so

00:32:01.129 --> 00:32:03.799
the way this differential allocation of

00:32:03.799 --> 00:32:05.659
vulnerability works doesn't always

00:32:05.659 --> 00:32:09.409
presuppose a dyadic frame one person or

00:32:09.409 --> 00:32:12.739
group does something to another on those

00:32:12.739 --> 00:32:14.839
occasions when there are groups who do

00:32:14.839 --> 00:32:17.209
not appear at all or who do not count

00:32:17.209 --> 00:32:19.599
whose bodies do not matter then the

00:32:19.599 --> 00:32:22.099
institutionalized forms of a Faceman at

00:32:22.099 --> 00:32:24.379
issue cannot readily be described

00:32:24.379 --> 00:32:26.959
through recourse to the category of the

00:32:26.959 --> 00:32:29.989
subject so it's not that one subject

00:32:29.989 --> 00:32:32.149
does this to another whether the subject

00:32:32.149 --> 00:32:35.479
is understood is singular or plural it's

00:32:35.479 --> 00:32:41.599
rather that a set of strategies produce

00:32:41.599 --> 00:32:44.259
the situation in which a population

00:32:44.259 --> 00:32:48.829
cannot appear as a subject at all in the

00:32:48.829 --> 00:32:50.839
US for instance the history of Native

00:32:50.839 --> 00:32:52.969
peoples tends to fall into this category

00:32:52.969 --> 00:32:55.729
and the history in Canada is of course

00:32:55.729 --> 00:32:59.209
related yet distinct Native peoples are

00:32:59.209 --> 00:33:01.099
described and given discursive life

00:33:01.099 --> 00:33:03.229
through national narratives about the

00:33:03.229 --> 00:33:05.479
founding of the Americas and yet this

00:33:05.479 --> 00:33:08.059
very description these very narratives

00:33:08.059 --> 00:33:10.759
more often than not become the means of

00:33:10.759 --> 00:33:14.389
effacement as we know since Spain was an

00:33:14.389 --> 00:33:17.029
imperial power before the u.s. that the

00:33:17.029 --> 00:33:19.039
colonization of the Americas brought

00:33:19.039 --> 00:33:21.409
with it acts of slaughter and killing

00:33:21.409 --> 00:33:23.869
that are regularly denied on what is

00:33:23.869 --> 00:33:26.539
still called in the u.s. Columbus Day

00:33:26.539 --> 00:33:31.579
and now of course there is a popular

00:33:31.579 --> 00:33:34.459
movement that has achieved rather

00:33:34.459 --> 00:33:37.809
widespread success in renaming that day

00:33:37.809 --> 00:33:40.530
indigenous peoples day

00:33:40.530 --> 00:33:42.990
when we speak about a face meant we are

00:33:42.990 --> 00:33:45.450
also speaking about the regulation of

00:33:45.450 --> 00:33:47.400
memory and entering into another

00:33:47.400 --> 00:33:53.880
formulation of disavowal there was no

00:33:53.880 --> 00:33:56.460
slaughter for radical dispossession and

00:33:56.460 --> 00:33:59.430
even if there were I do not remember it

00:33:59.430 --> 00:34:02.520
or there is no reliable archive or it is

00:34:02.520 --> 00:34:04.410
not among the histories that any of us

00:34:04.410 --> 00:34:07.050
know or tell but if we were to enter

00:34:07.050 --> 00:34:10.530
that history into a comparative study of

00:34:10.530 --> 00:34:13.080
genocide or a comparative history of

00:34:13.080 --> 00:34:15.418
forcible displacement then would we we

00:34:15.418 --> 00:34:19.260
would see how the killing of whole

00:34:19.260 --> 00:34:21.780
populations in Congo and Nazi Germany

00:34:21.780 --> 00:34:23.429
and Armenia in the early part of the

00:34:23.429 --> 00:34:25.320
20th century or the more recent

00:34:25.320 --> 00:34:27.780
histories of the disappeared in Chile

00:34:27.780 --> 00:34:30.330
Argentina or even the political murders

00:34:30.330 --> 00:34:32.909
of Franco's Spain regularly become

00:34:32.909 --> 00:34:35.909
matters for historians to dispute will

00:34:35.909 --> 00:34:38.610
there be an institutionalized memory or

00:34:38.610 --> 00:34:41.639
not and in such cases it's not a matter

00:34:41.639 --> 00:34:43.980
of memory as something that is held in

00:34:43.980 --> 00:34:46.230
the mind by someone who has experienced

00:34:46.230 --> 00:34:49.620
this destruction directly rather it is a

00:34:49.620 --> 00:34:51.719
memory that is maintained through

00:34:51.719 --> 00:34:54.168
historical record through discursive and

00:34:54.168 --> 00:34:56.399
transmittable means through

00:34:56.399 --> 00:34:59.430
documentation image and archive to

00:34:59.430 --> 00:35:01.860
preserve the memory of the vulnerability

00:35:01.860 --> 00:35:04.800
of bodies under such conditions requires

00:35:04.800 --> 00:35:07.440
a form of memorialization that must be

00:35:07.440 --> 00:35:10.080
repeated and re-established over time

00:35:10.080 --> 00:35:12.630
and space and this means that there is

00:35:12.630 --> 00:35:15.510
no one memory that memory is not finally

00:35:15.510 --> 00:35:18.450
a property of cognition but rather that

00:35:18.450 --> 00:35:21.110
memory is socially maintained and

00:35:21.110 --> 00:35:23.250
transmitted through certain forms of

00:35:23.250 --> 00:35:26.790
documentation and exhibition through

00:35:26.790 --> 00:35:30.060
media in this sense we might say that

00:35:30.060 --> 00:35:32.340
the historical vulnerability of those

00:35:32.340 --> 00:35:33.930
who were exploited whose land was

00:35:33.930 --> 00:35:36.750
confiscated or whose lives were lost is

00:35:36.750 --> 00:35:40.230
always at risk of disappearing this is

00:35:40.230 --> 00:35:43.530
why Walter benjamine thought there that

00:35:43.530 --> 00:35:46.350
there that a struggle must be waged for

00:35:46.350 --> 00:35:49.110
the history of the oppressed precisely

00:35:49.110 --> 00:35:51.750
because under modern conditions that

00:35:51.750 --> 00:35:53.780
history runs the risk of

00:35:53.780 --> 00:35:58.040
appearing always into oblivion it is

00:35:58.040 --> 00:36:00.530
this Benjamin Ian Maxim that was and is

00:36:00.530 --> 00:36:03.290
enacted by the madres de Plaza de Mayo

00:36:03.290 --> 00:36:06.830
who beginning in 1977 started to meet

00:36:06.830 --> 00:36:09.890
every Thursday in that large square in

00:36:09.890 --> 00:36:12.290
Buenos Aires the site of Argentina's

00:36:12.290 --> 00:36:15.230
government publicly to protest the

00:36:15.230 --> 00:36:17.570
disappearance of their children those

00:36:17.570 --> 00:36:19.880
suspected of activism against the

00:36:19.880 --> 00:36:23.420
dictatorship illegally and persistently

00:36:23.420 --> 00:36:26.660
they walked in nonviolent demonstrations

00:36:26.660 --> 00:36:29.780
taking back public space and even making

00:36:29.780 --> 00:36:32.540
use of their public exposure as mothers

00:36:32.540 --> 00:36:35.870
precisely to defy the regime as they

00:36:35.870 --> 00:36:39.080
walked they chanted we want our children

00:36:39.080 --> 00:36:42.400
we want them to tell us where they are

00:36:42.400 --> 00:36:45.680
the moderates said no matter what our

00:36:45.680 --> 00:36:47.690
children think they should not be

00:36:47.690 --> 00:36:49.670
tortured they should have charges

00:36:49.670 --> 00:36:52.430
brought before them we should be able to

00:36:52.430 --> 00:36:56.840
see them visit them the movement and

00:36:56.840 --> 00:36:58.610
numbers of women whose children had

00:36:58.610 --> 00:37:01.360
disappeared grew and in their weekly

00:37:01.360 --> 00:37:03.710
demonstrations in those demonstrations

00:37:03.710 --> 00:37:05.930
some carried pictures of the missing

00:37:05.930 --> 00:37:08.660
children later they wore white scarves

00:37:08.660 --> 00:37:11.240
to sell it to symbolize the white dove

00:37:11.240 --> 00:37:14.060
of peace which they argued can unite all

00:37:14.060 --> 00:37:16.970
women and yet this movement was neither

00:37:16.970 --> 00:37:20.540
primarily identitarian nor maternal list

00:37:20.540 --> 00:37:23.090
it opposed the brutality of the regime

00:37:23.090 --> 00:37:26.350
and even when the regime finally fell in

00:37:26.350 --> 00:37:29.960
1983 they continued weekly and even

00:37:29.960 --> 00:37:32.450
continue now with other generations

00:37:32.450 --> 00:37:35.300
joining them to protest any forgetting

00:37:35.300 --> 00:37:37.850
of that brutality and for trials that

00:37:37.850 --> 00:37:40.720
will bring all the torturers to justice

00:37:40.720 --> 00:37:42.860
suffering a moralization

00:37:42.860 --> 00:37:45.590
and political resistance mark that

00:37:45.590 --> 00:37:48.860
ongoing public demonstration and yet it

00:37:48.860 --> 00:37:51.530
is also a demonstration that claimed

00:37:51.530 --> 00:37:54.290
public space when it was forbidden and

00:37:54.290 --> 00:37:57.200
claims it still maintaining it as a

00:37:57.200 --> 00:38:04.000
political right so I hope I am now able

00:38:04.000 --> 00:38:07.400
to make clear at least two points about

00:38:07.400 --> 00:38:07.790
Valle

00:38:07.790 --> 00:38:10.670
ability that seek neither to idealize

00:38:10.670 --> 00:38:16.150
nor to discount its political importance

00:38:17.920 --> 00:38:20.870
the first is that vulnerability cannot

00:38:20.870 --> 00:38:23.660
be associated exclusively with injure

00:38:23.660 --> 00:38:27.290
ability that all responsiveness to what

00:38:27.290 --> 00:38:29.810
happens including the responsiveness of

00:38:29.810 --> 00:38:31.580
those who document the losses of the

00:38:31.580 --> 00:38:34.390
past is a function and effect of

00:38:34.390 --> 00:38:37.580
vulnerability of being open to a history

00:38:37.580 --> 00:38:40.220
that is not told or being open to what

00:38:40.220 --> 00:38:43.520
another body undergoes we can say that

00:38:43.520 --> 00:38:45.980
these are matters of empathy but I want

00:38:45.980 --> 00:38:48.260
to suggest that part of what a body does

00:38:48.260 --> 00:38:51.470
to use the phrase of Delors derived from

00:38:51.470 --> 00:38:54.350
his reading of Spinoza is to open onto

00:38:54.350 --> 00:38:56.840
the body of another or asset of others

00:38:56.840 --> 00:39:00.140
and for that reason bodies are not self

00:39:00.140 --> 00:39:03.620
enclosed kinds of entities they are

00:39:03.620 --> 00:39:06.820
always in some sense outside themselves

00:39:06.820 --> 00:39:09.020
exploring or navigating their

00:39:09.020 --> 00:39:11.830
environment extended and even sometimes

00:39:11.830 --> 00:39:15.500
dispossessed through the senses if we

00:39:15.500 --> 00:39:18.620
can become lost in another or if our

00:39:18.620 --> 00:39:22.130
tactile or visual or auditory capacities

00:39:22.130 --> 00:39:25.970
comport us beyond ourselves that is

00:39:25.970 --> 00:39:28.370
because the body does not stay in its

00:39:28.370 --> 00:39:30.920
own place and because dispossession of

00:39:30.920 --> 00:39:34.280
this kind characterizes bodily life more

00:39:34.280 --> 00:39:37.220
generally it is also why we have to

00:39:37.220 --> 00:39:40.010
speak sometimes about the regulation of

00:39:40.010 --> 00:39:43.430
the senses as a political matter there

00:39:43.430 --> 00:39:45.680
are certain photographs of injury or

00:39:45.680 --> 00:39:48.320
destruction of bodies in war that are

00:39:48.320 --> 00:39:50.990
often forbidden to be seen precisely

00:39:50.990 --> 00:39:53.900
because there is a fear on the part of

00:39:53.900 --> 00:39:56.450
the state that regulates such matters

00:39:56.450 --> 00:39:59.510
that some body will feel something about

00:39:59.510 --> 00:40:02.120
what those other bodies underwent or

00:40:02.120 --> 00:40:04.820
that some body in its sensory

00:40:04.820 --> 00:40:07.550
comportment outside itself will not

00:40:07.550 --> 00:40:11.020
remain enclosed monadic and individual

00:40:11.020 --> 00:40:13.700
indeed we might ask what kind of

00:40:13.700 --> 00:40:16.550
regulation of the senses what I would

00:40:16.550 --> 00:40:18.710
call modes of ecstatic relationality

00:40:18.710 --> 00:40:20.750
might have to be regular

00:40:20.750 --> 00:40:22.790
related for individualism to be

00:40:22.790 --> 00:40:26.060
maintained as an ontology required for

00:40:26.060 --> 00:40:29.240
both economics and politics this is also

00:40:29.240 --> 00:40:30.970
why certain forms of public

00:40:30.970 --> 00:40:34.100
documentation in print and media in

00:40:34.100 --> 00:40:37.400
museums and art spaces or even the art

00:40:37.400 --> 00:40:40.400
space of the street become important in

00:40:40.400 --> 00:40:44.500
the battle against historical oblivion

00:40:44.500 --> 00:40:47.660
my last point here is that the body can

00:40:47.660 --> 00:40:49.670
and does become a site where the

00:40:49.670 --> 00:40:52.370
memories of others are transmitted no

00:40:52.370 --> 00:40:54.380
memory is preserved without a mode of

00:40:54.380 --> 00:40:57.170
transmission and the body is a point of

00:40:57.170 --> 00:40:59.690
transfer in which your history becomes

00:40:59.690 --> 00:41:02.240
mine or where your history passes

00:41:02.240 --> 00:41:05.240
through mine I do not have to experience

00:41:05.240 --> 00:41:08.000
your history history - to transmit

00:41:08.000 --> 00:41:10.490
something of your history the

00:41:10.490 --> 00:41:13.100
temporality of your life can and does

00:41:13.100 --> 00:41:16.070
cross my own and a certain operation of

00:41:16.070 --> 00:41:19.730
translation makes that possible one that

00:41:19.730 --> 00:41:22.600
does not purport to translate everything

00:41:22.600 --> 00:41:25.880
it is also because we are or can be

00:41:25.880 --> 00:41:27.950
bound up with one another

00:41:27.950 --> 00:41:29.810
which is very different from being

00:41:29.810 --> 00:41:34.280
bounded as individual subjects thus the

00:41:34.280 --> 00:41:36.530
possibility of transmitting a memory

00:41:36.530 --> 00:41:38.840
under political threat the political

00:41:38.840 --> 00:41:41.510
threat of oblivion depends upon the

00:41:41.510 --> 00:41:44.180
transitivity of that memory its taking

00:41:44.180 --> 00:41:47.060
shape and exercising an effect on bodies

00:41:47.060 --> 00:41:49.460
that were not there and could not be

00:41:49.460 --> 00:41:52.010
there this is not the same as the kind

00:41:52.010 --> 00:41:53.900
of testimony given by those who were

00:41:53.900 --> 00:41:57.050
there but it does suggest that testimony

00:41:57.050 --> 00:42:00.350
depends upon transmission to survive in

00:42:00.350 --> 00:42:04.040
time thus we might see the ways that the

00:42:04.040 --> 00:42:06.260
memories of others arrive for us or even

00:42:06.260 --> 00:42:10.220
in us as a mode of relationality we

00:42:10.220 --> 00:42:12.290
might further understand this capacity

00:42:12.290 --> 00:42:14.510
to receive and convey what the other

00:42:14.510 --> 00:42:17.240
documents about history as a function of

00:42:17.240 --> 00:42:19.910
our own corporeal relatedness across

00:42:19.910 --> 00:42:22.910
time and space to those whose words we

00:42:22.910 --> 00:42:26.510
carry we carry them in ourselves those

00:42:26.510 --> 00:42:28.880
history become part those histories

00:42:28.880 --> 00:42:31.490
become part of who we are but we also

00:42:31.490 --> 00:42:34.660
carry them in spite of ourselves

00:42:34.660 --> 00:42:38.060
so we're not just as bodies these

00:42:38.060 --> 00:42:41.060
spatial and bounded creatures we can

00:42:41.060 --> 00:42:44.060
never transcend that boundary completely

00:42:44.060 --> 00:42:47.390
I agree but we are also the histories

00:42:47.390 --> 00:42:49.460
that we never lived but which we

00:42:49.460 --> 00:42:51.620
nevertheless transmit in the name of the

00:42:51.620 --> 00:42:53.690
struggle to preserve the history of the

00:42:53.690 --> 00:42:56.510
oppressed and to mobilize that history

00:42:56.510 --> 00:42:58.460
in our struggle for justice in the

00:42:58.460 --> 00:43:01.940
present when for instance the Israeli

00:43:01.940 --> 00:43:03.800
government prohibits prohibits any

00:43:03.800 --> 00:43:06.790
mention or memorialization of the Nakba

00:43:06.790 --> 00:43:10.420
the forcible dispossession of more than

00:43:10.420 --> 00:43:13.220
750,000 Palestinians from their homes in

00:43:13.220 --> 00:43:16.850
1948 often in the middle of their meals

00:43:16.850 --> 00:43:19.220
or in the middle of their night with no

00:43:19.220 --> 00:43:22.130
warning and no justification in order to

00:43:22.130 --> 00:43:24.650
produce domiciles for Jewish citizens of

00:43:24.650 --> 00:43:27.530
the new state what precisely are they

00:43:27.530 --> 00:43:30.770
doing they are surely seeking through

00:43:30.770 --> 00:43:33.950
passing a law to regulate memory to

00:43:33.950 --> 00:43:36.440
consign an historical and persisting

00:43:36.440 --> 00:43:38.930
form of dispossession and suffering to

00:43:38.930 --> 00:43:41.510
oblivion and to refuse the historically

00:43:41.510 --> 00:43:43.910
demonstrated link between the forcible

00:43:43.910 --> 00:43:46.490
dispossession of one people in order to

00:43:46.490 --> 00:43:49.070
produce a Liberatore narrative for

00:43:49.070 --> 00:43:52.070
founding a nation for another it would

00:43:52.070 --> 00:43:53.810
be one thing if the dispossession

00:43:53.810 --> 00:43:56.750
happened once but it inaugurated forms

00:43:56.750 --> 00:43:58.910
of land confiscation and transfer that

00:43:58.910 --> 00:44:01.820
happened continually and as we see in

00:44:01.820 --> 00:44:03.740
the expansion and legalization of the

00:44:03.740 --> 00:44:06.410
illegal of the illegal settlements

00:44:06.410 --> 00:44:08.810
indeed all their settlements are illegal

00:44:08.810 --> 00:44:11.750
the redrawing of territorial lines and

00:44:11.750 --> 00:44:14.360
the new demands for loyalty oaths on the

00:44:14.360 --> 00:44:16.400
part of Palestinians to Israel as a

00:44:16.400 --> 00:44:19.640
Jewish nation and even in in the now

00:44:19.640 --> 00:44:22.160
very public debate about transferring

00:44:22.160 --> 00:44:24.320
those Palestinians who still live within

00:44:24.320 --> 00:44:26.930
the boundaries of Israel to the occupied

00:44:26.930 --> 00:44:30.320
territories of course there are many

00:44:30.320 --> 00:44:32.450
different histories to be told here and

00:44:32.450 --> 00:44:35.630
I cannot do justice to that to any of

00:44:35.630 --> 00:44:38.810
them this evening but what I want to

00:44:38.810 --> 00:44:41.960
suggest in a more modest way is that in

00:44:41.960 --> 00:44:44.060
all of these struggles the body is

00:44:44.060 --> 00:44:46.690
central as it is central

00:44:46.690 --> 00:44:51.280
to the fight for the history of the

00:44:51.280 --> 00:44:54.210
oppressed the fight against oblivion

00:44:54.210 --> 00:44:56.770
what has happened to bodies is being

00:44:56.770 --> 00:44:58.750
transmitted through various media and

00:44:58.750 --> 00:45:01.030
those who openly struggle against the

00:45:01.030 --> 00:45:03.280
faced past are themselves in a bodily

00:45:03.280 --> 00:45:05.980
position of vulnerability being

00:45:05.980 --> 00:45:08.319
impressed upon by a history and in this

00:45:08.319 --> 00:45:11.020
sense being outside themselves even in

00:45:11.020 --> 00:45:13.510
spite of themselves as they carry what

00:45:13.510 --> 00:45:16.390
belongs to others no history can be

00:45:16.390 --> 00:45:18.790
inscribed on a body or conveyed through

00:45:18.790 --> 00:45:22.240
it without vulnerability an inscription

00:45:22.240 --> 00:45:25.900
makes the body bend cave suffer and

00:45:25.900 --> 00:45:29.079
respond even take new form in light of

00:45:29.079 --> 00:45:32.770
that pressure the body then is not is to

00:45:32.770 --> 00:45:34.720
be thought not as substance and

00:45:34.720 --> 00:45:38.140
enclosure but perhaps as site of injury

00:45:38.140 --> 00:45:41.740
ability receptivity passionate exposure

00:45:41.740 --> 00:45:46.960
even ethical transport so I propose to

00:45:46.960 --> 00:45:48.640
return now to the question of

00:45:48.640 --> 00:45:51.250
vulnerability and to understand what

00:45:51.250 --> 00:45:53.740
relation it might have to contemporary

00:45:53.740 --> 00:45:56.290
coalition's and how the body figures

00:45:56.290 --> 00:45:59.470
prominently in any idea of coalition we

00:45:59.470 --> 00:46:02.500
may imagine for the present although we

00:46:02.500 --> 00:46:04.780
often speak this way I do not think we

00:46:04.780 --> 00:46:07.780
can consider vulnerability as a purely

00:46:07.780 --> 00:46:11.260
contingent circumstance of course it's

00:46:11.260 --> 00:46:13.660
always possible to say oh I was

00:46:13.660 --> 00:46:15.790
vulnerable then but I'm not vulnerable

00:46:15.790 --> 00:46:18.970
anymore sometimes that's even true and

00:46:18.970 --> 00:46:21.270
we say that in relation to specific

00:46:21.270 --> 00:46:23.980
situations in which we felt ourselves to

00:46:23.980 --> 00:46:26.859
be at risk or enjoyable they can be

00:46:26.859 --> 00:46:29.890
economic or financial situations when we

00:46:29.890 --> 00:46:32.230
feel that we might be exploited lose

00:46:32.230 --> 00:46:34.690
work find ourselves in conditions of

00:46:34.690 --> 00:46:37.089
poverty or they can be emotional

00:46:37.089 --> 00:46:39.490
situations certainly the political ones

00:46:39.490 --> 00:46:41.170
are emotional or the economic ones are

00:46:41.170 --> 00:46:43.900
deeply emotional to in which we are very

00:46:43.900 --> 00:46:46.270
much vulnerable to rejection but later

00:46:46.270 --> 00:46:47.470
find that we have lost that

00:46:47.470 --> 00:46:50.410
vulnerability it makes sense that we

00:46:50.410 --> 00:46:53.280
speak this way vulnerability seems

00:46:53.280 --> 00:46:57.010
episodic it also makes sense that we

00:46:57.010 --> 00:46:59.470
treat with caution the seductions of

00:46:59.470 --> 00:47:00.369
ordinary just

00:47:00.369 --> 00:47:03.549
course at such moments since though we

00:47:03.549 --> 00:47:05.410
may feel that we are vulnerable in some

00:47:05.410 --> 00:47:07.569
instances and not in others the

00:47:07.569 --> 00:47:10.269
condition of our vulnerability is itself

00:47:10.269 --> 00:47:13.480
not precisely changeable at most there

00:47:13.480 --> 00:47:15.369
are times when our vulnerability becomes

00:47:15.369 --> 00:47:17.859
apparent to us but that is not the same

00:47:17.859 --> 00:47:20.170
as saying that we are only vulnerable at

00:47:20.170 --> 00:47:23.049
those times we can be vulnerable without

00:47:23.049 --> 00:47:25.569
knowing it and indeed that not knowing

00:47:25.569 --> 00:47:29.309
it is part of vulnerability itself

00:47:29.309 --> 00:47:31.660
vulnerability cannot be understood

00:47:31.660 --> 00:47:34.329
restrictive ly as an effect restricted

00:47:34.329 --> 00:47:37.089
to a contingent situation nor can it be

00:47:37.089 --> 00:47:38.999
understood merely as a subjective

00:47:38.999 --> 00:47:42.130
disposition as a condition that is I

00:47:42.130 --> 00:47:44.740
would suggest coextensive with human

00:47:44.740 --> 00:47:47.650
life understood a social life understood

00:47:47.650 --> 00:47:50.230
as creaturely life and is bound to the

00:47:50.230 --> 00:47:53.049
problem of precarity vulnerability is

00:47:53.049 --> 00:47:55.119
the name for a certain way of opening

00:47:55.119 --> 00:47:57.579
onto the world in this sense it's not

00:47:57.579 --> 00:48:00.039
you know not only designates a relation

00:48:00.039 --> 00:48:02.200
to the world but it asserts our very

00:48:02.200 --> 00:48:05.650
existence as a relational one to say

00:48:05.650 --> 00:48:08.109
that any of us are vulnerable beings is

00:48:08.109 --> 00:48:11.920
to establish our radical dependency not

00:48:11.920 --> 00:48:14.650
only on others but on a sustaining

00:48:14.650 --> 00:48:17.710
sustainable world this has implications

00:48:17.710 --> 00:48:20.410
for understanding who we are as

00:48:20.410 --> 00:48:23.559
passionate beings as sexual as bound up

00:48:23.559 --> 00:48:26.559
with others of necessity but also as

00:48:26.559 --> 00:48:28.930
beings who seek to persist and whose

00:48:28.930 --> 00:48:32.549
persistence can and is can be and is

00:48:32.549 --> 00:48:34.989
imperiled when social economic and

00:48:34.989 --> 00:48:40.019
political structures exploit or fail us

00:48:40.019 --> 00:48:42.160
drawing on the work of Hannah Arendt

00:48:42.160 --> 00:48:44.819
adriana cavarero the italian philosopher

00:48:44.819 --> 00:48:47.349
tells us that one of the key moments of

00:48:47.349 --> 00:48:50.470
politics what we might even identify as

00:48:50.470 --> 00:48:53.319
its constitutive ethical moment is the

00:48:53.319 --> 00:48:57.369
emergence of the question who are you we

00:48:57.369 --> 00:48:59.440
asked this question implicitly or

00:48:59.440 --> 00:49:02.259
explicitly when we seek to bring a

00:49:02.259 --> 00:49:04.960
population into discourse or establish a

00:49:04.960 --> 00:49:07.539
language of representation it's not

00:49:07.539 --> 00:49:10.299
necessarily a single person who poses

00:49:10.299 --> 00:49:13.190
this question an institution a dis

00:49:13.190 --> 00:49:16.400
course an economic system that asks who

00:49:16.400 --> 00:49:17.329
are you

00:49:17.329 --> 00:49:19.970
seeks to establish a space of appearance

00:49:19.970 --> 00:49:23.420
for the other to ask who are you is to

00:49:23.420 --> 00:49:25.430
avow that one does not know in advance

00:49:25.430 --> 00:49:28.010
who you are that one is open to what

00:49:28.010 --> 00:49:30.050
comes from the other and that one

00:49:30.050 --> 00:49:32.690
expects that no pre-established category

00:49:32.690 --> 00:49:36.079
will be able to answer in advance the

00:49:36.079 --> 00:49:38.599
question that is posed indeed I would

00:49:38.599 --> 00:49:41.869
suggest in a certain of a nasty way the

00:49:41.869 --> 00:49:44.270
question who are you has to remain an

00:49:44.270 --> 00:49:47.569
infinitely open question unanswerable in

00:49:47.569 --> 00:49:52.099
order to remain an ethical one it will

00:49:52.099 --> 00:49:54.230
be important to keep active the

00:49:54.230 --> 00:49:56.359
relationship between the various

00:49:56.359 --> 00:49:59.420
meanings of the precarious if we are to

00:49:59.420 --> 00:50:02.300
think how vulnerable 'ti relates to

00:50:02.300 --> 00:50:05.230
coalition during this time

00:50:05.230 --> 00:50:07.490
precariousness is a function of our

00:50:07.490 --> 00:50:10.010
social vulnerability the condition of

00:50:10.010 --> 00:50:12.500
our exposure that always assumes some

00:50:12.500 --> 00:50:15.160
political form precarity is

00:50:15.160 --> 00:50:17.630
differentially distributed and so one

00:50:17.630 --> 00:50:19.730
important dimension of the unequal

00:50:19.730 --> 00:50:23.450
distribution of conditions required for

00:50:23.450 --> 00:50:27.680
a livable life precariat ization is also

00:50:27.680 --> 00:50:30.470
an ongoing process as Isabel Isabel

00:50:30.470 --> 00:50:33.230
Laurie has argued precariat ization

00:50:33.230 --> 00:50:35.869
allows us to think about what Lauryn

00:50:35.869 --> 00:50:38.210
Berlin has called the slow death

00:50:38.210 --> 00:50:40.700
undergone by targeted or neglected

00:50:40.700 --> 00:50:42.920
populations under conditions of

00:50:42.920 --> 00:50:46.310
neoliberalism and it is surely a form of

00:50:46.310 --> 00:50:48.619
power without a subject prokaryote

00:50:48.619 --> 00:50:51.109
ization which is to say that there is no

00:50:51.109 --> 00:50:53.270
one Center which propels its direction

00:50:53.270 --> 00:50:57.260
and force of destruction if we only

00:50:57.260 --> 00:50:59.450
considered the term precariat ization

00:50:59.450 --> 00:51:01.700
I'm not sure we could account for the

00:51:01.700 --> 00:51:03.859
structure of effect that is named by

00:51:03.859 --> 00:51:06.829
precarity and if we decided to rally

00:51:06.829 --> 00:51:09.349
under the name of the precarious as a

00:51:09.349 --> 00:51:13.130
new identity or community formation we

00:51:13.130 --> 00:51:15.890
might then be we might then draw

00:51:15.890 --> 00:51:18.410
attention away from the globally

00:51:18.410 --> 00:51:20.690
specific ways that precarity has lived

00:51:20.690 --> 00:51:23.990
as a social political condition cloaking

00:51:23.990 --> 00:51:26.930
some way that form of power

00:51:26.930 --> 00:51:30.680
works so maybe precarious is what we

00:51:30.680 --> 00:51:33.710
feel or would rather not feel and then

00:51:33.710 --> 00:51:35.569
its analysis has to be linked to the

00:51:35.569 --> 00:51:38.869
impetus to become impermeable as so

00:51:38.869 --> 00:51:41.000
often happens within the discourse of

00:51:41.000 --> 00:51:43.460
military nationalism and the rhetoric of

00:51:43.460 --> 00:51:46.609
security and self-defense and yet it

00:51:46.609 --> 00:51:49.069
will be important to call precarious

00:51:49.069 --> 00:51:51.859
those bonds that support forms of life

00:51:51.859 --> 00:51:54.170
those that should be structured by the

00:51:54.170 --> 00:51:56.420
condition of mutual need and exposure

00:51:56.420 --> 00:51:59.599
that bring us to forms of political

00:51:59.599 --> 00:52:02.180
organization that sustain living beings

00:52:02.180 --> 00:52:05.450
on terms of equality or at least dispose

00:52:05.450 --> 00:52:08.750
them toward equality as an ideal worth

00:52:08.750 --> 00:52:12.079
struggling for what seems finally more

00:52:12.079 --> 00:52:14.180
important than any form of existential

00:52:14.180 --> 00:52:18.020
individualism is the idea that a bond is

00:52:18.020 --> 00:52:21.549
flawed or afraid or that it is lost or

00:52:21.549 --> 00:52:24.230
irrecoverable and we see this I think

00:52:24.230 --> 00:52:28.069
very prominently when for instance the

00:52:28.069 --> 00:52:30.829
the Tea Party politicians in the United

00:52:30.829 --> 00:52:37.220
States overtly rejoice over rejoice

00:52:37.220 --> 00:52:39.619
about the idea that individuals who have

00:52:39.619 --> 00:52:41.930
failed to take responsibility for their

00:52:41.930 --> 00:52:44.930
own health care may well face death and

00:52:44.930 --> 00:52:47.720
disease as a result apparently this was

00:52:47.720 --> 00:52:50.920
this was mentioned at a at a tea party

00:52:50.920 --> 00:52:54.529
congregation people who don't take

00:52:54.529 --> 00:52:56.539
responsibility for their own health care

00:52:56.539 --> 00:52:58.970
will face death and disease as a

00:52:58.970 --> 00:53:00.440
consequence of their lack of

00:53:00.440 --> 00:53:03.549
responsibility and the group rose up and

00:53:03.549 --> 00:53:07.369
clapped joyously joyous clapping

00:53:07.369 --> 00:53:11.119
rejoicing rejoicing we have to think

00:53:11.119 --> 00:53:13.640
about that particular effect may be the

00:53:13.640 --> 00:53:17.589
effect studies people will help us

00:53:18.220 --> 00:53:21.490
okay at such moments I want to say I

00:53:21.490 --> 00:53:25.610
want to say at such moments a social

00:53:25.610 --> 00:53:28.700
bond has been cut or destroyed in ways

00:53:28.700 --> 00:53:33.620
that deny a shared precariousness the

00:53:33.620 --> 00:53:36.080
very particular ethos and politics that

00:53:36.080 --> 00:53:41.000
ideally should follow from from that is

00:53:41.000 --> 00:53:44.510
one that underscores local and global

00:53:44.510 --> 00:53:47.750
interdependence II and actively resists

00:53:47.750 --> 00:53:49.880
the radical radically unequal

00:53:49.880 --> 00:53:52.490
distribution of precarity and grieve

00:53:52.490 --> 00:53:55.340
ability okay so it's I mean of course

00:53:55.340 --> 00:53:58.700
yes we need to think about sadistic

00:53:58.700 --> 00:54:01.040
forms of joy at the thought of other

00:54:01.040 --> 00:54:03.560
people lacking healthcare and dying as a

00:54:03.560 --> 00:54:06.260
consequence but but what we really need

00:54:06.260 --> 00:54:09.040
to see I think in that moment is that

00:54:09.040 --> 00:54:12.230
the precarity of the one who takes that

00:54:12.230 --> 00:54:15.110
sadistic joy is also denied as well as

00:54:15.110 --> 00:54:17.930
the bond the the bond of interdependency

00:54:17.930 --> 00:54:20.600
with the one whose death is being

00:54:20.600 --> 00:54:25.220
joyously imagined such a struggle would

00:54:25.220 --> 00:54:27.590
be at once opposed to forms of security

00:54:27.590 --> 00:54:30.200
rien logics as well as the old and new

00:54:30.200 --> 00:54:32.180
paternalism that are now linked to the

00:54:32.180 --> 00:54:35.150
promise of security but this resistance

00:54:35.150 --> 00:54:37.330
can happen only if modes of coalition

00:54:37.330 --> 00:54:42.500
grounded in interdependency the in the

00:54:42.500 --> 00:54:44.990
stem struggles against precarity and for

00:54:44.990 --> 00:54:48.230
equality exercised power in ways that

00:54:48.230 --> 00:54:51.950
break with the lure of paternalism this

00:54:51.950 --> 00:54:54.260
cannot mean refusing all forms of state

00:54:54.260 --> 00:54:56.990
and institutional support that form of

00:54:56.990 --> 00:54:58.760
anti institutional politics

00:54:58.760 --> 00:55:00.770
unfortunately allows with the

00:55:00.770 --> 00:55:02.810
destruction of social democratic goods

00:55:02.810 --> 00:55:05.270
and the idea of economic rights and

00:55:05.270 --> 00:55:07.430
these forms of destruction the

00:55:07.430 --> 00:55:09.470
destruction of those goods and rights

00:55:09.470 --> 00:55:11.960
are precisely those that are being of

00:55:11.960 --> 00:55:15.080
course undertaken and produced by

00:55:15.080 --> 00:55:17.300
neoliberalism and secured terian

00:55:17.300 --> 00:55:20.570
politics alike so yes one must struggle

00:55:20.570 --> 00:55:24.320
for social democracy but in the context

00:55:24.320 --> 00:55:26.900
I would suggest of a radical Democratic

00:55:26.900 --> 00:55:28.720
politics and they are

00:55:28.720 --> 00:55:30.700
friend we cannot presume that

00:55:30.700 --> 00:55:33.130
interdependency is some beautiful state

00:55:33.130 --> 00:55:35.530
of coexistence it's not the same as

00:55:35.530 --> 00:55:36.660
social harmony

00:55:36.660 --> 00:55:39.640
inevitably we rail against those on whom

00:55:39.640 --> 00:55:42.400
we are most dependent and there is no

00:55:42.400 --> 00:55:44.859
way to dissociate dependency from

00:55:44.859 --> 00:55:48.310
aggression once and for all these may

00:55:48.310 --> 00:55:51.640
not even be happy alliances or or

00:55:51.640 --> 00:55:54.400
particularly joyous coalition's but they

00:55:54.400 --> 00:55:57.490
are constituted from the insight I would

00:55:57.490 --> 00:56:01.180
say the insight from the from the from

00:56:01.180 --> 00:56:05.080
look from the condition of a pre

00:56:05.080 --> 00:56:07.690
contractual set of relations that

00:56:07.690 --> 00:56:10.810
pertain to social embodiment we require

00:56:10.810 --> 00:56:13.630
one another to live this means that our

00:56:13.630 --> 00:56:16.990
survival and well-being both are

00:56:16.990 --> 00:56:19.690
invariably negotiated in the social

00:56:19.690 --> 00:56:22.930
economic and political spheres indeed

00:56:22.930 --> 00:56:25.060
our negotiations are the very sites

00:56:25.060 --> 00:56:27.490
where those spheres converge and lose

00:56:27.490 --> 00:56:30.970
their distinctness we can make this idea

00:56:30.970 --> 00:56:33.730
popular by seeking recourse to broad

00:56:33.730 --> 00:56:36.160
existential and humanist claims well

00:56:36.160 --> 00:56:39.190
everyone is precarious but once we ask

00:56:39.190 --> 00:56:41.589
about what this means or what forms

00:56:41.589 --> 00:56:44.830
precarity assumes we see that we have

00:56:44.830 --> 00:56:46.720
from the start left the existential

00:56:46.720 --> 00:56:49.540
domain to consider our social existence

00:56:49.540 --> 00:56:51.880
as bodily beings who depend upon one

00:56:51.880 --> 00:56:54.280
another for shelter and sustenance and

00:56:54.280 --> 00:56:56.609
who therefore are at risk of

00:56:56.609 --> 00:56:58.900
statelessness homelessness and

00:56:58.900 --> 00:57:01.859
destitution under unjust and unequal

00:57:01.859 --> 00:57:04.660
political conditions in other words

00:57:04.660 --> 00:57:07.839
precarious defines our existence as

00:57:07.839 --> 00:57:10.960
political beings our survival depends

00:57:10.960 --> 00:57:13.810
upon political arrangements and politics

00:57:13.810 --> 00:57:16.869
especially as it becomes bio politics

00:57:16.869 --> 00:57:19.150
and the managing of populations is

00:57:19.150 --> 00:57:21.640
concerned with the question of whose

00:57:21.640 --> 00:57:23.950
lives will be preserved protected and

00:57:23.950 --> 00:57:26.349
valued and eventually mourned or

00:57:26.349 --> 00:57:29.170
regarded in advance as potentially more

00:57:29.170 --> 00:57:32.130
noble and whose lives will be considered

00:57:32.130 --> 00:57:35.290
disposable and unbreathing all in this

00:57:35.290 --> 00:57:38.070
way our precarity is to a large extent

00:57:38.070 --> 00:57:40.359
dependent upon the organization of

00:57:40.359 --> 00:57:41.200
economic and

00:57:41.200 --> 00:57:43.660
social relations the presence or absence

00:57:43.660 --> 00:57:46.869
of sustaining infrastructures and social

00:57:46.869 --> 00:57:49.510
and political institutions modes of

00:57:49.510 --> 00:57:51.820
struggling for them that produce and

00:57:51.820 --> 00:57:56.320
sustain alliances so what I'm trying to

00:57:56.320 --> 00:57:58.810
suggest is that precarity is indecisive

00:57:58.810 --> 00:58:01.510
all form that dimension of politics that

00:58:01.510 --> 00:58:03.310
addresses the organization and

00:58:03.310 --> 00:58:06.550
protection of bodily needs precarity

00:58:06.550 --> 00:58:09.849
exposes our sociality the fragile and

00:58:09.849 --> 00:58:11.230
necessary dimensions of our

00:58:11.230 --> 00:58:13.450
interdependency and this has

00:58:13.450 --> 00:58:15.700
implications for how we join together in

00:58:15.700 --> 00:58:18.940
struggle when we do no one escapes the

00:58:18.940 --> 00:58:21.220
precarious dimension of social life that

00:58:21.220 --> 00:58:23.859
is we might say our common

00:58:23.859 --> 00:58:27.700
non-foundation indeed nothing founds us

00:58:27.700 --> 00:58:30.880
outside of a struggle to establish those

00:58:30.880 --> 00:58:35.410
bonds by which we are sustained so when

00:58:35.410 --> 00:58:37.329
people take to the streets together they

00:58:37.329 --> 00:58:39.940
form something of a body politic and

00:58:39.940 --> 00:58:42.760
even if that body politic does not speak

00:58:42.760 --> 00:58:45.070
in a single voice even when it does not

00:58:45.070 --> 00:58:48.160
speak at all or make any claims it still

00:58:48.160 --> 00:58:51.460
forms asserting its presence as a plural

00:58:51.460 --> 00:58:55.630
and obdurate bodily life what is the

00:58:55.630 --> 00:58:57.849
political significance of assembling as

00:58:57.849 --> 00:59:00.069
bodies stopping traffic or claiming

00:59:00.069 --> 00:59:02.890
attention or moving not as stray and

00:59:02.890 --> 00:59:05.410
separate individuals but as a social

00:59:05.410 --> 00:59:08.349
movement of some kind it does not have

00:59:08.349 --> 00:59:10.839
to be organized from on high the

00:59:10.839 --> 00:59:13.060
Leninist presumption and it does not

00:59:13.060 --> 00:59:15.609
need to have a single message the logo

00:59:15.609 --> 00:59:19.089
centric can seat 4 assembled bodies to

00:59:19.089 --> 00:59:22.270
exercise a certain performative force in

00:59:22.270 --> 00:59:26.619
the public domain the we are here that

00:59:26.619 --> 00:59:29.230
translates that collective bodily

00:59:29.230 --> 00:59:32.200
presence might be read as we are still

00:59:32.200 --> 00:59:34.930
here meaning we have not yet been

00:59:34.930 --> 00:59:38.230
disposed of such bodies are precarious

00:59:38.230 --> 00:59:40.810
and persisting which is why I think we

00:59:40.810 --> 00:59:43.510
have always to link precarity with forms

00:59:43.510 --> 00:59:46.030
of social and political agency where

00:59:46.030 --> 00:59:48.849
that is possible when the bodies of

00:59:48.849 --> 00:59:51.010
those deemed disposable assemble into

00:59:51.010 --> 00:59:53.140
public view they are saying

00:59:53.140 --> 00:59:55.240
we have not slipped quietly into the

00:59:55.240 --> 00:59:57.460
shadows of public life we have not

00:59:57.460 --> 00:59:59.350
become the glaring absence that

00:59:59.350 --> 01:00:02.680
structures your ordinary life in a way

01:00:02.680 --> 01:00:04.690
the collective assembling of bodies is

01:00:04.690 --> 01:00:07.540
an exercise of the popular will and a

01:00:07.540 --> 01:00:10.450
way of asserting in corporeal form one

01:00:10.450 --> 01:00:12.640
of the most basic presuppositions of

01:00:12.640 --> 01:00:15.040
democracy namely that political and

01:00:15.040 --> 01:00:17.380
public institutions are bound to

01:00:17.380 --> 01:00:19.900
represent the people and to do so in

01:00:19.900 --> 01:00:22.200
ways that establish equality as a

01:00:22.200 --> 01:00:24.550
presupposition of social and political

01:00:24.550 --> 01:00:28.180
existence so when those institutions

01:00:28.180 --> 01:00:31.870
become structured in ways in such a way

01:00:31.870 --> 01:00:33.940
that certain populations become

01:00:33.940 --> 01:00:37.540
disposable or are interpolated as

01:00:37.540 --> 01:00:40.180
disposable deprived of a future of

01:00:40.180 --> 01:00:42.340
Education of stable and fulfilling work

01:00:42.340 --> 01:00:44.920
of even knowing what space one can call

01:00:44.920 --> 01:00:47.440
a home then surely the Assemblies

01:00:47.440 --> 01:00:49.930
fulfill another function not only the

01:00:49.930 --> 01:00:52.990
expression of justifiable rage but the

01:00:52.990 --> 01:00:55.090
assertion in their very social

01:00:55.090 --> 01:00:57.430
organization of principles of equality

01:00:57.430 --> 01:01:02.320
in the midst of precarity I am aware

01:01:02.320 --> 01:01:04.120
that the fate of the Egyptian revolution

01:01:04.120 --> 01:01:06.700
remains uncertain and sometimes

01:01:06.700 --> 01:01:09.700
extremely dispiriting especially as the

01:01:09.700 --> 01:01:11.860
transitional military government refuses

01:01:11.860 --> 01:01:14.590
to honor its deadlines for ceding to

01:01:14.590 --> 01:01:17.290
civil rule even in the midst of our

01:01:17.290 --> 01:01:19.450
elections whether the elections we're

01:01:19.450 --> 01:01:20.230
seeing right now

01:01:20.230 --> 01:01:22.720
indeed it continues to unleash its

01:01:22.720 --> 01:01:25.330
police force on demonstrators and retain

01:01:25.330 --> 01:01:28.210
power over who may or may not run for

01:01:28.210 --> 01:01:30.880
election who may or may not be accepted

01:01:30.880 --> 01:01:33.700
as elected I want to underscore

01:01:33.700 --> 01:01:35.980
nevertheless two aspects of the

01:01:35.980 --> 01:01:38.200
revolutionary demonstrations in Tahrir

01:01:38.200 --> 01:01:40.630
Square that emerged so clearly in the

01:01:40.630 --> 01:01:42.790
winter before last and which still

01:01:42.790 --> 01:01:45.450
despite all odds continue to this day

01:01:45.450 --> 01:01:48.250
the first has to do with the way a

01:01:48.250 --> 01:01:50.440
certain sociability was established

01:01:50.440 --> 01:01:52.420
within the square a division of labor

01:01:52.420 --> 01:01:55.150
that broke down gender difference that

01:01:55.150 --> 01:01:57.070
involved rotating who would speak and

01:01:57.070 --> 01:01:58.540
who would clean the areas where people

01:01:58.540 --> 01:02:00.970
slept in eight developing a work

01:02:00.970 --> 01:02:02.890
schedule for everyone to maintain the

01:02:02.890 --> 01:02:04.590
environment and to clean the toy

01:02:04.590 --> 01:02:07.890
in short what some would call horizontal

01:02:07.890 --> 01:02:10.670
relations among the protesters formed

01:02:10.670 --> 01:02:13.530
methodically and even easily introducing

01:02:13.530 --> 01:02:15.870
relations of equality into the very form

01:02:15.870 --> 01:02:18.720
of resistance those included an equal

01:02:18.720 --> 01:02:20.790
division of labor between the sexes and

01:02:20.790 --> 01:02:23.100
became part of the very resistance to

01:02:23.100 --> 01:02:25.320
the Mubarak regime and its entrenched

01:02:25.320 --> 01:02:27.570
hierarchies including the extraordinary

01:02:27.570 --> 01:02:29.580
differentials of wealth between the

01:02:29.580 --> 01:02:31.350
military and corporate sponsors of the

01:02:31.350 --> 01:02:34.050
regime and the working people and those

01:02:34.050 --> 01:02:36.090
subject to the violence of police forces

01:02:36.090 --> 01:02:39.270
and to the belt Ageha hired thugs that

01:02:39.270 --> 01:02:41.300
do the government's dirty work

01:02:41.300 --> 01:02:43.890
so the social form of the resistance

01:02:43.890 --> 01:02:45.720
began to incorporate principles of

01:02:45.720 --> 01:02:48.450
equality that governed not only how and

01:02:48.450 --> 01:02:50.700
when people spoken acted for the media

01:02:50.700 --> 01:02:53.010
and against the regime but how people

01:02:53.010 --> 01:02:54.780
cared for their very their various

01:02:54.780 --> 01:02:57.240
quarters within the square the beds on

01:02:57.240 --> 01:02:59.460
pavement the makeshift medical stations

01:02:59.460 --> 01:03:01.440
and bathrooms the places where people

01:03:01.440 --> 01:03:03.450
ate the places where people were exposed

01:03:03.450 --> 01:03:05.970
to violence from the outside these

01:03:05.970 --> 01:03:08.640
actions were all political by breaking

01:03:08.640 --> 01:03:10.910
down conventional distinctions between

01:03:10.910 --> 01:03:14.010
public and private in order to establish

01:03:14.010 --> 01:03:16.160
relations of interdependency that were

01:03:16.160 --> 01:03:19.230
supportive and sustaining and in this

01:03:19.230 --> 01:03:21.150
sense they were incorporating into the

01:03:21.150 --> 01:03:23.340
very social form of resistance the

01:03:23.340 --> 01:03:24.660
principles for which they were

01:03:24.660 --> 01:03:28.110
struggling on the street and for the

01:03:28.110 --> 01:03:32.070
future the second the second dimension

01:03:32.070 --> 01:03:35.190
of of of that assembly I want to call

01:03:35.190 --> 01:03:37.710
attention to is the careful relation to

01:03:37.710 --> 01:03:40.380
violence when up against violent attack

01:03:40.380 --> 01:03:42.780
or extreme threats many people chanted

01:03:42.780 --> 01:03:45.960
the words sumia which comes from the

01:03:45.960 --> 01:03:48.960
root verb Salima which means to be safe

01:03:48.960 --> 01:03:52.830
and sound unharmed unimpaired intact

01:03:52.830 --> 01:03:56.580
safe and secure but also interestingly

01:03:56.580 --> 01:04:00.150
to the unobjectionable blameless

01:04:00.150 --> 01:04:03.710
faultless and yet also to be certain

01:04:03.710 --> 01:04:07.440
established clearly proven the term

01:04:07.440 --> 01:04:10.800
comes from the noun seen si l M which

01:04:10.800 --> 01:04:14.250
means peace but also interchangeably and

01:04:14.250 --> 01:04:17.820
significantly the religion of Islam one

01:04:17.820 --> 01:04:18.510
variant

01:04:18.510 --> 01:04:22.800
of the term is of us soon which is

01:04:22.800 --> 01:04:27.120
Arabic for pacifism most usually the

01:04:27.120 --> 01:04:30.000
chanting of Samia comes across as a

01:04:30.000 --> 01:04:33.690
gentle exhortation peaceful peaceful

01:04:33.690 --> 01:04:36.240
although the Revolution was for the most

01:04:36.240 --> 01:04:38.520
part nonviolent it was not necessarily

01:04:38.520 --> 01:04:40.800
led by a principled opposition to

01:04:40.800 --> 01:04:43.680
violence rather the collective chant was

01:04:43.680 --> 01:04:45.600
a way of encouraging people to resist

01:04:45.600 --> 01:04:48.210
the mimetic pull of military aggression

01:04:48.210 --> 01:04:51.570
and the aggression of the gangs by

01:04:51.570 --> 01:04:54.390
keeping in mind the larger goal radical

01:04:54.390 --> 01:04:57.450
Democratic change to be swept into a

01:04:57.450 --> 01:04:59.610
violent exchange of the moment was to

01:04:59.610 --> 01:05:01.980
lose the patience needed to realize the

01:05:01.980 --> 01:05:04.890
revolution what interests me here is the

01:05:04.890 --> 01:05:07.140
chant the way in which language worked

01:05:07.140 --> 01:05:09.810
not to incite an action but rather to

01:05:09.810 --> 01:05:12.990
restrain one the chant structures effect

01:05:12.990 --> 01:05:14.700
in the direction of community and

01:05:14.700 --> 01:05:17.580
non-violence calling for an enacting a

01:05:17.580 --> 01:05:21.120
nonviolent mode of politics of course an

01:05:21.120 --> 01:05:24.150
ambiguity emerges precisely there since

01:05:24.150 --> 01:05:26.580
resisting a violent attack does take

01:05:26.580 --> 01:05:29.730
some force one has to sometimes forcibly

01:05:29.730 --> 01:05:32.580
resist a forcible attack and this means

01:05:32.580 --> 01:05:34.410
that non-violence is not a form of

01:05:34.410 --> 01:05:37.020
passivity but rather the thoughtful

01:05:37.020 --> 01:05:40.230
cultivation of forceful resistance that

01:05:40.230 --> 01:05:43.440
refuses to replicate the aggression it

01:05:43.440 --> 01:05:47.670
opposes and where restraint itself must

01:05:47.670 --> 01:05:49.910
be understood as the nonviolent

01:05:49.910 --> 01:05:54.150
cultivation of force although some may

01:05:54.150 --> 01:05:56.190
wager that under conditions of new media

01:05:56.190 --> 01:05:58.770
or social networking the exercise of

01:05:58.770 --> 01:06:00.660
rights now takes place quite at the

01:06:00.660 --> 01:06:02.880
expense of bodies on the street that

01:06:02.880 --> 01:06:05.010
Twitter and other virtual technologies

01:06:05.010 --> 01:06:07.770
have led to a disembodiment of the

01:06:07.770 --> 01:06:11.580
public sphere I disagree and as I've

01:06:11.580 --> 01:06:14.040
argued elsewhere I want to suggest that

01:06:14.040 --> 01:06:16.080
the media requires those bodies on the

01:06:16.080 --> 01:06:18.240
street to have an event even as the

01:06:18.240 --> 01:06:20.700
street requires the media to exist in a

01:06:20.700 --> 01:06:23.520
global arena but under conditions when

01:06:23.520 --> 01:06:26.280
those with cameras or internet compress

01:06:26.280 --> 01:06:28.830
and or tortured or deported then the use

01:06:28.830 --> 01:06:31.170
of the technology effectively implicates

01:06:31.170 --> 01:06:32.340
the body

01:06:32.340 --> 01:06:34.680
not only must someone's hand tap and

01:06:34.680 --> 01:06:37.110
send but someone's body is on the line

01:06:37.110 --> 01:06:39.810
if that tapping and sending gets traced

01:06:39.810 --> 01:06:43.170
in other words localization is hardly

01:06:43.170 --> 01:06:45.600
overcome through the use of a media that

01:06:45.600 --> 01:06:48.780
potentially transmits globally and if

01:06:48.780 --> 01:06:51.270
this conjuncture of street and media

01:06:51.270 --> 01:06:53.640
constitutes a very contemporary version

01:06:53.640 --> 01:06:56.130
of the public sphere then bodies on the

01:06:56.130 --> 01:06:58.380
line have to be thought as both there

01:06:58.380 --> 01:07:01.500
and here now and then transported in

01:07:01.500 --> 01:07:03.800
stationary with very different political

01:07:03.800 --> 01:07:06.630
consequences following from these two

01:07:06.630 --> 01:07:09.180
ways of being positioned in space and

01:07:09.180 --> 01:07:14.160
time finally then bodies on the street

01:07:14.160 --> 01:07:17.130
are precarious they're exposed to police

01:07:17.130 --> 01:07:18.930
force and sometimes endure physical

01:07:18.930 --> 01:07:22.050
suffering as a result the risk is there

01:07:22.050 --> 01:07:24.150
and it seems to be increasing now that

01:07:24.150 --> 01:07:26.220
police regularly clear out the

01:07:26.220 --> 01:07:27.660
encampments of the Occupy movement

01:07:27.660 --> 01:07:31.830
through forcible means or or clamp down

01:07:31.830 --> 01:07:39.270
on free assembly supported by laws and

01:07:39.270 --> 01:07:42.030
policies that claim that free assemblies

01:07:42.030 --> 01:07:45.870
are security risks one way to obliterate

01:07:45.870 --> 01:07:49.350
a fundamental right those bodies are

01:07:49.350 --> 01:07:51.960
also obdurate and persisting they insist

01:07:51.960 --> 01:07:54.240
on their continuing and collective their

01:07:54.240 --> 01:07:57.810
nasur hereness and in these recent forms

01:07:57.810 --> 01:07:59.790
organizing themselves without hierarchy

01:07:59.790 --> 01:08:02.520
and so exemplifying the principles of

01:08:02.520 --> 01:08:04.710
equal treatment they are demanding of

01:08:04.710 --> 01:08:08.100
public institutions in this way in this

01:08:08.100 --> 01:08:10.790
way those bodies enact the message

01:08:10.790 --> 01:08:13.680
performative Lee even when they sleep in

01:08:13.680 --> 01:08:15.600
public or when they organize collective

01:08:15.600 --> 01:08:17.460
methods for cleaning the grounds they

01:08:17.460 --> 01:08:20.189
occupy as happened both interior and

01:08:20.189 --> 01:08:23.370
Zuccotti Park if there's a we who

01:08:23.370 --> 01:08:26.100
assembles there at that precise space

01:08:26.100 --> 01:08:28.170
and time there's also a we that forms

01:08:28.170 --> 01:08:30.180
across the media that calls for the

01:08:30.180 --> 01:08:32.729
demonstrations and broadcasts its event

01:08:32.729 --> 01:08:35.189
so some set of global connections are

01:08:35.189 --> 01:08:37.529
being articulated a different sense of

01:08:37.529 --> 01:08:39.870
the global from the globalized market

01:08:39.870 --> 01:08:42.720
and some set of values are being enacted

01:08:42.720 --> 01:08:45.609
in the form of a collective resistance

01:08:45.609 --> 01:08:47.500
a defense of our collective precarity

01:08:47.500 --> 01:08:49.839
and persistence in the making of

01:08:49.839 --> 01:08:52.089
equality and the many voiced and

01:08:52.089 --> 01:08:54.850
unvoiced ways of refusing to become

01:08:54.850 --> 01:08:59.259
disposable when this happens we act from

01:08:59.259 --> 01:09:02.229
a sense of precarity we also act against

01:09:02.229 --> 01:09:05.380
a sense of precarity reacting coalition

01:09:05.380 --> 01:09:10.060
and often in unchosen proximities to

01:09:10.060 --> 01:09:12.479
people we've never chosen to be close to

01:09:12.479 --> 01:09:15.670
indeed in a situation where a pre

01:09:15.670 --> 01:09:18.420
contractual interdependency is at work

01:09:18.420 --> 01:09:20.920
sometimes this is experienced as a

01:09:20.920 --> 01:09:23.948
relief and an exhilaration sometimes it

01:09:23.948 --> 01:09:26.979
is uneasy and conflicted but it is in my

01:09:26.979 --> 01:09:30.868
view always necessary and sometimes

01:09:30.868 --> 01:09:35.849
promising and alive thank you

01:09:44.488 --> 01:09:47.238
thank you

01:09:52.649 --> 01:09:55.400
thank you

01:10:05.640 --> 01:10:09.190
Thank You dr. Butler my name is Charlie

01:10:09.190 --> 01:10:10.960
Smith I'm editor if the charges straight

01:10:10.960 --> 01:10:14.380
and we have two microphones one on the

01:10:14.380 --> 01:10:17.080
left and one on the right so if people

01:10:17.080 --> 01:10:19.660
want to ask questions they can go to the

01:10:19.660 --> 01:10:22.930
microphone and I'll just start with one

01:10:22.930 --> 01:10:25.290
question to get things going

01:10:25.290 --> 01:10:29.830
dr. Butler why is it that so many people

01:10:29.830 --> 01:10:33.430
in North America seem to have difficulty

01:10:33.430 --> 01:10:42.070
acknowledging their own precarity agree

01:10:42.070 --> 01:10:47.370
with well it's not very much fun is it I

01:10:50.340 --> 01:10:54.420
can follow up with another question

01:10:56.130 --> 01:11:00.960
um no I'm happy to answer your question

01:11:00.960 --> 01:11:03.430
although I'm not sure I could answer in

01:11:03.430 --> 01:11:08.020
a satisfying way but but but but but

01:11:08.020 --> 01:11:11.530
certainly I mean I do think that there

01:11:11.530 --> 01:11:16.440
are forms of amassing wealth and

01:11:16.440 --> 01:11:21.880
economic and political security and

01:11:21.880 --> 01:11:25.320
protection that are very much about

01:11:25.320 --> 01:11:28.540
producing the possibility of lives that

01:11:28.540 --> 01:11:32.730
will not be touched by other lives or

01:11:32.730 --> 01:11:36.960
lives that will be impermeable to

01:11:36.960 --> 01:11:39.310
incursion right we can think about gated

01:11:39.310 --> 01:11:41.710
communities but we can also think more

01:11:41.710 --> 01:11:48.280
generally about forms of of militarism

01:11:48.280 --> 01:11:51.880
or nationalism that are stoked by the

01:11:51.880 --> 01:11:55.840
ideal of of never being attacked are

01:11:55.840 --> 01:12:00.820
never never having anyone come into

01:12:00.820 --> 01:12:04.360
one's territory who might do harm and I

01:12:04.360 --> 01:12:06.280
think one can find it as well in

01:12:06.280 --> 01:12:12.930
virulent anti-immigration discourses and

01:12:12.930 --> 01:12:15.110
and I'm not

01:12:15.110 --> 01:12:18.170
sure that most people would understand

01:12:18.170 --> 01:12:21.710
themselves as dealing with a situation

01:12:21.710 --> 01:12:25.250
of precarity at such moments but in fact

01:12:25.250 --> 01:12:31.280
I think that there's there's a specter

01:12:31.280 --> 01:12:33.320
of being destroyed or being destabilized

01:12:33.320 --> 01:12:39.110
or of being penetrated or aggressed upon

01:12:39.110 --> 01:12:46.160
that does suggest a level of enormous

01:12:46.160 --> 01:12:50.330
political anxiety that that that focuses

01:12:50.330 --> 01:12:55.640
on on the body and and and the capacity

01:12:55.640 --> 01:12:59.120
of the body to be suddenly aggressed

01:12:59.120 --> 01:13:06.560
upon or to be entered to be - - to have

01:13:06.560 --> 01:13:10.610
its its solidity and control threatened

01:13:10.610 --> 01:13:18.020
at a very fundamental level and and and

01:13:18.020 --> 01:13:20.360
I and I do think that it is a political

01:13:20.360 --> 01:13:25.220
strategy - to effectively externalize

01:13:25.220 --> 01:13:29.260
and deposit that felt sense of precarity

01:13:29.260 --> 01:13:32.660
in in other populations and to try to

01:13:32.660 --> 01:13:35.120
keep other populations precarious

01:13:35.120 --> 01:13:39.620
especially those who are who are in some

01:13:39.620 --> 01:13:43.420
sense feared or loathed and of course

01:13:43.420 --> 01:13:46.490
people in dominant in dominant positions

01:13:46.490 --> 01:13:49.820
who do that know that they are also all

01:13:49.820 --> 01:13:51.920
the more subject to aggression from

01:13:51.920 --> 01:13:53.810
those they subjugate so what they

01:13:53.810 --> 01:13:56.450
actually end up doing is increasing

01:13:56.450 --> 01:13:58.940
their own felt sense of precarity

01:13:58.940 --> 01:14:01.430
through a mode of subjugation that is

01:14:01.430 --> 01:14:04.780
unlivable for those who who who live it

01:14:04.780 --> 01:14:10.300
so you know I I think we could we could

01:14:10.300 --> 01:14:12.590
answer the question at both the

01:14:12.590 --> 01:14:14.600
psychological and a political level but

01:14:14.600 --> 01:14:18.500
my my my wager is that the psychological

01:14:18.500 --> 01:14:22.700
and the political work in tandem it's

01:14:22.700 --> 01:14:24.770
not always easy to show how that works

01:14:24.770 --> 01:14:26.210
I'm not interested in the kind of group

01:14:26.210 --> 01:14:29.110
psychology exactly but I

01:14:29.110 --> 01:14:32.630
but I am interested in seeing how that

01:14:32.630 --> 01:14:34.850
can work out I don't I don't know if I

01:14:34.850 --> 01:14:44.410
answered your question okay so what I

01:14:44.530 --> 01:14:48.740
would say you did I mean I'll try again

01:14:48.740 --> 01:14:50.600
yeah happy to know well there is the

01:14:50.600 --> 01:14:54.410
psychological aspects - yes that failure

01:14:54.410 --> 01:14:58.520
to acknowledge but what I'll do is we

01:14:58.520 --> 01:15:00.140
have people who want to ask questions

01:15:00.140 --> 01:15:03.950
and where what I would ask each person

01:15:03.950 --> 01:15:06.410
who asks a question if you could keep it

01:15:06.410 --> 01:15:09.590
relatively concise so that we can get

01:15:09.590 --> 01:15:11.330
more questions in the amount of time

01:15:11.330 --> 01:15:14.350
available so we'll start on the right

01:15:14.350 --> 01:15:16.610
one of the chants I heard at the Occupy

01:15:16.610 --> 01:15:19.190
movements in Vancouver the people United

01:15:19.190 --> 01:15:21.410
will never be defeated and if there's

01:15:21.410 --> 01:15:22.850
one thing I learned it's that in that

01:15:22.850 --> 01:15:25.060
instance the people were defeated and

01:15:25.060 --> 01:15:27.350
maybe you might disagree with me but we

01:15:27.350 --> 01:15:28.880
need only refer to our mutual friend

01:15:28.880 --> 01:15:31.430
Hegel and the battle between the law of

01:15:31.430 --> 01:15:32.840
the heart in the way of the world to

01:15:32.840 --> 01:15:35.570
graph onto this see what I think can be

01:15:35.570 --> 01:15:37.640
characterized is the fact that we we

01:15:37.640 --> 01:15:40.480
have the law of the heart the occupiers

01:15:40.480 --> 01:15:42.860
keeping in reserve the virtue the fact

01:15:42.860 --> 01:15:44.360
that the people will never be defeated

01:15:44.360 --> 01:15:45.980
well the way of the world will always

01:15:45.980 --> 01:15:47.960
triumph over that because of the nature

01:15:47.960 --> 01:15:49.640
of it being a sham fight to this extent

01:15:49.640 --> 01:15:51.890
my question is is this kegeling

01:15:51.890 --> 01:15:53.900
characterization correct and if so to

01:15:53.900 --> 01:15:56.720
what extent will these occupiers and

01:15:56.720 --> 01:15:58.910
these carceral archipelagos need to

01:15:58.910 --> 01:16:01.190
traverse the fantasy that non-violence

01:16:01.190 --> 01:16:02.810
can actually edify radical Democratic

01:16:02.810 --> 01:16:06.410
Change okay you know I my guess is that

01:16:06.410 --> 01:16:07.970
others heard you better you were

01:16:07.970 --> 01:16:09.860
standing just a little bit too far away

01:16:09.860 --> 01:16:12.700
from that microphone for me but I

01:16:12.700 --> 01:16:15.910
I and I understand it but I got it that

01:16:15.910 --> 01:16:22.840
it was very articulate but I'm just but

01:16:22.840 --> 01:16:23.320
I'm sorry

01:16:23.320 --> 01:16:25.270
what I understand you to have said is

01:16:25.270 --> 01:16:27.670
that the the the the so-called occupiers

01:16:27.670 --> 01:16:31.570
were falsely believed that if they

01:16:31.570 --> 01:16:33.790
remain united they would not be defeated

01:16:33.790 --> 01:16:36.310
but indeed they were defeated which

01:16:36.310 --> 01:16:38.140
means that there's something wrong with

01:16:38.140 --> 01:16:40.360
the tactic but what I don't understand

01:16:40.360 --> 01:16:42.610
is what you're you're claiming is wrong

01:16:42.610 --> 01:16:43.990
with the tactic what I'm claiming is

01:16:43.990 --> 01:16:46.900
that the the movement is subject to a

01:16:46.900 --> 01:16:49.000
fantasy that nonviolent change can

01:16:49.000 --> 01:16:52.690
actually edify radical Democratic Change

01:16:52.690 --> 01:16:56.190
is that correct and if it is not correct

01:16:56.190 --> 01:17:09.130
where am I going wrong well look first

01:17:09.130 --> 01:17:11.290
of all as far as I'm concerned the

01:17:11.290 --> 01:17:18.970
Occupy movement is not over and but the

01:17:18.970 --> 01:17:23.370
Occupy movement is has to work through

01:17:23.370 --> 01:17:28.840
certain kinds of in in in in in an

01:17:28.840 --> 01:17:34.480
episodic way and the encampment episode

01:17:34.480 --> 01:17:36.940
has been an extremely important one the

01:17:36.940 --> 01:17:38.830
end of encampments is not the end of the

01:17:38.830 --> 01:17:43.600
Occupy movement and the real question is

01:17:43.600 --> 01:17:46.240
what are the new strategies and and and

01:17:46.240 --> 01:17:49.570
what are the new ways of occupying

01:17:49.570 --> 01:17:54.610
buildings temporarily or producing

01:17:54.610 --> 01:17:57.670
demonstrations or continuing to get the

01:17:57.670 --> 01:18:03.010
word out in in different ways so so you

01:18:03.010 --> 01:18:04.420
know I think we have certain ideas of

01:18:04.420 --> 01:18:06.810
what success is Oh Occupy movement

01:18:06.810 --> 01:18:10.210
failed because police power came in and

01:18:10.210 --> 01:18:14.440
wiped them out and they were defenseless

01:18:14.440 --> 01:18:17.200
against police power now you could say

01:18:17.200 --> 01:18:19.540
oh they needed to take arms or what we

01:18:19.540 --> 01:18:21.610
need is a armed revolutionary struggle

01:18:21.610 --> 01:18:24.860
or or something along those lines

01:18:24.860 --> 01:18:29.880
but I think I think in fact what we are

01:18:29.880 --> 01:18:32.970
seeing is the common the contours of a

01:18:32.970 --> 01:18:36.180
new form of the conflict to remember

01:18:36.180 --> 01:18:39.690
what what really began as a movement

01:18:39.690 --> 01:18:43.580
that was trying to draw attention to

01:18:43.580 --> 01:18:50.010
differential levels of wealth and in

01:18:50.010 --> 01:18:52.890
particular showing that the rich are

01:18:52.890 --> 01:18:55.560
getting richer and fewer and the poor

01:18:55.560 --> 01:19:00.630
are getting larger and poorer suddenly

01:19:00.630 --> 01:19:02.910
found itself up against police power

01:19:02.910 --> 01:19:06.300
right and that the analysis of police

01:19:06.300 --> 01:19:08.220
power and the resistance to police power

01:19:08.220 --> 01:19:09.840
was not at the forefront of the movement

01:19:09.840 --> 01:19:14.160
and suddenly became at the forefront of

01:19:14.160 --> 01:19:17.940
the movement when public space was taken

01:19:17.940 --> 01:19:22.410
back by the state time and again through

01:19:22.410 --> 01:19:27.000
forcible police action so no and and it

01:19:27.000 --> 01:19:30.420
seems to me that in in many of the

01:19:30.420 --> 01:19:33.660
student movements as well which are to a

01:19:33.660 --> 01:19:35.610
certain degree linked to occupy and to a

01:19:35.610 --> 01:19:38.100
certain degree independent we're also

01:19:38.100 --> 01:19:42.540
seeing police action against free

01:19:42.540 --> 01:19:45.630
assembly and I gather the new montreal

01:19:45.630 --> 01:19:49.320
law has actually now effectively

01:19:49.320 --> 01:19:54.120
criminalized protests as as a kind of

01:19:54.120 --> 01:19:56.700
security threat which is to me extremely

01:19:56.700 --> 01:20:00.870
frightening so the real question for me

01:20:00.870 --> 01:20:05.970
is okay what's what now we're not just

01:20:05.970 --> 01:20:07.470
dealing with differentials in wealth

01:20:07.470 --> 01:20:13.070
we're also dealing with a state a set of

01:20:13.070 --> 01:20:15.920
economic and state powers that are

01:20:15.920 --> 01:20:20.250
invested in the destruction of dissent

01:20:20.250 --> 01:20:25.320
and legal assembly through using the

01:20:25.320 --> 01:20:27.780
violent arm of the state which is the

01:20:27.780 --> 01:20:31.080
police and and that point and those

01:20:31.080 --> 01:20:32.940
police forces are increasingly in

01:20:32.940 --> 01:20:36.860
several cities as we know

01:20:37.530 --> 01:20:40.350
being trained by military forces so we

01:20:40.350 --> 01:20:42.240
actually have the militarization of the

01:20:42.240 --> 01:20:45.240
police and the criminalization of

01:20:45.240 --> 01:20:47.730
protests happening at the same time

01:20:47.730 --> 01:20:49.890
which means that the analysis of power

01:20:49.890 --> 01:20:52.620
and the ways of resisting that power are

01:20:52.620 --> 01:20:55.050
going to have to adapt but we're in the

01:20:55.050 --> 01:20:57.660
middle of a process we're in the middle

01:20:57.660 --> 01:21:01.560
of a process and and and it's also a

01:21:01.560 --> 01:21:05.420
problem because traditional modes of

01:21:05.420 --> 01:21:08.580
civil disobedience and nonviolent

01:21:08.580 --> 01:21:09.990
resistance are no longer being

01:21:09.990 --> 01:21:13.320
recognized as legitimate so for instance

01:21:13.320 --> 01:21:15.600
on the Berkeley campus when people and

01:21:15.600 --> 01:21:18.870
you know they actually you know gave the

01:21:18.870 --> 01:21:22.740
police their wrists thinking okay you

01:21:22.740 --> 01:21:25.380
know a handcuffed me take me away this

01:21:25.380 --> 01:21:27.840
is what's done this is what happened in

01:21:27.840 --> 01:21:30.300
the civil rights movement they were

01:21:30.300 --> 01:21:33.300
thrown to the ground and beaten which

01:21:33.300 --> 01:21:35.070
which is an historically really

01:21:35.070 --> 01:21:37.680
important moment given free speech at

01:21:37.680 --> 01:21:40.890
Berkeley because what it what it

01:21:40.890 --> 01:21:44.360
effectively said it says is that

01:21:44.360 --> 01:21:49.170
traditions governing non nonviolent

01:21:49.170 --> 01:21:51.210
civil disobedience are no longer being

01:21:51.210 --> 01:21:55.500
honored it seems to me that the only way

01:21:55.500 --> 01:21:59.490
to overcome that kind of militarization

01:21:59.490 --> 01:22:01.440
and criminalization of protest is

01:22:01.440 --> 01:22:06.020
through making protest more amenable

01:22:06.020 --> 01:22:09.600
making it larger making it global making

01:22:09.600 --> 01:22:13.260
it overwhelming so that the the actual

01:22:13.260 --> 01:22:16.890
legitimacy of the state is called into

01:22:16.890 --> 01:22:21.810
question I think there I I think we

01:22:21.810 --> 01:22:23.250
would have to have a longer discussion

01:22:23.250 --> 01:22:25.530
about violence and non-violence and what

01:22:25.530 --> 01:22:27.540
I was trying to suggest briefly today is

01:22:27.540 --> 01:22:30.210
that non-violence is not just passivity

01:22:30.210 --> 01:22:32.370
it is the cultivation of the force of

01:22:32.370 --> 01:22:36.000
resistance and and in that sense it in

01:22:36.000 --> 01:22:38.610
it involves bodily action pressure and

01:22:38.610 --> 01:22:43.200
and presence and it is not simply taking

01:22:43.200 --> 01:22:49.070
it but I we need more time for that

01:22:55.910 --> 01:22:57.989
okay I don't know if this is a big

01:22:57.989 --> 01:22:59.250
question or if it's actually a pretty

01:22:59.250 --> 01:23:01.620
straightforward question but just

01:23:01.620 --> 01:23:03.090
thinking about leftist politics it is

01:23:03.090 --> 01:23:04.590
related to the last question on occupy

01:23:04.590 --> 01:23:07.050
um any kind of leftist or progressive

01:23:07.050 --> 01:23:08.760
politics whatever we want to call it um

01:23:08.760 --> 01:23:11.310
it seems to obviously be in when it's up

01:23:11.310 --> 01:23:12.840
against right-wing politics it's

01:23:12.840 --> 01:23:14.640
necessarily fragmented because of our

01:23:14.640 --> 01:23:17.310
recognition of difference within a group

01:23:17.310 --> 01:23:19.110
and then I've often thought of your

01:23:19.110 --> 01:23:21.239
notion of strategic essentialism in

01:23:21.239 --> 01:23:22.739
terms of a way of bringing a group

01:23:22.739 --> 01:23:24.239
together and then something like occupy

01:23:24.239 --> 01:23:26.310
I just kind of want to ask you with some

01:23:26.310 --> 01:23:30.330
with kind of a phrase we are the 99% as

01:23:30.330 --> 01:23:32.130
a kind of example of what I understand

01:23:32.130 --> 01:23:34.980
to be strategic essentialism I would ask

01:23:34.980 --> 01:23:36.780
if do you think that that has proven a

01:23:36.780 --> 01:23:39.810
kind of politically efficacious form of

01:23:39.810 --> 01:23:42.600
the use of strategic essentialism or do

01:23:42.600 --> 01:23:44.910
we lose something in something like we

01:23:44.910 --> 01:23:53.310
are the 99% well I don't think we are

01:23:53.310 --> 01:23:56.820
the 99% is strategic essentialism

01:23:56.820 --> 01:24:00.110
because it doesn't say that our being

01:24:00.110 --> 01:24:05.100
99% is essential to who we are or is the

01:24:05.100 --> 01:24:09.500
only basis on which we mobilize together

01:24:09.500 --> 01:24:15.420
I think in fact it seeks to be a kind of

01:24:15.420 --> 01:24:17.750
umbrella term that is supposed to

01:24:17.750 --> 01:24:20.250
actually include all kinds of

01:24:20.250 --> 01:24:24.960
differences without asserting economic

01:24:24.960 --> 01:24:27.060
oppression as more primary than all

01:24:27.060 --> 01:24:29.640
other forms of oppression so I saw it as

01:24:29.640 --> 01:24:33.300
trying to circumvent the more classical

01:24:33.300 --> 01:24:38.130
leftist effort to to make economic

01:24:38.130 --> 01:24:39.989
oppression primary and then to have

01:24:39.989 --> 01:24:43.440
secondary oppressions but of course as

01:24:43.440 --> 01:24:45.630
we know within many of the encampments

01:24:45.630 --> 01:24:46.920
and within the movements there are

01:24:46.920 --> 01:24:49.650
struggles about race about sexuality

01:24:49.650 --> 01:24:53.910
about gender and and and I guess I want

01:24:53.910 --> 01:24:57.150
to say that those struggles are

01:24:57.150 --> 01:25:00.100
absolutely necessary

01:25:00.100 --> 01:25:02.080
and that we shouldn't lament them I

01:25:02.080 --> 01:25:04.330
don't think we should we should think oh

01:25:04.330 --> 01:25:05.800
it's too bad we're still having those

01:25:05.800 --> 01:25:07.450
struggles and we're not yet unified I

01:25:07.450 --> 01:25:09.100
think if we're having those struggles

01:25:09.100 --> 01:25:11.400
that is what Unity means Unity means

01:25:11.400 --> 01:25:17.560
struggling right and so you know I I

01:25:17.560 --> 01:25:22.540
tend to kind of resist the the language

01:25:22.540 --> 01:25:25.060
of fragmentation even though sometimes

01:25:25.060 --> 01:25:27.790
it's exactly right right that groups do

01:25:27.790 --> 01:25:30.280
leave they can't be in coalition

01:25:30.280 --> 01:25:33.550
together it's impossible and yet

01:25:33.550 --> 01:25:37.690
it seems to me that hanging in hanging

01:25:37.690 --> 01:25:41.890
in in coalition's where it's not easy

01:25:41.890 --> 01:25:44.050
and when where those issues continue to

01:25:44.050 --> 01:25:46.450
remain open and where there's there's

01:25:46.450 --> 01:25:49.570
open conflict and struggle that's that's

01:25:49.570 --> 01:25:51.870
what we can that's what is meant by

01:25:51.870 --> 01:25:55.780
unity unity is not uniformity unity is

01:25:55.780 --> 01:25:57.430
agreeing to stay in and struggle or

01:25:57.430 --> 01:25:58.930
finding that the struggle is worth it

01:25:58.930 --> 01:26:02.380
not just because different groups need

01:26:02.380 --> 01:26:04.300
to recognize each other or understand

01:26:04.300 --> 01:26:05.050
each other better

01:26:05.050 --> 01:26:07.750
but because the stakes are really really

01:26:07.750 --> 01:26:10.110
high because what is happening

01:26:10.110 --> 01:26:12.720
economically and politically is is

01:26:12.720 --> 01:26:14.980
absolutely unacceptable and one has to

01:26:14.980 --> 01:26:17.560
keep that in mind at the same time that

01:26:17.560 --> 01:26:18.940
one is engaged in that open-ended

01:26:18.940 --> 01:26:27.640
struggle I first of all I never I never

01:26:27.640 --> 01:26:29.260
felt so vulnerable that asking a

01:26:29.260 --> 01:26:34.830
question you're you're safe with me

01:26:35.490 --> 01:26:39.550
just the vulnerability asset choice and

01:26:39.550 --> 01:26:41.950
being a student here as an immigrant and

01:26:41.950 --> 01:26:44.740
a queer migrant the the first thing that

01:26:44.740 --> 01:26:46.710
I was told when I attended a student

01:26:46.710 --> 01:26:48.580
international student meeting was never

01:26:48.580 --> 01:26:50.980
to attend a protest or any sort of

01:26:50.980 --> 01:26:55.390
social or political event and waste of

01:26:55.390 --> 01:26:59.350
like some the tactics of fear applied to

01:26:59.350 --> 01:27:01.270
by the state but also by the

01:27:01.270 --> 01:27:04.600
institutions to depolarize migrants as a

01:27:04.600 --> 01:27:07.630
way of preventing any action to happen

01:27:07.630 --> 01:27:10.780
that's one of and but also the

01:27:10.780 --> 01:27:12.430
vulnerability as a choice so every time

01:27:12.430 --> 01:27:13.510
I go to a protest

01:27:13.510 --> 01:27:15.309
which I do all the time there's a choice

01:27:15.309 --> 01:27:18.309
of me of being a greater choice of

01:27:18.309 --> 01:27:20.800
actually being deported if anything goes

01:27:20.800 --> 01:27:22.570
wrong so there's that that there's

01:27:22.570 --> 01:27:24.730
always that fear but also vulnerability

01:27:24.730 --> 01:27:26.679
as a as a place of birth of any

01:27:26.679 --> 01:27:30.190
resistance so how do you play that

01:27:30.190 --> 01:27:31.960
performative side of performativity

01:27:31.960 --> 01:27:34.320
within like the tactics that are applied

01:27:34.320 --> 01:27:37.599
by the state and by the institutions to

01:27:37.599 --> 01:27:40.809
deploy to ties migrants mm-hmm good

01:27:40.809 --> 01:27:43.230
question

01:27:43.690 --> 01:27:45.429
seems like you could probably tell me

01:27:45.429 --> 01:27:47.349
more about that question that I could

01:27:47.349 --> 01:27:54.730
tell you but I do I do think that the

01:27:54.730 --> 01:27:58.110
that the the effort to depoliticize

01:27:58.110 --> 01:28:01.599
migrants as you've described it is also

01:28:01.599 --> 01:28:04.659
a certain kind of training in good

01:28:04.659 --> 01:28:05.530
citizenship

01:28:05.530 --> 01:28:09.489
right and we have to ask what version of

01:28:09.489 --> 01:28:11.980
citizenship is being inculcated at such

01:28:11.980 --> 01:28:16.690
moments and whether whether you're also

01:28:16.690 --> 01:28:22.059
being asked to accept implicit forms of

01:28:22.059 --> 01:28:24.670
censorship as the precondition of your

01:28:24.670 --> 01:28:28.929
membership and and that's that's really

01:28:28.929 --> 01:28:30.849
tricky you don't even need a law to say

01:28:30.849 --> 01:28:33.480
you you know you may I mean of course

01:28:33.480 --> 01:28:35.889
there's the problem of the law but there

01:28:35.889 --> 01:28:37.599
doesn't even have to be an explicit

01:28:37.599 --> 01:28:48.190
censoring but I think in fact one I had

01:28:48.190 --> 01:28:52.989
these conversations with with students

01:28:52.989 --> 01:28:55.420
on the on the East Coast in the US who

01:28:55.420 --> 01:28:58.210
did a number of public public actions

01:28:58.210 --> 01:28:59.769
they were undocumented and they did

01:28:59.769 --> 01:29:03.340
public actions that did put them in a

01:29:03.340 --> 01:29:05.110
precarious position but also drew

01:29:05.110 --> 01:29:07.389
attention to the precarious position

01:29:07.389 --> 01:29:09.309
they were in and which was for them not

01:29:09.309 --> 01:29:13.599
acceptable right and and so we have to

01:29:13.599 --> 01:29:16.150
think about both dimensions of that and

01:29:16.150 --> 01:29:18.130
what was interesting is that certain

01:29:18.130 --> 01:29:21.579
students could do it and those were the

01:29:21.579 --> 01:29:24.789
ones who for whatever reason felt that

01:29:24.789 --> 01:29:27.099
their chances of deportation were

01:29:27.099 --> 01:29:29.289
or that they were possibly protected by

01:29:29.289 --> 01:29:31.570
the institutions they were part of or

01:29:31.570 --> 01:29:33.849
who are willing to take the risk for

01:29:33.849 --> 01:29:35.650
whatever reason and others felt they

01:29:35.650 --> 01:29:37.989
could not do that but wanted to support

01:29:37.989 --> 01:29:39.729
the effort in ways that didn't

01:29:39.729 --> 01:29:41.979
necessarily put their own bodies on the

01:29:41.979 --> 01:29:44.499
line and let's remember that every

01:29:44.499 --> 01:29:47.739
public demonstration requires its non

01:29:47.739 --> 01:29:51.340
public support system right there's a

01:29:51.340 --> 01:29:54.039
non public support system and there's a

01:29:54.039 --> 01:29:58.179
way to be supportive and to be you know

01:29:58.179 --> 01:30:03.570
to be to be assisting and to be active

01:30:03.570 --> 01:30:08.039
in in in in ways that that that feel

01:30:08.039 --> 01:30:10.360
manageable depending on what the level

01:30:10.360 --> 01:30:16.059
of political risk really is for the

01:30:16.059 --> 01:30:17.949
individual or for the four other groups

01:30:17.949 --> 01:30:21.280
so so I don't think there's one I don't

01:30:21.280 --> 01:30:24.959
think there's simply one form of of

01:30:24.959 --> 01:30:27.400
being mobilized on that issue

01:30:27.400 --> 01:30:29.860
and one has to and and who no one can

01:30:29.860 --> 01:30:31.959
prescribe no one can prescribe to you

01:30:31.959 --> 01:30:34.119
what risk to take but if someone tells

01:30:34.119 --> 01:30:36.760
you never to take a risk then you know

01:30:36.760 --> 01:30:38.860
you have to wonder what norm is being

01:30:38.860 --> 01:30:42.420
inculcated at such a moment

01:30:45.510 --> 01:30:47.680
allowing permanent like permanent

01:30:47.680 --> 01:30:50.020
residents can no like can be actually

01:30:50.020 --> 01:30:52.960
deported if they're like even citizens

01:30:52.960 --> 01:30:55.420
that went through process of refugee or

01:30:55.420 --> 01:30:57.820
permanent resident before yes could be

01:30:57.820 --> 01:30:59.860
deported like there's no it the status

01:30:59.860 --> 01:31:02.590
of permanent resident or our citizen is

01:31:02.590 --> 01:31:04.750
not even like it goes farther than just

01:31:04.750 --> 01:31:07.690
being a I am aware I'm we we now have

01:31:07.690 --> 01:31:11.410
retractable forms of citizenship yes

01:31:11.410 --> 01:31:13.420
these are the retractable conditions of

01:31:13.420 --> 01:31:16.480
citizenship and they are expanding and

01:31:16.480 --> 01:31:21.990
and and and that is that is that that is

01:31:21.990 --> 01:31:25.090
hugely worrisome and and and very very

01:31:25.090 --> 01:31:32.170
difficult I understand that hi dr.

01:31:32.170 --> 01:31:34.210
Butler I don't have a specific question

01:31:34.210 --> 01:31:36.730
but I was wondering if you could speak

01:31:36.730 --> 01:31:40.660
to what you said earlier in your lecture

01:31:40.660 --> 01:31:45.060
about the link between feminization of

01:31:45.060 --> 01:31:50.620
different nations and I'm totally

01:31:50.620 --> 01:31:53.010
drawing a blank here

01:31:53.010 --> 01:31:55.450
vulnerability of those nations so just

01:31:55.450 --> 01:31:56.890
the link between the two I was wondering

01:31:56.890 --> 01:31:59.290
if you could speak briefly about those

01:31:59.290 --> 01:32:02.860
because I was curious about that um well

01:32:02.860 --> 01:32:07.870
I suppose um you know let me just you

01:32:07.870 --> 01:32:13.360
know clarify that I think you know in a

01:32:13.360 --> 01:32:16.810
way I'm I'm I'm saying two things at the

01:32:16.810 --> 01:32:18.580
same time and I want to be able to say

01:32:18.580 --> 01:32:22.750
them both and one is that vulnerability

01:32:22.750 --> 01:32:24.400
is something like a shared condition

01:32:24.400 --> 01:32:26.680
that cannot be denied and I also want to

01:32:26.680 --> 01:32:28.990
say that vulnerability is a condition

01:32:28.990 --> 01:32:34.480
that is denied all the time and and and

01:32:34.480 --> 01:32:38.050
I I do i I don't think we can deny what

01:32:38.050 --> 01:32:41.200
is not in some sense there the link that

01:32:41.200 --> 01:32:43.360
I was making in my own mind was one of

01:32:43.360 --> 01:32:45.400
physical safety I don't know what

01:32:45.400 --> 01:32:48.370
physical safety yeah because physical

01:32:48.370 --> 01:32:52.210
safety is a concern for many women I

01:32:52.210 --> 01:32:54.510
mean it's a concern for everybody

01:32:54.510 --> 01:32:55.980
but I was wondering if that was

01:32:55.980 --> 01:32:57.630
something that you were thinking of when

01:32:57.630 --> 01:33:00.150
you made this whoa what I did have in

01:33:00.150 --> 01:33:01.110
mind

01:33:01.110 --> 01:33:06.870
is that certain forms of torture that

01:33:06.870 --> 01:33:10.260
that took place under the Bush

01:33:10.260 --> 01:33:16.200
administration involved involved efforts

01:33:16.200 --> 01:33:25.650
to feminize the the bodies of of Arab

01:33:25.650 --> 01:33:32.850
men in in out sourced prisons and and I

01:33:32.850 --> 01:33:36.780
think that it's a very complex issue the

01:33:36.780 --> 01:33:42.410
way in which torture work to to

01:33:42.410 --> 01:33:47.750
emasculate at the same time that it

01:33:47.750 --> 01:33:52.370
identified or consolidated the idea that

01:33:52.370 --> 01:33:55.820
that those who are tortured are

01:33:55.820 --> 01:33:59.820
homosexual or women like you become a

01:33:59.820 --> 01:34:01.620
homosexual you become a woman

01:34:01.620 --> 01:34:03.810
by being tortured and that the effect of

01:34:03.810 --> 01:34:05.880
the torture was to do that so it it was

01:34:05.880 --> 01:34:09.300
operating within that idea that the

01:34:09.300 --> 01:34:11.190
worst possible social position or the

01:34:11.190 --> 01:34:13.830
position of intense vulnerability would

01:34:13.830 --> 01:34:20.310
be that of a homosexual or of a woman so

01:34:20.310 --> 01:34:23.670
that kind of subservience well that kind

01:34:23.670 --> 01:34:27.590
of inability to protect yourself against

01:34:27.590 --> 01:34:36.090
violent assault okay thank you we've got

01:34:36.090 --> 01:34:40.920
three more okay I just thank you I just

01:34:40.920 --> 01:34:42.870
wanted to know what your thoughts were

01:34:42.870 --> 01:34:45.570
on the connection between physical

01:34:45.570 --> 01:34:48.660
violence in protests whether on the side

01:34:48.660 --> 01:34:52.980
of protestors or the authorities and its

01:34:52.980 --> 01:34:56.010
connection with the vulnerability so for

01:34:56.010 --> 01:34:58.890
example could it displace the

01:34:58.890 --> 01:35:00.750
vulnerability of those protesters or

01:35:00.750 --> 01:35:03.120
does it rather reveal the vulnerability

01:35:03.120 --> 01:35:05.610
of both the protesters and

01:35:05.610 --> 01:35:08.969
otherwise impermeable authorities at the

01:35:08.969 --> 01:35:10.530
same time or just what your thoughts

01:35:10.530 --> 01:35:12.139
were generally between the connection on

01:35:12.139 --> 01:35:14.969
physical violence in protests and the

01:35:14.969 --> 01:35:20.900
vulnerability which you spoke of okay

01:35:21.590 --> 01:35:24.590
um

01:35:31.400 --> 01:35:38.000
in general I think I am

01:35:38.000 --> 01:35:41.300
I support non non violent forms of

01:35:41.300 --> 01:35:47.480
resistance at the same time I want to

01:35:47.480 --> 01:35:50.300
say that one of the most important

01:35:50.300 --> 01:35:56.030
things for me as a and indeed for many

01:35:56.030 --> 01:35:59.599
people in my generation was learning

01:35:59.599 --> 01:36:05.480
forms of of self-defense and that I

01:36:05.480 --> 01:36:08.210
wouldn't be okay on the street if I

01:36:08.210 --> 01:36:11.840
didn't know that I had skills of

01:36:11.840 --> 01:36:15.230
self-defense when we think about

01:36:15.230 --> 01:36:17.150
self-defense and we think about it on

01:36:17.150 --> 01:36:18.469
the street we think about it in

01:36:18.469 --> 01:36:20.030
demonstrations we think about it what

01:36:20.030 --> 01:36:22.250
when a when a policeman is coming at you

01:36:22.250 --> 01:36:25.030
with a baton or when you were being

01:36:25.030 --> 01:36:30.560
sprayed of course there's a right to

01:36:30.560 --> 01:36:32.179
self-defense and the question is what

01:36:32.179 --> 01:36:37.369
form does that take and what I'm most

01:36:37.369 --> 01:36:40.460
interested in our collective forms of

01:36:40.460 --> 01:36:43.880
support at moments of police attack so

01:36:43.880 --> 01:36:47.030
that people they link together to make

01:36:47.030 --> 01:36:48.860
it difficult for the attack to take

01:36:48.860 --> 01:36:51.409
place or they support one another or

01:36:51.409 --> 01:36:57.139
they actually catch each other or or

01:36:57.139 --> 01:36:59.300
interpose themselves in front of one

01:36:59.300 --> 01:37:01.460
another there are there ways of thinking

01:37:01.460 --> 01:37:03.050
about self-defense not just as an

01:37:03.050 --> 01:37:06.830
individual practice which many of us had

01:37:06.830 --> 01:37:09.230
to learn but also as a kind of

01:37:09.230 --> 01:37:14.030
collective practice and it is it's a

01:37:14.030 --> 01:37:18.619
delicate and difficult practice and I

01:37:18.619 --> 01:37:20.150
don't think anyone can completely

01:37:20.150 --> 01:37:22.369
prescribe it in advance although there

01:37:22.369 --> 01:37:23.869
are a lot of people who have worked on

01:37:23.869 --> 01:37:26.389
this for a very very long time and there

01:37:26.389 --> 01:37:28.550
are other social movements too to

01:37:28.550 --> 01:37:30.949
reference at this moment especially in

01:37:30.949 --> 01:37:36.830
South Africa so I think using the body

01:37:36.830 --> 01:37:42.150
as a force to stop a blow or to

01:37:42.150 --> 01:37:46.260
to deflect a blow is extremely important

01:37:46.260 --> 01:37:48.739
at what point does that become a blow

01:37:48.739 --> 01:37:51.390
what's what's the defense and what's the

01:37:51.390 --> 01:37:54.090
what's that what's the the act I want to

01:37:54.090 --> 01:37:56.370
say that there's force on all sides of

01:37:56.370 --> 01:37:59.550
that and that there's no way especially

01:37:59.550 --> 01:38:01.530
in the confrontation with the police

01:38:01.530 --> 01:38:04.500
that we can eradicate the field of force

01:38:04.500 --> 01:38:07.140
we can only navigate the field of force

01:38:07.140 --> 01:38:11.489
as ethically and and carefully and as we

01:38:11.489 --> 01:38:16.830
can and sometimes our ex of self-defense

01:38:16.830 --> 01:38:18.600
will be called provocation they will be

01:38:18.600 --> 01:38:20.850
renamed after the fact and videos

01:38:20.850 --> 01:38:22.409
brought like oh that's a provocation

01:38:22.409 --> 01:38:24.150
well it seemed to me that person is

01:38:24.150 --> 01:38:26.340
being beaten or that's a price don't you

01:38:26.340 --> 01:38:28.710
see the left you know but there's no way

01:38:28.710 --> 01:38:31.290
to control it especially in the visual

01:38:31.290 --> 01:38:34.020
you know documentation there's no way to

01:38:34.020 --> 01:38:37.710
fully control how it will signify and

01:38:37.710 --> 01:38:42.000
that is of course a huge problem and I'm

01:38:42.000 --> 01:38:44.520
also aware that politically self-defense

01:38:44.520 --> 01:38:48.780
works in some ways that I don't agree

01:38:48.780 --> 01:38:52.679
with right so that highly militarized

01:38:52.679 --> 01:38:55.409
nations can say they had to assault a

01:38:55.409 --> 01:38:59.100
population out of self-defense or they

01:38:59.100 --> 01:39:01.739
use self-defense to legitimate every act

01:39:01.739 --> 01:39:03.929
of aggression so self-defense can become

01:39:03.929 --> 01:39:07.530
an alibi for aggression so that I don't

01:39:07.530 --> 01:39:09.090
I don't have a good answer for you all I

01:39:09.090 --> 01:39:12.000
want to say is that it's a very vigilant

01:39:12.000 --> 01:39:15.690
practice to to insist on self-defense

01:39:15.690 --> 01:39:19.080
and to make sure or to try as hard as

01:39:19.080 --> 01:39:24.110
possible for it not to be an alibi for

01:39:24.500 --> 01:39:27.330
for the kind of violence we are opposing

01:39:27.330 --> 01:39:29.580
right because the whole point is not to

01:39:29.580 --> 01:39:32.130
replicate the violence one opposes just

01:39:32.130 --> 01:39:34.380
but it but to stop the violence right

01:39:34.380 --> 01:39:36.309
that that's it

01:39:36.309 --> 01:39:43.689
I was just wondering if you could

01:39:43.689 --> 01:39:46.899
explain when you say that the Tea Party

01:39:46.899 --> 01:39:49.899
for example has vicious appreciation for

01:39:49.899 --> 01:39:54.369
the vulnerability of the other of those

01:39:54.369 --> 01:39:57.219
who are not going to be able to afford

01:39:57.219 --> 01:39:59.229
health care and such and you say that

01:39:59.229 --> 01:40:01.629
that actually exemplifies their own

01:40:01.629 --> 01:40:03.609
vulnerability and the fragility of their

01:40:03.609 --> 01:40:06.069
own states I'm wondering why then you

01:40:06.069 --> 01:40:08.289
included right-wing protests in your

01:40:08.289 --> 01:40:10.780
caveat as to why not all bodies on the

01:40:10.780 --> 01:40:12.189
street are positive and you included

01:40:12.189 --> 01:40:15.369
them with violence and with military and

01:40:15.369 --> 01:40:18.039
with three percussive bodies on the

01:40:18.039 --> 01:40:21.550
street um just just tell me that again

01:40:21.550 --> 01:40:23.889
what well the question is why why do you

01:40:23.889 --> 01:40:25.659
include right-wing protests and

01:40:25.659 --> 01:40:28.839
right-wing demonstrations in your caveat

01:40:28.839 --> 01:40:31.030
about why not all bodies on the street

01:40:31.030 --> 01:40:34.449
are a positive thing why is it it seemed

01:40:34.449 --> 01:40:36.399
to me that you are saying that left-wing

01:40:36.399 --> 01:40:38.800
protests that Occupy movements and such

01:40:38.800 --> 01:40:41.559
are a good thing to have and yet it

01:40:41.559 --> 01:40:45.729
seems that you think things I see

01:40:45.729 --> 01:40:47.919
protest like tea party and things aren't

01:40:47.919 --> 01:40:49.899
positive things to have I see what

01:40:49.899 --> 01:40:51.399
you're saying okay I'm sorry

01:40:51.399 --> 01:40:53.019
that's okay it's a good question because

01:40:53.019 --> 01:40:59.829
it helps me clarify something I I am I

01:40:59.829 --> 01:41:02.919
am in favor of the freedom of assembly I

01:41:02.919 --> 01:41:05.679
am very anxious right now that the

01:41:05.679 --> 01:41:07.419
freedom of assembly is being taken away

01:41:07.419 --> 01:41:11.109
in many parts of the globe and that

01:41:11.109 --> 01:41:16.419
security Rhian logics and and and and

01:41:16.419 --> 01:41:18.639
state and economic interests are very

01:41:18.639 --> 01:41:22.569
interested in quelling freedom of

01:41:22.569 --> 01:41:25.719
assembly so I am in favor of freedom of

01:41:25.719 --> 01:41:27.339
assembly which means that I want the

01:41:27.339 --> 01:41:29.109
right to be enjoyed by people who are on

01:41:29.109 --> 01:41:32.109
the left and the right and I probably

01:41:32.109 --> 01:41:33.909
even defend the right of some pretty

01:41:33.909 --> 01:41:36.579
horrible people to collect and you know

01:41:36.579 --> 01:41:38.800
on the street okay but the fact that I

01:41:38.800 --> 01:41:41.439
defend the right of right-wing people to

01:41:41.439 --> 01:41:42.939
collect on the street of including the

01:41:42.939 --> 01:41:45.789
Tea Party as I absolutely do because you

01:41:45.789 --> 01:41:48.280
know there's a big liberal core to my

01:41:48.280 --> 01:41:50.939
left ism

01:41:52.170 --> 01:41:54.790
well you know I mean we are what we are

01:41:54.790 --> 01:41:57.159
right we come out of I would come out of

01:41:57.159 --> 01:41:59.380
complex histories but anyway there is

01:41:59.380 --> 01:42:02.219
one I do defend their right and I would

01:42:02.219 --> 01:42:04.929
right against it and I would a pour it

01:42:04.929 --> 01:42:06.639
and I would hate it but I wouldn't take

01:42:06.639 --> 01:42:09.310
the right away right and and that's

01:42:09.310 --> 01:42:15.460
that's the line that's the line so and

01:42:15.460 --> 01:42:17.620
when I started the talk I said look I'm

01:42:17.620 --> 01:42:20.469
not rejoicing I'm not gonna rejoice

01:42:20.469 --> 01:42:22.300
about the Tea Party on the street

01:42:22.300 --> 01:42:25.030
I'm not going to oppose it legally and

01:42:25.030 --> 01:42:28.389
I'm going to oppose any legal effort to

01:42:28.389 --> 01:42:32.350
restrain them from from from going on

01:42:32.350 --> 01:42:33.880
the street but I'm not gonna I'm not

01:42:33.880 --> 01:42:36.820
gonna I'm not gonna celebrate that's all

01:42:36.820 --> 01:42:39.790
okay basically out of time but you've

01:42:39.790 --> 01:42:41.920
been very patient so if we can make this

01:42:41.920 --> 01:42:46.840
really quick that would be terrific okay

01:42:46.840 --> 01:42:50.139
well I I was interested in you're

01:42:50.139 --> 01:42:52.300
talking about vulnerability as a pre

01:42:52.300 --> 01:42:59.320
contractual thing that we share okay ah

01:42:59.320 --> 01:43:03.929
there okay sorry so you you were

01:43:03.929 --> 01:43:06.370
saying that vulnerability is a pre

01:43:06.370 --> 01:43:09.520
contractual shared State I'm interested

01:43:09.520 --> 01:43:13.810
in thinking about the language of

01:43:13.810 --> 01:43:17.230
contracts in the context of what you're

01:43:17.230 --> 01:43:18.370
saying cuz it seems in a certain way

01:43:18.370 --> 01:43:19.989
contracts our way of denying

01:43:19.989 --> 01:43:23.320
vulnerability in that they imply we have

01:43:23.320 --> 01:43:27.760
control like we get to say this is what

01:43:27.760 --> 01:43:28.750
we're entering into and then we're

01:43:28.750 --> 01:43:30.489
taking responsibility of what happens to

01:43:30.489 --> 01:43:31.510
us

01:43:31.510 --> 01:43:34.210
it caught allows for a just world

01:43:34.210 --> 01:43:38.469
hypothesis and it this sort of

01:43:38.469 --> 01:43:41.250
contractual 'ti which easily ends up in

01:43:41.250 --> 01:43:44.860
shoring up neoliberalism often invades

01:43:44.860 --> 01:43:47.260
language of consent whatever sort of

01:43:47.260 --> 01:43:50.620
consent sexual consents medical consent

01:43:50.620 --> 01:43:57.870
and I think that they're sorry

01:43:58.370 --> 01:44:00.180
obviously there's something really

01:44:00.180 --> 01:44:01.980
important ethically about consensual 'ti

01:44:01.980 --> 01:44:04.650
and about consensus and I'm wondering if

01:44:04.650 --> 01:44:10.170
you have any insight into how we should

01:44:10.170 --> 01:44:13.560
talk about that that gets away from this

01:44:13.560 --> 01:44:15.750
problematic element of contractual 'ti

01:44:15.750 --> 01:44:18.540
yeah thank you

01:44:18.540 --> 01:44:20.489
I've been I've been working on that

01:44:20.489 --> 01:44:23.730
issue in the last weeks I gave us

01:44:23.730 --> 01:44:26.760
seminar on sexual consent actually in

01:44:26.760 --> 01:44:28.860
France where we we talked a bit about

01:44:28.860 --> 01:44:32.640
the Dominique strauss-kahn issue and and

01:44:32.640 --> 01:44:35.400
and and how consent was projected and

01:44:35.400 --> 01:44:40.620
what consent means so there's lots to be

01:44:40.620 --> 01:44:43.380
said but but let me let me just say two

01:44:43.380 --> 01:44:45.920
things that I think are relevant for us

01:44:45.920 --> 01:44:49.770
this evening the first is how do we

01:44:49.770 --> 01:44:53.120
think about global obligations of

01:44:53.120 --> 01:44:56.640
obligations that we we have to one

01:44:56.640 --> 01:45:02.970
another as inhabitants of the of the

01:45:02.970 --> 01:45:08.010
globe when when we're not necessarily

01:45:08.010 --> 01:45:09.690
part of the same nation state or we're

01:45:09.690 --> 01:45:11.190
not necessarily part of the same

01:45:11.190 --> 01:45:13.800
community or we've never entered into an

01:45:13.800 --> 01:45:18.030
explicit contract with one another and

01:45:18.030 --> 01:45:21.120
it seems to me that it cannot be the

01:45:21.120 --> 01:45:22.650
case that were only ethically obligated

01:45:22.650 --> 01:45:25.040
to those with whom we are already

01:45:25.040 --> 01:45:30.780
contracted ie those who belong to the

01:45:30.780 --> 01:45:33.540
same nation state that we have agreed to

01:45:33.540 --> 01:45:37.020
join or that or that we've been born

01:45:37.020 --> 01:45:42.510
into and and and legalized within we we

01:45:42.510 --> 01:45:45.660
have to think about ethical obligations

01:45:45.660 --> 01:45:47.670
and political obligations in ways that

01:45:47.670 --> 01:45:51.810
exceed the terms of contract it's also

01:45:51.810 --> 01:45:55.670
true that most forms of contract not all

01:45:55.670 --> 01:45:58.860
tend to individualize those who enter

01:45:58.860 --> 01:46:02.010
into them or certain forms of social

01:46:02.010 --> 01:46:04.560
contract tend to produce ideas of a

01:46:04.560 --> 01:46:07.070
nation-state which are exclusionary so

01:46:07.070 --> 01:46:09.000
that Purdue

01:46:09.000 --> 01:46:11.850
- two problems well what are my extra

01:46:11.850 --> 01:46:14.730
national obligations and Who am I

01:46:14.730 --> 01:46:17.040
when I am NOT just an individual am I

01:46:17.040 --> 01:46:21.360
not related to others in ways for which

01:46:21.360 --> 01:46:24.000
I need a different kind of political

01:46:24.000 --> 01:46:28.460
vocabulary so so that seems terribly

01:46:28.460 --> 01:46:31.170
important but you know it's always

01:46:31.170 --> 01:46:39.240
possible to say well I mean if you think

01:46:39.240 --> 01:46:41.310
about what happens in sexually

01:46:41.310 --> 01:46:43.620
progressive circles where people they

01:46:43.620 --> 01:46:46.410
make arrangements to have this or that

01:46:46.410 --> 01:46:48.300
kind of sexual relationship and they

01:46:48.300 --> 01:46:50.340
come enter into a contract and everyone

01:46:50.340 --> 01:46:52.950
agrees and then you know something

01:46:52.950 --> 01:46:55.020
happens and someone finds that they're

01:46:55.020 --> 01:46:56.460
horribly vulnerable in a way that they

01:46:56.460 --> 01:47:00.120
had no idea they they didn't expect it

01:47:00.120 --> 01:47:01.680
all and they can't be in that contract

01:47:01.680 --> 01:47:03.540
and whatever made them think they could

01:47:03.540 --> 01:47:11.160
be in that contract and I mean it's

01:47:11.160 --> 01:47:15.330
something we all know right and and it's

01:47:15.330 --> 01:47:17.340
a kind of and I also think it's a kind

01:47:17.340 --> 01:47:20.310
of leftist conceit but oh well we can

01:47:20.310 --> 01:47:23.310
find the ideal form and then we we

01:47:23.310 --> 01:47:25.200
consent to the ideal form and then we

01:47:25.200 --> 01:47:26.760
live the ideal form because we think

01:47:26.760 --> 01:47:28.200
it's right and then we find that it's

01:47:28.200 --> 01:47:35.040
radically unlivable so so what would it

01:47:35.040 --> 01:47:37.470
mean what would it mean say in a context

01:47:37.470 --> 01:47:39.300
like that to return to a different kind

01:47:39.300 --> 01:47:41.400
of question like what are the conditions

01:47:41.400 --> 01:47:44.910
of livability right what are the

01:47:44.910 --> 01:47:46.770
conditions of livability and how to

01:47:46.770 --> 01:47:48.600
communicate them and how to live them

01:47:48.600 --> 01:47:51.650
right which without going back to

01:47:51.650 --> 01:47:54.690
completely conservative structures or

01:47:54.690 --> 01:47:56.790
thinking oh I guess that Social Forum is

01:47:56.790 --> 01:47:59.580
actually right no I mean it's really -

01:47:59.580 --> 01:48:01.530
instead of asking what what it is

01:48:01.530 --> 01:48:03.330
rationally I believe I should be able to

01:48:03.330 --> 01:48:06.000
do what are the concrete conditions of

01:48:06.000 --> 01:48:07.830
livability I want to say that this

01:48:07.830 --> 01:48:09.150
question is something that not only

01:48:09.150 --> 01:48:11.310
pertains to sexual life and the

01:48:11.310 --> 01:48:13.590
organization of sexuality but it does

01:48:13.590 --> 01:48:17.220
pertain to the organization of our our

01:48:17.220 --> 01:48:21.920
ethical and our political bonds

01:48:21.920 --> 01:48:24.950
especially with those you know we don't

01:48:24.950 --> 01:48:28.130
know or never chose right I mean in a

01:48:28.130 --> 01:48:31.190
way we are we are vulnerable in ways

01:48:31.190 --> 01:48:34.930
that we can't that can't be accommodated

01:48:34.930 --> 01:48:42.260
by ideas of of choice and knowledge that

01:48:42.260 --> 01:48:44.780
are presupposed by contract we are we

01:48:44.780 --> 01:48:48.410
are already and before any question of

01:48:48.410 --> 01:48:52.150
choice vulnerable to others in ways that

01:48:52.150 --> 01:48:55.820
that that in effect define us as bodily

01:48:55.820 --> 01:48:58.190
and social beings and I'm trying to

01:48:58.190 --> 01:49:00.200
think what does that say about our

01:49:00.200 --> 01:49:02.570
global responsibilities and how might we

01:49:02.570 --> 01:49:05.870
rethink ourselves as as global creatures

01:49:05.870 --> 01:49:08.990
in in light of such a claim thank you

01:49:08.990 --> 01:49:11.530
for your attention

01:49:38.659 --> 01:49:41.559
Judith

01:49:46.560 --> 01:49:50.520
judith on behalf of all of us thank you

01:49:50.520 --> 01:49:52.830
for an extraordinary evening an

01:49:52.830 --> 01:49:54.990
extraordinary conversation Thank You

01:49:54.990 --> 01:49:57.480
charlie in the Georgia Strait and on

01:49:57.480 --> 01:49:59.460
behalf of the Peter wall stitute for

01:49:59.460 --> 01:50:01.860
Advanced Studies thank you to all of you

01:50:01.860 --> 01:50:05.030
for joining in the conversation and

01:50:05.030 --> 01:50:07.800
thank you for coming and safe travels

01:50:07.800 --> 01:50:11.460
back and stay posted for future lectures

01:50:11.460 --> 01:50:14.280
of the wall exchange ones coming up in

01:50:14.280 --> 01:50:17.430
October about the cosmic universe in the

01:50:17.430 --> 00:00:00.000
21st century but thank you again tutor