AIDS and new abolitionism

Peter van Heusden pvh at egenetics.com
Fri Dec 8 04:06:56 PST 2000


So...

I'm quite disappointed that this discussion on HIV and AIDS has cut short the discussion on new abolitionism - we were having a slightly similar discussion over on aut-op-sy (the 'autonomist' hangout). In particular, the discussion on aut-op-sy started as a discussion of class - and the distinction between a 'definitional' understanding of class (who is which class? how do we distinguish them?) and an understanding of class as the effect of antagonism within a relation (and thus class is constantly re-created, every day we are forced to become once again workers by the antagonistic relation of capital).

In this sense, I (and maybe some other aut-op-syites) see a link between the grasping of the antagonism of the capital relation, and the commitment to the abolition of that relation (and all its effects, including various 'spectacular' separations, manifested by the mediation of self-realisation through various representatives) as being a linked project to the project of new abolitionism.

The 'whiteness' that you advise to abolish seems to me to be an aspect of 'the autonomous movement of the non-living' (from thesis #2, Society of the Spectacle), imposed upon us (I have quite a clear, if fragmented, memory - although established in a sense by comparison and contrast with others - of the imposition of whiteness upon my young self) but yet generally embraced as reality ('The specialization of images of the world is completed in the world of the autonomous image, where the liar has lied to himself.' - SotS #2) and operating as reality.

So - I think the discussion which was underway might be continued - and particularly I thought the discussion between Chris and Kelley still had some useful directions to pursue. Here's for not allowing the HIV/AIDS debate to disrupt those possibilities!

Peter -- Peter van Heusden <pvh at egenetics.com> NOTE: I do not speak for my employer, Electric Genetics "Criticism has torn up the imaginary flowers from the chain not so that man shall wear the unadorned, bleak chain but so that he will shake off the chain and pluck the living flower." - Karl Marx, 1844 OpenPGP: 1024D/0517502B : DE5B 6EAA 28AC 57F7 58EF 9295 6A26 6A92 0517 502B



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list