For bell hooks
The recent passing of bell hooks has inspired me to reconsider the clinical expression that she often used to name the deathly world of suffering that prevails over us, “imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy”.
Just as the clinical expression “upper respiratory tract infection” says more about the nature of our suffering than the vernacular expression “a cold”, I find that the clinical expression “imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy” says more about the nature of our suffering than a vernacular expression like “the Man”, “the White Man”, “the West”, and “Western civilization”. But don’t get it twisted: this is no argument for clinical expression as opposed to vernacular expression, as the two are not truly opposites. As I see it, clinical-and-vernacular expressions are not only possible, they are most desirable.
To mark the passing of bell hooks, today’s dispatch (re-)defines her clinical expression “imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy” by drawing upon the notions of power and counterpower that I have been developing in some of my most recent dispatches: “Countering Power”, “Blackness and Primitiveness” and “Multiplying Confluences”. Indeed, today’s dispatch can be treated as the fourth and final part of a series dispatches searching for clinical expressions to name the deathly world of suffering that prevails over us and to name the processes working to deconstruct this deathly world of suffering and working to (re-)construct living worlds.
“Imperialism”
An imperialism is an endeavor to construct a stable power formation. Stable power formations are power formations that stratify social groups; they filter and channel different social groups apart from one another so as to make it increasingly burdensome and unappealing for different social groups to commune fluently with one another and, what’s more, so as to make it more practical and more appealing for some social groups to dominate and eliminate others.
Insofar as all counterpowers endeavor to destabilize power formations and to destratify social groups, all endeavors that promote counterpowers are anti-imperialist endeavors. Counterpowers make it increasingly practical and appealing for social groups to commune fluently, or “to confluence”, with one another. The more confluences that are enabled by counterpowers, the less determinate the social groups involved in such confluences will become: it is not the case that confluent social groups become more alike and differ less from one another but, rather, it is the case that confluent social groups come to defer to one another more and more despite differing from one another. This is to say, in other words, that counterpowers generate DEEP INTERLOCKS AND AMBIGUITIES (or, alternatively, “entanglements and indeterminacies”) amongst different social groups.
“Imperialist White Supremacy“
An imperialist white supremacy endeavors to stabilize racist ruling powers that enable those who are white to dominate and eliminate others of different races, especially blacks. These racist ruling powers are stabilized when differing races, especially whites and blacks, are filtered and channeled apart from one another so that it becomes increasingly burdensome and unappealing for them to commune fluently with one another and, what’s more, so that it becomes more practical and more appealing for whites to dominate and eliminate all others of different races.
The forms of domination and elimination that whites are able to employ against non-whites may be quite subtle: they do not necessarily involve the threat of simple murder as such. To quote Michel Foucault on the matter, in lieu of or in addition to involving the threat of simple murder as such, they may involve threatening “form[s] of indirect murder: the fact of exposing someone to death, increasing the risk of death for some people, or quite simply, political death, expulsion, rejection, and so on.” The most subtle way in which whites dominate and eliminate non-whites is, of course, by causing burnout: by exposing non-whites to chronic stresses that either induce or greatly increase their risk of developing deadly and debilitating illnesses (e.g., the imposition on blacks to maintain constant vigilance against being unduly perceived by whites as being angry, hostile, or threatening).
The racist ruling powers that enable white supremacy are supplemented by disciplinary, normalizing and optimizing powers that further enable whites to dominate others of different races. These disciplinary, normalizing and optimizing powers are put to work on all racial groups. This is to say that, like all other races, whites are subjected to concatenations of routine examinations, biased surveys, and variable controls that subordinate and eliminate those sub-populations that threaten the continued maintenance of white supremacy and that elevate those sub-populations that promote the continued maintenance of white supremacy. In other words, whites can themselves suffer from white supremacy.
Creolizing processes are those processes that counter white supremacy. Creolizing processes make it increasingly more practical and appealing for persons of differing races to fluently commune with one another, such that distinctions between races increasingly come to black and blur. A creolizing process does not make it so that persons of different races become more alike and differ less from one another but, rather, it makes it so that persons of races come to defer to one another more and more despite their differences.
“Imperialist Patriarchy”
An imperialist patriarchy endeavors to stabilize sexist ruling powers that enable cisgender heterosexual men to dominate and eliminate others of different genders, sexes, and sexual orientations, especially any and all kinds of women. These sexist ruling powers are stabilized when persons with different genders, sexes, and sexual orientations are filtered and channeled apart from one another so that it becomes increasingly burdensome and unappealing for them to commune fluently with one another and, what’s more, so that it becomes more practical and more appealing for cisgender heterosexual men to dominate and eliminate all others of different genders, sexes, and sexual orientations in subtle and not so subtle ways. The most subtle way in which cisgender heterosexual men dominate and eliminate others of different genders, sexes, and sexual orientations is, again, by causing burnout: by exposing others to chronic stresses that either induce or greatly increase their risk of developing deadly and debilitating illnesses (e.g., the imposition on women to maintain constant vigilance against the threat of sexual assault and rape).
The sexist ruling powers that enable patriarchy are supplemented by disciplinary, normalizing and optimizing powers that further enable cisgender heterosexual men to dominate and eliminate all others of different genders, sexes, and sexual orientations. These disciplinary, normalizing and optimizing powers are put to work on everyone, regardless of gender, sex, and sexual orientation. This is to say that, like others of different genders, sexes, and sexual orientations, cisgender heterosexual men are subjected to concatenations of routine examinations, biased surveys, and variable controls that subordinate and eliminate those sub-populations that threaten the continued maintenance of patriarchy and that elevate those sub-populations that promote the continued maintenance of patriarchy. In other words, cisgender heterosexual men can themselves suffer from patriarchy.
Queering processes are those processes that counters patriarchy. Queering processes make it increasingly more practical and appealing for persons of differing genders, sexes, and sexual orientations to fluently commune with one another, such that distinctions between genders, sexes, and sexual orientations increasingly come to black and blur. A queering process does not make it so that persons of different genders, sexes, and sexual orientations become more alike and differ less from one another but, rather, it makes it so that persons of different genders, sexes, and sexual orientations come to defer to one another more and more despite their differences.
“Imperialist Capitalism”
An imperialist capitalism endeavors to stabilize economic ruling powers that enable relations of production that facilitate capital accumulation (i.e., relations that prioritize the exchange values of goods and services) to dominate and eliminate all alternative relations of production, especially those relations of production that facilitate social subsistence (i.e., relations that prioritize of the use values of goods and services). These economic ruling powers are stabilized when different relations of production are filtered and channeled apart from one another so that it becomes increasingly burdensome and unappealing for them to commune fluently with one another and, what’s more, so that it becomes more practical and more appealing for capitalist relations of production to dominate and eliminate all alternative relations of production in subtle and not so subtle ways. The most subtle way in which capitalist relations of production dominate and eliminate alternative relations of production is, once again, by causing burnout: by exposing persons engaged in alternative relations of production to chronic stresses that either induce or greatly increase their risk of developing deadly and debilitating illnesses (e.g., the imposition of compounding taxes, rents, debt servicing costs, and healthcare costs on smallholding subsistence farmers).
The economic ruling powers that enable capitalism are supplemented by disciplinary, normalizing and optimizing powers that further enable capitalist relations of production to dominate and eliminate all alternative relations of production. These disciplinary, normalizing and optimizing powers are put to work on all relations of production. This is to say, in other words, that behaviors that facilitate capital accumulation also endure routine examinations, biased surveys, and variable controls in order to perpetuate capitalism. This is to say that, like all other relations of production, capitalist relations of production are subjected to concatenations of routine examinations, biased surveys, and variable controls that subordinate and eliminate the sub-populations of relations that threaten the continued maintenance of capitalism and that elevate the sub-populations of relations that promote the continued maintenance of capitalism. In other words, capitalist relations of productions can themselves suffer from capitalism.
Communizing processes are those that counter capitalism. Communizing processes make it increasingly more practical and appealing for differing relations of production to fluently commune with one another so that distinctions between differing relations of production increasingly come to black and blur. A communizing process does not make it so that all relations of production become more alike and differ less from one another but, rather, it makes it so that different relations of production come to defer to one another more and more despite their differences.
“Imperialist White-Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy”
An imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy endeavors to stabilize a concatenation of racist, sexist, and economic powers that enable white men profitably engaged in capitalist relations of production to dominate and eliminate others, especially black, brown, and indigenous women who are engaged in relations that provide for social subsistence.
A confluence of creolizing, queering, and communizing processes is required to counter white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy. Neither creolizing processes nor queering processes nor communizing processes can counter white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy on their own without the aid of the other two. Fully aware of this fact, white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy tirelessly works to filter and channel apart creolizing agents from queering agents from communizing agents, making it increasingly burdensome and unappealing for the three to commune fluently with each other. This it to say, in other words, that white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy is defined by a concatenation of ruling, disciplinary, normalizing, and optimizing powers that work to inhibit confluences of creolizing, queering, and communizing agents.
To counter white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy is to make it increasingly more practical and appealing for creolizing, queering, and communizing agents to fluently commune with one another, such that distinctions between them increasingly come to black and blur. This does not mean making it so that creolizing, queering, and communizing agents become more alike and differ less from one another but, rather, it means making it so that creolizing, queering, and communizing agents come to defer to one another more and more despite their differences.
