Media Armageddon and the Death of Liberal Biopolitics

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Media Armageddon and the Death of Biopolitics

• Majia Holmer Nadesan

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My Research

• Interpretive Research Interprets communications
  produced by societyincluding objective
  science, news reports, social science,
  entertainment, etc.
• Identifies hegemonic frames or narratives
  circulating within and across communications that
  define what is real, what is happening, what is
  just, what is possible, and what matters.
• Societal communications reflect and produce
  societal realities

3
The Cinematic Imagination

• Cinematic stories reflect and shape societal
  anxieties and desires
• Meaning operates at latent levels within stories
• Signs, such as a cannibal, can have meanings
  beyond their surface significance
• Signs can function as sites of condensed, and
  repressed anxiety or desire

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3 Films Examined

• The Road Directed by John Hillcoat is based on a
  2006 novel by Cormac McCarthy, adapted by writer,
  Joe Penhall. Director Hillcoat
• The Book of Eli Directed by Albert and Allen
  Hughes, with Gary Whitta as screenwriter,
• 9 An animated production by Burton, Bekmambetov,
  and Lemley (2009), directed by director Shane
  Acker, with the screenplay written by Pamela
  Pettler.

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The Book of Eli
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9
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Films Depict Collapse of Civilization

• Survivors in The Book of Eli and The Road have
  lost organizing principles of social existence
  other than brute power.
• Population is not a source of fecund energies
  rather, population is the basis for ruthless
  competition.
• No social contract exists sociality is reduced
  to allegiances of fealty to predatory powers.
• Remainders and Reminders
• The father-son relationship dramatized in The
  Road reminds audiences of all that has been lost
  
• In The Book of Eli, master signifiers such as the
  Bible oscillate between meanings, at times iconic
  of unleashed fascist power, while at other times
  iconic of law and order.
• 9 alone dramatizes friendships, but does so in
  the context of internal intrigue and despotism
  born of desperation.

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Its What Happens Afterwards

• As John Jurgensen and Jamin Brophy-Warren (2009)
  write in their Wall Street Journal review, The
  new wave of disaster movies and TV shows isnt
  about staving off the apocalypse. Its what
  happens afterwards that counts.

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Cinematic Themes/Historical Trajectories

• The ambiguity of collapse
• Abandoned landscapes
• Blasted collapsed landscapes
• Desperate consumption
• Petty fascists undecidable signifiers
• Cannibalism
• Surplus populations
• Collapse of Western Industrial Capitalism and the
  Keynesian State

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The Ambiguity of Collapse

• All 3 films stress ambiguity of the causes of
  collapse, mirroring the ambiguity experienced by
  the public in relation to their understanding of
  the financial collapse

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The Ambiguity of Causes of Financial Collapse

• Collateralized Debt Obligations, Credit Default
  Swaps, Mortgage backed securities, etc.
  frustrates populationthe economy has collapsed
  but the indicators of collapse are mostly
  abstract and virtual and the explanatory
  framework vague

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Ambiguity of Collapse

• Films offer viewers concrete representations of
  collapse, providing an emotionally re-assuring
  set of iconic indicators that allow the
• viewer to project and displace the
• experience of collapse
• onto cinematic
• collapsed landscapes.
• Allows cathartic dis-
• placement of emotions

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Cinematic Abandoned Landscapes
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Real Abandoned Landscapes
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Foreclosed Homes and the Anxiety of Forced
Abandonment

• Heres a statistic for you 300,000. Thats the
  number of foreclosure filings every month for the
  past 17 months. This year, 1.9 million homes will
  be lost, down from 2 million last year. Is that
  progress? In July alone, 92, 858 homes were
  repossessed.
• Schechter, D. (2010, August 22)
  http//www.newsdissector.com/blog/2010/08/22/hard-
  times-are-getting-harder-why-the-silence/

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Cinematic Blasted Landscapes
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Cinematic Blasted Landscapes
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American Public is Used to Seeing Blasted
Landscapes
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But not in America
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Collapsed
Infrastructures

• a country that once amazed
  the world with its visionary
  investments in
  transportation,
  from the Erie Canal to the
  Interstate Highway System,
  is now in the
  process of
  unpaving itself in a number
  of states, local
  governments
  are breaking up roads they
  can no longer
  afford to maintain,
  and returning them to gravel
  
  

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Collapsed Infrastructures
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Real Blasted/Collapsed Landscapes

• Americas infrastructure is aging and has not
  been adequately invested in for years.
• Wealthy publics are retreating into gated
  communities to separate themselves from the
  blasted urban-scapes so many of the population
  must inhabit.
• Moreover, all that remains of most U.S.
  manufacturing is abandoned factories

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Katrina as Collapsed Infrastructure
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The Fear of Fiscal CollapseFailed States

• States face a cumulative budget gap of 127.4
  billion as 46 prepare for the start of their
  fiscal year on July 1, according to a report this
  month by the National Governors Association and
  the National Association of State Budget
  Officers (Miller Feld, 2010).
• Any recovery in state finances (CA,NY) stems
  from higher taxes (Dougherty, 2010)
• U.S. Government Support for Financial System Now
  totaling approximately 3.7 Trillion

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Cinematic Imagination Desperate Consumption

• There is no production in the 3 films, only
  desperate consumption.

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Real Desperate Consumption

• De-Industrialization, Globalization, Automation,
  Out-Sourcing, etc. produced a low paid service
  economy for most workers
• The Wealth of Nations turned on its head as
  national wealth stems from consumption rather
  than production
• 15 of U.S. GDP produced by manufacturing
• FIRE economy consumption driven
• 7 Trillion in Wealth Believed to have Evaporated
• Americans not paying off debt but defaulting and
  drawing down savings

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Desperate Consumption Drawing Down
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Desperate Consumption and Real Unemployment at 22

• Unemployment and Under-employment are emerging as
  the new normals
• Defining Prosperity Downby Paul Krugman August
  1, 2010
• Im starting to have a sick feeling about
  prospects for American workers but not, or not
  entirely, for the reasons you might think.
• Yes, growth is slowing, and the odds are that
  unemployment will rise, not fall, in the months
  ahead. Thats bad. But whats worse is the
  growing evidence that our governing elite just
  doesnt care that a once-unthinkable level of
  economic distress is in the process of becoming
  the new normal.

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Food Insecurity Homelessness
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• Early in 2011, the U.S. Census Bureau reported
  that 14.3 of the population, or 47 million
  people -- one in six Americans -- were living
  below the official poverty threshold, currently
  set at 22,400 annually for a family of four.
  Some 19 million people are living in what is
  called extreme poverty, which means that their
  household income falls in the bottom half of
  those considered to be below the poverty line. 
  More than a third of those extremely poor people
  are children.  Indeed, more than half of all
  children younger than six living with a single
  mother are poor.  Extrapolating from this data,
  Emily Monea and Isabel Sawhill of the Brookings
  Institution estimate that further sharp increases
  in both poverty and child poverty rates lie in
  our American future (direct quote Frances Fox
  Piven, 2011, http//www.tomdispatch.com/post/17546
  3/tomgram3A_frances_fox_piven2C_the_war_on_the_h
  ome_front/more)

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Cinematic ImaginationPetty Fascists
Undecidable Signifiers
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Real Signifiers Failed American Leadership and
Debased Icons
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Cannibalism

• The role cannibalistic violence plays in these
  films is important. Cannibalism dominates in The
  Road. Predatory violence by machine against
  machine dominates 9. Cannibalism, fascist power
  and cruelty are found in The Book of Eli.

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Cinematic Imagination Cannibalism
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Cannibalized Economy Plundering and Profiteering
Ate the Economy

• Craig Roberts, summarizes the idea there exists
  little market infrastructure left in the U.S.
  capable of fostering recovery
• There is no economy left to recover. The U.S.
  manufacturing economy was lost to offshoring and
  free-trade ideology. It was replaced by a
  mythical "New Economy." The "New Economy" was
  based on services. Its artificial life was fed by
  the Federal Reserve's artificially low interest
  rates, which produced a real-estate bubble, and
  by "free market" financial deregulation, which
  unleashed financial gangsters to new heights of
  debt leverage and fraudulent financial products.
  The real economy was traded away for a
  make-believe economy. When the make-believe
  economy collapsed, Americans' wealth in their
  real estate, pensions and savings collapsed
  dramatically while their jobs disappeared. (Paul
  Craig Roberts)

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Cannibalistic Economy

• We have a financial system that, as Michael
  Hudson claims, "destroys the host economy's
  ability to pay" wherein "The economy is turned
  into a Ponzi scheme by recycling debt service to
  make new loans to inflate property prices by
  enough to justify yet new lending." This system
  allows banks to earn never ending interest
  streams Hudson describes the goal of the FIRE
  sector as aiming to create a "perpetual motion
  machine, sustaining an exponential debt growth by
  creating enough new credit to inflate real
  estate, stock and bond prices at a rate that (at
  least for awhile) enables debtors to cover the
  interest falling due financial collapse is
  staved off by the indebted economy trying to
  'borrow its way out of debt'" This is an
  "asset-stripping dynamic. When the bubble
  produced by the perpetual motion machine pops,
  the financial sector demands government aka
  public bailouts to rescue it.
•  

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FIRE as Parasitic
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A Cannibalized Population

• Pew Research Center reports Americans on average
• Americans on average lost 20 of household wealth
  from 2007 to 2009
• 55 of Americans wages were affected in the
  forms of job layoffs, wage and hour cut backs,
  and unpaid furloughs.
• 32 of Americans reported unemployment during the
  recession.

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Corporate Profits Cannibalizing Labor

• http//www.thefiscaltimes.com/Issues/The-Economy/2
  010/06/21/Prime-Numbers-Strong-Corporate-Profits-t
  o-Drive-Recovery.aspx

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Profiting without Labor
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Wealth Gaps

• Forbes magazines list of the worlds
  billionaires (40 percent of them Americans) show
  them with an average net worth of 3.5 billion --
  and an average increase of 500 million in the
  last 12 months. Americas median hourly wage,
  meanwhile, dropped last year, and it continues to
  drop. Thats not even counting the 15 million
  Americans still out of work (Reich, 2010,
  http//www.salon.com/news/economics/index.html?sto
  ry/news/feature/2010/08/05/reich_rich_rest_of_us
  sourcepatrick.net.net_

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Wall Street Executives White Shoe Cannibals

• Wall Street bonuses soared 17 in 2009 while
  compensation at three leading firmsGoldman Sachs
  Group, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan Chase and
  Corose 31 from 2008 (Popper, 2010).
• Johnson and Kwak (2010) report that in Q1 of 2009
  Bank of Americas assets were 16.4 of GDP, J.P.
  Morgans were 14.7 and Citigroups asserts were
  at 12.9 of U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

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Real Cannibalism The Rich Cannibalize Everyone
Else
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Cannibalism Expropriation of Value from the
Population
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Cannibalistic States The Predatory State

• In 2008, James Galbraith defined a predator
  state as
• a coalition of relentless opponents of the
  regulatory framework on which public purpose
  depends, with enterprises whose major lines of
  business compete with or encroach on the
  principal public functions of the enduring New
  Deal. It is a coalition . . . that seeks to
  control the state partly in order to prevent the
  assertion of public purpose and partly to poach
  on the lines of activity that past public purpose
  established. They are firms that have no
  intrinsic loyalty to any country. They operate as
  a rule on a transnational basis, and naturally
  come to view the goals and objectives of each
  society . . . as just another set of business
  conditions, more or less inimical to the free
  pursuit of profit. . . . (p. 131)

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The Death of Western Industrial Capitalism and
the Keynesian State
A Sin and a Shame Bob Herbert 7/30/2010 The
treatment of workers by American corporations has
been worse far more treacherous than most of
the population realizes. There was no need for so
many men and women to be forced out of their jobs
in the downturn known as the great recession.
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The New World Order Transactional Capitalism

• Beginning in 1970s, fulcrum of power and profit
  began to shift from the production of commodities
  to the circulation of capital (LiPuma Lee,
  2004, p. 67).
• An economy dominated by finance As of the
  beginning of 2010, six banks held assets in
  excess of 63 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic
  Product (Moyers, 2010).
• By 2007, total of all debt-backed securities held
  by financial sector totaled over 36 trillion
  (Johnson Kwak, 2010).

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The NWO Emerging Plutonomy

• Citigroups October 16, 2005 document, Equity
  Strategy Plutonomy Buying Luxury, Explaining
  Global Imbalances, describes a world dividing
  into two blocsthe plutonomies, where economic
  growth is powered by and largely consumed by the
  wealthy few, and the rest (p. 1).
• The U.S. is a key plutonomy characterized by
  disruptive technology-driven productivity gains,
  creative financial innovation, capitalist-friendly
  cooperative governments, an international
  dimension of immigrants and overseas conquests
  invigorating wealth creation, the rule of law,
  and patenting inventions. (pp. 1-2)

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Goldman Sachs Griffiths Says Inequality Helps All

• Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) -- A Goldman Sachs
  International adviser defended compensation in
  the finance industry as his company plans a
  near-record year for pay, saying the spending
  will help boost the economy.
• We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to
  achieve greater prosperity and opportunity for
  all, Brian Griffiths, who was a special adviser
  to former British Prime Minister Margaret
  Thatcher, said yesterday at a panel discussion at
  St. Pauls Cathedral in London. The panels
  discussion topic was, What is the place of
  morality in the marketplace?

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The Death of Biopolitics

• Biopolitics born in the 18th century with liberal
  capitalism. The wealth of nations is the
  population i.e., its productive capacities
• Biopolitics are a politics of life that act upon
  populations to increase and govern their
  bio-vitalities
• Biopolitics closely tied to labor theory of value
• Two sides to biopolitics
• Eugenic
• Proto-eugenic (health and social-welfare)

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Biopolitics in Post-WWII Environment

• U.S. world stature tied to military might and
  untouched industrial infrastructure
• Health and vitality of the populace necessary for
  both
• Keynesian economic model of demand linked
  aggregate consumption capacity of the populace to
  the wealth of the nation

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Death of Biopolitics

• Neoliberalism defines wealth of nation in
  relation to GDP and this measure has been
  dis-connected from productive and consumptive
  capacities of the population
• Financialization of the economy and
  transactional capitalism displaced role of
  production in creation of value
• The biovitalities of the populace are largely
  irrelevant, superfluous to wealth creation

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Disposable Populations Tent Cities, Food Banks,
and Disappearing Unemployed

• 1 in 7 Americans Using Food Stamps
• Working Population is
  shrinking64
  1985 levels (Evans, 2010)
• Foreclosures Bankruptcies Unabated

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Disposable Populations
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BP and the Death of Biopolitics
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Dis-Investments in Populace Disposable
Populations
New Orleans refugees bitter after Katrina
ordeal The Superdome situation, said Lewis, was
"extremely chaotic and disorganized. It was a
total breakdown. "Basically there was nothing.
They had to get people out." Keith Brooks left
the Superdome two days after he arrived. "It
wasn't fit for a dog in there," he said. The
food was "slop." Officials threw bottles of water
for people to catch, he said. He recalled sick,
elderly people being ignored and said he saw a
14-year-old girl being raped. 02 Sep 2005
104855 GMT Source Reuters
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What is Real?
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Chalmers A Sagging Empire or A Re-invented
America?

• Thirty-five years from now, America's official
  century of being top dog (1945-2045) will have
  come to an end its time may, in fact, be running
  out right now. We are likely to begin to look
  ever more like a giant version of England at the
  end of its imperial run, as we come face-to-face
  with, if not necessarily to terms with, our aging
  infrastructure, declining international clout,
  and sagging economy. It may, for all we know,
  still be Hollywood's century decades from now,
  and so we may still make waves on the cultural
  scene, just as Britain did in the 1960s with the
  Beatles and Twiggy. Tourists will undoubtedly
  still visit some of our natural wonders and
  perhaps a few of our less scruffy cities, partly
  because the dollar-exchange rate is likely to be
  in their favor

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Chalmers Johnson cont.

• If, however, we were to dismantle our empire of
  military bases and redirect our economy toward
  productive, instead of destructive, industries
  if we maintained our volunteer armed forces
  primarily to defend our own shores (and perhaps
  to be used at the behest of the United Nations)
  if we began to invest in our infrastructure,
  education, health care, and savings, then we
  might have a chance to reinvent ourselves as a
  productive, normal nation

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References

• Binham, C. (2009, October 21). Goldman Sachss
  Griffiths Says Inequality Helps All.
  http//www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid20601087si
  da8upOpH5Q3Tw
• Cooper, M. (2010). Governments going to extremes
  as the downturn wears on. The New York Times
  http//www.nytimes.com/2010/08/07/us/07cutbacksWEB
  .html
• Dougherty, C. (2010, July 14). Higher taxes boost
  state revenue. The Wall Street Journal.
• Evans, K. (2010, Aug 10). Sluggish productivity
  flashes warning. The Wall Street Journal, C1.
• Feudal image http//www.google.com/imgres?imgurlh
  ttp//www.library.gsu.edu/spcoll/spcollimages/labo
  r/19clabor/Labor2520Prints/79-40_21.jpgimgrefurl
  http//www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/dubo
  ard.php3Faz3Dview_all26address3D389x7784470us
  g__rKniPYx7MZqMM1Bx43bHXHj62Ssh782w1200sz4
  02hlenstart10tbnidXyFQEE8d5rqnlMtbnh128t
  bnw182prev/images3Fq3Dcorporate2Bprofits2Ba
  nd2Blabor2Bcuts26hl3Den26biw3D127626bih3D5
  6626gbv3D226tbs3Disch102C340itbs1iactrc
  dur306eipendingoeiVAZgTOOMAYGClAed1NSlCQesq
  2page2ndsp18ved1t429,r7,s10tx103ty86
  biw1276bih566
• Herbert, B. http//www.nytimes.com/2010/07/31/opin
  ion/31herbert.html?themcth
• Johnson, Chalmers (2010). A sagging empire.
  Tomgram http//www.tomdispatch.com/post/175286/to
  mgram3A_chalmers_johnson2C_portrait_of_a_sagging
  _empire__/
• Krugman, Paul. (2010, August 8). America goes
  dark. The New York Times. http//www.nytimes.com/2
  010/08/09/opinion/09krugman.html?themcth
• Miller, R., Feld, A. (2010, June 13). Economy
  in U.S. slows as states lose federal stimulus
  funds. Bloomberg. http//www.businessweek.com/news
  /2010-06-13/economy-in-u-s-slows-as-states-lose-fe
  deral-stimulus-funds.html
• Pew Research Center. (2010, June 30). The great
  recession at 30 months. http//pewresearch.org/pub
  s/1643/recession-reactions-at-30-months-extensive-
  job-loss-new-frugality-lower-expectations
• Bloomberg Caroline Binham http//www.bloomberg.com
  /apps/news?pid20601087sida8upOpH5Q3Tw
• (Reich, 2010, http//www.salon.com/news/economi
  cs/index.html?story/news/feature/2010/08/05/reich
  _rich_rest_of_ussourcepatrick.net.net

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Resources

• Weak pivate hiring shows recovery on the ropes
  (Reuters).
• The Long Term Jobless Left Behind
  (Businessweek).
• Wary US employers keep hiring plans on hold
  (Reuters).
• The grimness of US unemployment (FT Alphaville).
• The Biggest Lie About US Companies (Yahoo).
• Michael P. Fleischer Why Iím Not Hiring (WSJ).
• The crisis of middle-class America (Financial
  Times).
• Frances Fox Piven (2011) TheWar on the Homefront
  http//www.tomdispatch.com/post/175463/tomgram3A_
  frances_fox_piven2C_the_war_on_the_home_front/mo
  re

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