Re: <nettime> Not One

[Ryan Griffis <ryan.griffis@gmail.com>]

Tue, 6 Oct 2020 11:12:55 -0500, Frederic Neyrat wrote:

> A subject, be it collective or individual, is always divided. The One is an
> imposture.

Thank you Frederic, for stating what I would have hoped was a shared understanding of nation-state politics, especially on an international list focused on “networked culture.” 

I wrote the following just before receiving Frederic's message, then decided not to send it. But, maybe it’s worth adding to Frederic’s rightful call to dispense with the collapsing of people into nation-states? Anyway, here it is...

I don’t mean to overstate the point here, but discussions of “democracy in the US” (as with discussions of the political economy anywhere in the world) should really be more responsible to actual history. Personally, I think such responsibility is necessary to have a meaningful international leftist perspective on solidarity.
For starters, the settler-colonial status of the US as an ongoing form of occupation can’t be simply glossed over.
But specifically to the question of democracy, it might be more useful to understand the situation as the *continued prevention* of democracy, rather than its collapse, as if it was somehow ever stable or even meaningfully democratic in some historical sense.
Just to provide *some* specifics.
It would be ridiculous to consider the rollback of voting rights for formerly incarcerated individuals (essentially a poll tax) in my settler home state of Florida without recognizing that the very rights being undermined *were just recently granted* to begin with.
Exactly 100 years ago there, leading up to the 1920 election, there was widespread mass violence perpetrated against black residents to re-solidify an anti-democratic, white supremacist regime.
For anyone interested in this specific history who is not familiar, I’d recommend Paul Ortiz’s excellent book “Emancipation Betrayed.”

Trump may be a glaring and garish example of white supremacist anti-democratic/fascism in the US, but it’s not like the foundation wasn’t already set. 
IF we’re able to move the US in a more democratic direction, it will be through continued struggle that builds on the history of such struggles that have been occurring for well over 100 years (some would say it’s more like 500 years). IMHO, these struggles are not best understood as trying to *perfect* the US as a democracy, but as part of a movement to achieve (and maintain) liberation for all people (which is no simple concept in a settler-colonial state). Our foundation as a nation-state built on internationally coordinated, genocidal violence (that predates the actual US nation-state, obviously) seems like it begs for us to understand the US beyond the exceptional, cohesive case put forward by the ruling classes (i.e. settler white supremacists and neoliberal oligarchs).

Apologies if this is all pedantic… I’m just frustrated by the tone of discussions about “American Democracy” that maintains imaginary clean spatio-temporal boundaries that prevents us from talking about actual struggles for liberation, both “inside” and “outside” any enforced borders.

Best,
Ryan
#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime>  is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org
#  @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject: