LOL "Precarity and Affective Resistance"


Ugh. Lefty cultural studies gobbledygook. A sample, quoted by Sullivan:

The stubbornness of resistance can becomes [sic] constitutive of an identity outside of neoliberalist rationalization, which inculcates us with an individualistic and ultimately antihuman ideology of convenience that prompts us to neglect our inescapable, Levinas-ian 'infinite responsibility to the other.' Presumably we can never be truly happy on a personal level as long as we are operating as de facto deputies of neoliberalism, but it is impossible for us to will an alternative subjectivity to what it engenders, minus the crucible of precarity. Via precarity we can answer the 'call to life,'"

It's really hard to believe that anyone takes stuff like that seriously. It only survives because it's so easy to make it seem as if there's a kind of sense being made when there isn't. The reader can sort of surf along, feeling as if he's semi-understanding, as he might while reading a rather obscure poem. Throw in one or two ideas here or there that aren't patently false, and you can easily make nonsense sound kinda sorta like something with profound and deeply-buried sense. If there's anything there worth saying--and I doubt it--I can guarantee you that it can be said more clearly and simply. This is not quantum physics. A certain kind of person basically likes the sound of such words, and the thrilling sense that something profound is afoot, something that can only be hinted at with half-meaningful jargon. A little disappointing as entertaining BS goes, though. Needs more Other.