672 politics of the future grove fall 2014

8/12/2019 672 Politics of the Future Grove Fall 2014

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Politics of The Future:

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POL 672 Fall 2014 Prof: Jairus GroveOffice: Saunders 608

An interviewer once asked J.G. Ballard why he seemed so pessimistic. He said, I would sumup my fear about the future in one word: boring. And that's my one fear: that everything hashappened; nothing exciting or new or interesting is ever going to happen again... the future is

just going to be a vast, conforming suburb of the soul. This class is dedicated to theinvestigation of futures and political practices that take as their enemy the suburb of the soul.The question before us is what tools, ideas, theories, media, and visions can we leverage tobetter understand and intervene in the many futures already incipient in the present.

Since we live in an age of vast global violence, ecological catastrophe, technologicalmutation, newly emerging forms of life and old forms of life all of which are vying for ourattention we must look is broadly as possible for useful ideas. So the course will draw on anunusual assortment of social science text, Alternative Futures, Critical Theory, Queer theory,New Media theory, Indigenous theory, Ecological studies, Animal studies, and Technologiesstudies to pursue this task. The diversity of thinking is required because traditional politicalinstitutions as well as political theories are vastly outmatched by the scale and intensity ofthese changes. If we are to live up to the challenge of our times we will need to think aboutthe overlooked or overtly marginalized trajectories of life on this planet and what role theycan play in the moments of bifurcation between better and worse futures. While we can neverpredict the future there are also better and worse techniques of speculation and foresight. Wewill explore many different ways to approach the unknowable as something that nonethelesshas to be theorized and acted upon. The goal is to arm you in the war against the dullards andsnake oil salesman of futures committed to more of the same. Something adventurous,something better, something else.

Assignments:First Assignment: Before class begins everyone will be expected to have completed EricSchmidt and Jared Cohen, The New Digital Age: Transforming Nations, Businesses, and OurLives. This book captures Ballards suburb of the soul future quite well and represents thedominant agenda for Google, The U.S. State Department, and much of Silicon Valley quite

well. It will provide a good common source of conversation and criticism as the class movesalong.

Second Assignment: Outline The New Digital Age. What are the major drivers of change forSchmidt and Cohen? What is the image of the future? Who are the actors and decision-makersin the making and maintaining of their image of the future? Due week 2 to be used in class.

Third Assignment: Write your own manifesto of any length. Due week 6

Fourth Assignment: 10-12 Page Review Essay. Choose any of the books read during the

semester. The ideas is to use the critical tools developed through out the semester to show


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ManifestosWeek 1F.T. Marinetti, The Futurist Manifesto, 1909 http://vserver1.cscs.lsa.umich.edu/~crshalizi/T4PM/futurist-manifesto.html (Control Fascist)Marx Engles and Frederick Engels, The Communist Manifesto, http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/index.htm (Transformation)Week 2Ted Kaczynski, Industrial Society and Its Future http://editions-hache.com/essais/pdf/kaczynski2.pdf(Collapse)Alex Williams and Nick Srnicek, #ACCELERATE MANIFESTO for an Accelerationist Politics http://

criticallegalthinking.com/2013/05/14/accelerate-manifesto-for-an-accelerationist-politics/ (Control,Socialist)Paul Kingsnorth and Dougald Hine, Uncivilization: The Dark Mountain Manifesto http://dark-mountain.net/about/manifesto/ (Collapse, Begin Again)

Drivers:Week 3TechnologyStanislaw Lem, Summa Technologiae

Week 4ImitationGabriel Tarde, Laws of Imitation, https://archive.org/details/lawsofimitation00tardWeek 5EcologyThom van van Dooren, Flight Ways: Life and Loss at the Edge of Extinction

Doing Futures: Methods and ManeuversWeek 6Sohail Inayatullah, Causal Layered Analysis- Deepening the future http://www.wfsf.org/resources/pedagogical-resources/articles-used-by-futures-teachers/88-inayatullah-causal-layered-analysis-deepening-the-future/file
http://vserver1.cscs.lsa.umich.edu/~crshalizi/T4PM/futurist-manifesto.htmlhttp://vserver1.cscs.lsa.umich.edu/~crshalizi/T4PM/futurist-manifesto.htmlhttp://vserver1.cscs.lsa.umich.edu/~crshalizi/T4PM/futurist-manifesto.htmlhttp://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/index.htmhttp://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/index.htmhttp://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/index.htmhttp://editions-hache.com/essais/pdf/kaczynski2.pdfhttp://criticallegalthinking.com/2013/05/14/accelerate-manifesto-for-an-accelerationist-politics/http://criticallegalthinking.com/2013/05/14/accelerate-manifesto-for-an-accelerationist-politics/http://dark-mountain.net/about/manifesto/http://dark-mountain.net/about/manifesto/http://dark-mountain.net/about/manifesto/http://www.wfsf.org/resources/pedagogical-resources/articles-used-by-futures-teachers/88-inayatullah-causal-layered-analysis-deepening-the-future/filehttp://www.wfsf.org/resources/pedagogical-resources/articles-used-by-futures-teachers/88-inayatullah-causal-layered-analysis-deepening-the-future/filehttp://www.wfsf.org/resources/pedagogical-resources/articles-used-by-futures-teachers/88-inayatullah-causal-layered-analysis-deepening-the-future/filehttp://www.wfsf.org/resources/pedagogical-resources/articles-used-by-futures-teachers/88-inayatullah-causal-layered-analysis-deepening-the-future/filehttp://www.wfsf.org/resources/pedagogical-resources/articles-used-by-futures-teachers/88-inayatullah-causal-layered-analysis-deepening-the-future/filehttp://dark-mountain.net/about/manifesto/http://criticallegalthinking.com/2013/05/14/accelerate-manifesto-for-an-accelerationist-politics/http://editions-hache.com/essais/pdf/kaczynski2.pdfhttp://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/index.htmhttp://vserver1.cscs.lsa.umich.edu/~crshalizi/T4PM/futurist-manifesto.htmlhttp://www.wfsf.org/resources/pedagogical-resources/articles-used-by-futures-teachers/88-inayatullah-causal-layered-analysis-deepening-the-future/filehttp://dark-mountain.net/about/manifesto/http://criticallegalthinking.com/2013/05/14/accelerate-manifesto-for-an-accelerationist-politics/http://editions-hache.com/essais/pdf/kaczynski2.pdfhttp://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/index.htmhttp://vserver1.cscs.lsa.umich.edu/~crshalizi/T4PM/futurist-manifesto.html


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Week 7The Universe of Things: On Speculative Realism (Posthumanities) Paperbackby Steven Shaviro

Many Futures, Otherwise than NormalQueer Futures, No Futures?Week 8Jose Esteban Munoz Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer FuturityThe Future of Work, Economy, ValueWeek 9Franco Berardi, After the FutureIndigenous Futures or Why History Isn't FinishedWeek 10Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life Across the Borders of Settler Statesby Audra Simpson

Futures of LifeWeek 11Brad Evans and Julian Reid, Resilient Life: The Art of Living Dangerously

Visions of the FutureA Future of SecurityWeek 12Jose Padiha, Robocop(Benjamin Bratton, The Black Stack, http://www.e-flux.com/journal/the-black-stack/)A Future of LoveWeek 13Spike Jonze, Her(Berlant and Lee Edelman, Sex, or the Unbearable)A Future of Politics RegainedWeek 14Neill Blomkamp, Elysium(Gilles Deleuze, Postscript on the Societies of Control https://files.nyu.edu/dnm232/public/deleuze_postcript.pdf)A Future of Politics ReturnedWeek 15Joon-ho Bong, Snowpiercer(Timothy Morton, The End of the World in Hyberobjects: Philosophyand Ecology after the End of the World)
http://www.e-flux.com/journal/the-black-stack/http://www.e-flux.com/journal/the-black-stack/http://www.e-flux.com/journal/the-black-stack/http://www.e-flux.com/journal/the-black-stack/http://www.e-flux.com/journal/the-black-stack/http://www.e-flux.com/journal/the-black-stack/http://www.e-flux.com/journal/the-black-stack/

672 politics of the future grove fall 2014

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