Nick Land and Neocameralism

[droid]

It's hardly a coincidence the costs go up in accordance with the implimentation of all those programmes - I mean this all needs infrastructure and people to get it implemented. But then, it's been considered important by many so I don't see a problem with it.

Yeah... i work in a University and I can say with no doubt whatsoever that this is total bullshit. These 'programs' in general are no different from any other society activity, all they need is an empty room and a few students - not that they are anywhere near as widespread or pervasive as the right wing press would have you believe. All in all I would say inclusion/diversity programs amount to less than 1% of the budget - if even that.

 

[Mr. Tea]

You are a million miles away. Why say that?

It is mostly to do with a huge increase in marketing and legal (people whose role is to stop the university being liable for things), HR, and executive assistants for senior management (as well as masses of international travel for these)

I can't speak for the USA, but in this country I think it's strongly tied to the tendency, enshrined by Blair but probably begun under Thatcher, for public bodies to be run as if they were businesses, with pupils, students, patients and so on regarded as 'customers' and a concomitant obsession with 'giving value for money' and quantifying, assessing, analyzing and reporting on everything to the Nth degree. So not only do you now have a whole cadre of professional assessor-reporters, but of course the quality of the assessment and reporting has to be assessed and reported on. And each new czar, nabob and mugwump naturally requires his or her own secretary, PA and so on.

It's true that there are now positions such as diversity officer in some big organizations that didn't exist a generation ago, but that's just one person for an organization of hundreds or maybe thousands of people, and in universities (which is what people are usually talking about when they talk about this kind of thing) they're more likely to be student volunteers or sabbatical officers than paid staff.

Edit: what droid said, basically.

 

[josef k.]

Although the point was that it's patently absurd to ascribe the rise of an administrator/management class to anti discrimination initiatives regardless of how effective they may or may not be

I'm not so sure that it's absurd.

The bourgeoisie is not interested in the mad, but it is interested in power over the mad; the bourgeoisie is not interested in the sexuality of children, but it is interested in the system of power that controls the sexuality of children. The bourgeoisie does not give a damn about delinquents, or about how they are punished or rehabilitated, as that is of no great economic interest. On the other hand, the set of mechanisms whereby delinquents are controlled, kept track of, punished, and reformed does generate a bourgeois interest that functions within the economicopolitical system as a whole."

 

[droid]

Over 6000 people working in my place. The recently launched diversity office accounts for 5. The accessibility office accounts for about another 20.

The corporatisation of education resulted in the supremacy of a managerial class at third level, and as we all know, managers spread like fungus, reproducing themselves at every opportunity.

 

[droid]

Once again, the death spiral of right wing economics is blamed on the left.

 

[Mr. Tea]

The corporatisation of education resulted in the supremacy of a managerial class at third level, and as we all know, managers spread like fungus, reproducing themselves at every opportunity.

As a mycophile, I find that highly offensive.

 

[luka]

Yeah I mean, what am I supposed to do with that Josef?

What is it you want to say? Don't swish a velvet cloak and flourish a wand. Make a statement and stand behind it or you're just vimothy with a different set of books on your bookcase.

 

[vimothy]

Is the managerial state fundamentally right or left wing? I don't know, it certainly proceeds from some sort of ideology.

 

[luka]

There's right, there's left and there's illuminati nwo who play both sides against each other. Divide and rule innit.

 

[vimothy]

The Illuminati tries to work out what's best without going through politics (politics is a mess).

 

[luka]

Yeah good point.

 

[josef k.]

Yeah I mean, what am I supposed to do with that Josef?

Obviously the Adminotaurocracy isn't primarily composed of diversity officers. But they are part of the same system of administrative power...

"As hysterics, you demand a new master. You will get it!"

Political conflicts are merely surfaced manifestations. If conflicts arise you may certain powers intend to keep this conflict under operation since they hope to profit from the situation. To concern yourself with surface political conflicts is to make the mistake of the bull in the ring, you are charging the cloth. That is what politics is for, to teach you the cloth. Just as the bullfighter teaches the bull, teaches him to follow, obey the cloth.

 

[luka]

That's all well and good but on a less rarefied plane you might find that identifying anti discrimination initiatives with The Enemy wins you a set of admirers and allies who haven't been reading Lacan.

 

[luka]

Like, if you find yourself in a historical moment where a load of racists are winning big victories backed by racist supporters it's worth asking is this the correct moment for me to be shaking my fist at the anti discrimination officer at goldsmiths university?

 

[josef k.]

That's all well and good but on a less rarefied plane you might find that identifying anti discrimination initiatives with The Enemy wins you a set of admirers and allies who haven't been reading Lacan.

Cernovich said. “Look, I read postmodernist theory in college. If everything is a narrative, then we need alternatives to the dominant narrative.” He smiled. “I don’t seem like a guy who reads Lacan, do I?”

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/31/trolls-for-trump

Like, if you find yourself in a historical moment where a load of racists are winning big victories backed by racist supporters it's worth asking is this the correct moment for me to be shaking my fist at the anti discrimination officer at goldsmiths university?

So what if they're attacking you?



The question that interests me is how the mobilized racists and the anti-discrimination officer appear to imply each other.

 

[luka]

freaky shit man i reading the nyt article on cernovich right now

 

[luka]

but youre on the wrong track. as craner says earlier in the thread its the danger of living exclusively in a world of ideas. i do think you and vimothy should be talking more though becuase youre both part of this new modern thought movement.

 

[Mr. Tea]

I don't think there's much point in denying that hard-left activists and demagogues can be just as obnoxious, hysterical and unencumbered by concerns with factuality and evidence than their hard-right counterparts.

I also don't think there's much point in pretending they're the biggest thing the rest of us have to worry about right now, or that they're primarily responsible for the mess we find ourselves in. They're a piece of the picture, sure, but let's not exaggerate their importance in the scheme of things.

 

[vimothy]

You could say the same about right-wing Twitter trolls. But they're both still interesting as expressions of some sort of structural crisis point.

 

[Mr. Tea]

You could say the same about right-wing Twitter trolls.

Well yeah, maybe, but there isn't currently a hyper-PC SJW installed in the White House, is there? The hard right and hard left may in some ways mirror each other, but in terms of the balance of power, one side is quite definitely at an advantage over the other.

I think you're right that they're both symptoms of the widespread failure of the political centre, but at this point that's such an obvious conclusion as to be virtually a truism.