Judith Butler has got it into her head that mourning for, or pretending to mourn for, dead people you have never heard of and who didn't matter in the slightest to you, is really important because...urm... like mebbe Fascism, or White Supremacy, or the Spanish Inquisition, will take hold if you don't?
She writes in the Guardian
It could be considered a small thing that Donald Trump can neither meet with Joe Biden nor acknowledge that he has lost the election to him.
Trump wants to be able to pose as a martyr being persecuted by an illegitimate government when, as now seems inevitable, prosecutors come for him. Furthermore, it is in his interest to prevent Republican law-makers from cooperating with Biden. If Trump wants to make a political comeback, Biden has to fuck up completely.
It is foolish, knowing what we do about Trump's style of functioning, to consider his boycott of the Biden inauguration as something purely egotistical or psychological rather than tactical- perhaps even strategic. Biden himself, being a wily old fox, has taken the wind out of the sails of Trump's supposed recalcitrance by revealing that Trump left a very 'generous' and sweet little note for his successor. Thus, it appears, the man was simply play-acting for a political purpose.
But what if the refusal to acknowledge loss is bound up with the path of destruction we call Trump’s exit route? Why is it so hard to lose?
Trump's loss was different from Carter's or Bush Senior's loss. Trump faces prosecution in a number of different matters. He may also be in financial trouble. Prison and bankruptcy stare him in the face. Why pretend that it is merely his ego which has received a bruising? Carter and the Bush Snr. were one term Presidents. Their egos may have been bruised by defeat but they stood in no danger of jail and disgrace. They had no reason to deny the legitimacy of an Administration under which there was zero probability of their being been put on trial.
The question has at least two meanings in these times.
Nonsense! Butler asked a stupid question. We all know that Trump is seeking to retain his hold on the Republican party so as to gain a countervailing 'nuisance' power against Federal prosecutors.
So many of us are losing people to Covid-19, or fearing death for ourselves or others.
This is true of every country. Elections were held elsewhere during the pandemic. Obviously, there were losers as well as winners. But the fact that some people were dying of this infection did not change anything.
All of us are living in relation to ambient illness and death
all the time. So what?
, whether or not we have a name for that sense of the atmosphere. Death and illness are quite literally in the air.
This has always been the case.
And yet, it is unclear how to name or fathom these losses, and the resistance of Trump to public mourning has drawn from, and intensified, a masculinist refusal to mourn that is bound up with nationalist pride and even white supremacy.
Merkel is a woman. The fact that she hasn't indulged in 'public mourning' proves she is 'masculinist' and puffed up with 'nationalist pride' not to mention 'white supremacist' beliefs. The same is true of Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh. On the other hand, if either were replaced by a man who opposes her, the guy will make great play of mourning all the innocents she killed by her neglect.
The fact is, the job of the Head of State is to exude confidence and optimism, not to wander around in sackcloth and ashes screaming 'the End of Days is upon us! Yea! All shall die! None will be spared! Woe unto us! Woe! Woe!' Only if a rival gains power would it make sense to pretend great grief at all the victims of the genocide perpetrated by one's predecessor.
The Trumpists tend not to grieve openly pandemic deaths.
Nor do Merkelists.
They have conventionally rejected the numbers as exaggerated (“fake news!”) or defied the threat of death with their gatherings and maskless marauding through the public spaces,
but nutters of this type exist everywhere. In the UK, Jeremy Corbyn's brother has been leading the anti-lockdown protests. In Italy, the cretin Agamben has been marching around proclaiming the whole thing a hoax perpetrated by evil Capitalists.
most recently in their spectacle of thuggery in the US Capitol in animal costumes.
That 'shaman' was hilarious. His Mummy explained he gets very very ill if he eats non-organic foods. Guess whom he lives with? A nutter of that sort would be very happy to preside over a mourning ceremony for your pussy cat- who isn't dead, but is ignoring you, and so, just to get even, you get in this guy to wail over the fact that pussy is now dead to you. Never again will she receive tasty treats from your hands. Also, that squeaky rubber mouse you bought her as an anniversary present will now be returned to Amazon.
Trump never acknowledged the losses the US has suffered, and had no inclination or capacity to offer condolences.
So what? Nobody else did either.
When the losses were referenced, they were not so bad, the curve was flattening, the pandemic would be short, it was not his fault, it was China’s fault.
This was the sensible thing to do. A leader should not say 'Millions are dying! Billions will die! It's all our fault! Woe unto us! Satan is going to be jabbing his pitchfork into all of our butts very very soon!' However, his successor, if of a different Party is welcome to blame him for everything under the Sun.
What people need, he claimed, was to get back to work because they were “dying” at home, by which he meant only that they were driven crazy by domestic confinement.
This was the aspect of his handling of the crisis which won applause. It was his failure with respect to track and trace and so forth which lost him support.
Trump’s inability to acknowledge his election loss is related to his
political strategy to keep control of the Republican Party and make life hell for Biden
inability to acknowledge and mourn public losses from the pandemic, but also his destructive itinerary. If he were to have openly acknowledged his electoral loss, then he would be someone who loses.
Similarly, if Butler were to openly acknowledge that she has lost her marbles and is publishing worthless shite, then she would be someone who would lose her academic appointments and lucrative publishing contracts and so forth.
He is just not the kind of guy who loses,
Just as Butler is just not the kinda gal who says 'I iz utterly shit, mate. Don't read my books. They are crap.'
and if he does, then someone took what was rightfully his.
as opposed to what was wrongfully hers.
But there is a further twist. The white supremacists who stormed the Capitol are also convinced not only that the elections were stolen, but their country as well, that they are being “replaced” by black and brown communities, by Jews, and their racism fights against the idea that they are being asked to lose their idea of white entitlement and supremacy.
How is this a 'further twist'? What is strange about Trump saying he won? It is in his interest to do so. If a mob can terrorize the legislature and get away with it, why should it not do so? Self-interested actions require no psychological explanation.
To this end, they transport themselves back in time to become Confederate soldiers,
as Butler transports herself back in time to become a feminist Dr. Freud diagnosing the congenital discontents of Civilization itself.
they occupy fantasy figures on video games with superhuman powers,
Butler fantasizes that she herself possesses intellectual powers.
they dress as animals
Butler dresses up as a malnourished, sickly, orphan boy from the Great Depression.
and bear guns openly, reliving the “wild west” and its genocide of indigenous peoples.
Really? I didn't see that on TV. I guess the Jews in the Media suppressed those bits.
They also understand themselves as “the people” and “the nation”
as opposed to 'the clouds' or 'the starry heavens'
which is why they are still in some shock as they are arrested for felonies.
Most people arrested for the first time for felonies are in shock. They say, 'guys, seriously, this is just a prank which went a tiny bit awry. How was I know repeatedly hitting my Mummy with an axe which cause her head to fall off! I was doing the whole thing ironically- like, ha ha, I'm an axe murderer, right?- the only crime I'm guilty of is having a sense of humor and, like, deconstructing the whole 'Mummy didn't buy me a pony so I chopped off her head' shtick.'
How could this be trespass or sedition or conspiracy if they were only reclaiming “their house”?
It could be a crime for the same reason that chopping off Mummy's head is a crime. The thing is against the law.
How could this be a crime if the president asked them to undertake these acts?
Because the Law does not say a thing is legal if the Pres asks you to do it.
Those who sought to find, kill or kidnap elected officials had clearly violent plans, ones well-documented on their various internet sites and unheeded by complicitous police officials.
Butler is making an extreme claim. Will prosecutors follow her line of argument? Will anyone be charged with seditious conspiracy? Perhaps. But no one will be convicted. The evidentiary bar is too high.
And the attack on police and even the death by crushing of one of their own, Rosanne Boyland, went unheeded in the excitement of their lethal rampage.
Actually, the moment 'one of their own' got shot, these guys heeded the fuck out of the fact that their lives were in danger and thus they'd better scarper sharpish.
And it may also be
but, since it is Butler writing this, is is more likely not to be at all
that Trump’s own final killing spree, taking the lives of 13 people since federal executions resumed in July 2020, is another example of the readiness to kill that marks these final days.
Very true. It's all there in the Book of Revelations. Cats are now marrying dogs. The end of days is at hand.
Where there is a ready-made refusal to acknowledge the loss of lives, killing presumably becomes easier.
More especially if it is wholly imaginary.
These lives are not quite grasped as lives, and their loss does not really count as significant.
Imaginary Lives Matter! Trillions of my devotees have been massacred by equally imaginary assailants, yet Biden is refusing to mourn them! It is because he is a White Supremacist.
In this way, Trump’s final days, including the Capitol assault, are a violent rejoinder to Black Lives Matter.
That is the equivalence those thugs are making. Why is Butler endorsing it?
Globally, millions took to the streets to oppose in outrage police taking of black lives with impunity, forming a movement that exposed historical and systemic racism, and opposed the ease with which police and prisons destroy black lives. That movement continues to pose a global threat to white supremacy,
Actually, it was welcomed by the Right because it provoked a backlash at a time when the 'silent majority' was suffering because of COVID & lockdown etc. Fortunately, the Democrats chose Biden- who had been denounced as a racist who had spearheaded the Law under which unprecedented incarceration of African American males occurred- and Biden chose Harris- who had herself locked up plenty of Black males.
and the reaction has been violent and vile. The supremacists do not want to lose their supremacy, even though they have already lost it and continue to lose it as movements for racial justice continue to achieve their aims.
In which case, it sounds like they are relatively powerless and are now organizing to get more power.
Trump’s loss is as unthinkable as their own, and this is doubtless one of the ties that bind them to his delusive conviction of a stolen election.
It makes sense for any relatively powerless group to find a leader with some sort of claim to legitimacy- like Cossacks rallying to Pugachev, who pretended he was the Tzar Peter III.
The result is a form of destructive rage that does not even bother to offer a moral alibi
The moral alibi, according to what Butler herself has written earlier in the article, is that the election was rigged. Also the Federal Government is just a cover for a pedophile ring. Will no one think of the children?!
Before the assault on the Capitol, it was surely worrisome or even humorous
either a thing is worrisome or it is humorous. It can't be both.
that Trump manically sought to nullify his losses by any means possible.
Manically? Surely, there was a sound reason for what he was doing? He wanted to retain his hold on his Party. This would give him leverage against prosecutors.
But this makes sense if we think about a general inability to acknowledge loss, an acknowledgment, Freud tells us, that is the work of mourning.
Freud distinguished mourning- which is for a loved one who has died and which occurs in the conscious mind and is perfectly natural- from melancholia- which occurs in the unconscious mind and is pathological. Butler, as always, gets hold of the wrong end of the stick.
To mourn, though, there has to be a way to mark that loss, a way to communicate and register it and, in this sense, it requires communication and at least the potential of public assent.
Nonsense! My wife hears the milk-man is dead. She mourns him and hugs her children a little closer to her heart. But she does not 'communicate or register' anything. She would be mortified if all and sundry condoled with her- as they condole with the other sluts on our street- for the loss of her one true love.
The formula goes something like this: I cannot live in a world in which the object I value is lost,
this is not Freud who said that 'melancholia' of this type is unconscious. It doesn't have a formula. However, during therapy, the conscious mind can find a pattern to what is otherwise inchoate.
or I cannot be the person who has lost what I value. I will destroy the world that reflects back to me that I have lost, or I will leave that world through recourse to fantasy. This form of denial would rather destroy reality, to hallucinate a preferred reality, than register the verdict of loss that reality has to deliver. The result is a form of destructive rage that does not even bother to offer a moral alibi.
So, this is nothing at all like what Trump or his die-hard support base is doing. Trump's actions are rational and self-serving. He has taken great trouble to elaborate a 'moral alibi' because he is relying upon his continuing grip on his party so as to leverage some sort of deal with prosecutors and perhaps even make a political comeback.
The issue is made clear in the rash of death sentences, state-sanctioned murders,
This policy dates from 2019 with Attorney General Barr doing the heavy lifting. Since Biden is against the death penalty, there has been an unseemly rush to push through as many executions as possible. This has nothing to do with COVID.
but also the waving away of the numbers of those who have died of Covid-19, especially those numbers that show us communities of color are most adversely affected, including the indigenous populations of this land who are hardest hit. It makes cruel sense
cruel? No. Paranoid? Yes.
that Trump would make a deal in his final days in office that destroys sacred sites in Arizona to boost the production of copper at the very time that the failure of public policy has surely increased the death toll for those communities.
But the profitability of copper has not fallen. That is all that matters unless you are actually building your McMansion on an Indian burial ground.
White supremacy has now resumed an open place in US politics,
Very true. Biden be pretty damn Caspar.
and Trumpism will outlast Trump,
The way Marxism outlasted Karl Marx- right?
and continue to assume new forms.
It could become your toaster.
White supremacy is a political fantasy, but also a historical reality.
in which case it isn't a fantasy at all.
It can be understood
as rational and self-interested. Being superior means getting more of the nice shiny things everybody likes. Being inferior sucks ass big time.
in part as a refusal to grieve the loss of white supremacy
Everything and everybody refuses to grieve its own loss or passing away. That is why I reject invitations to attend my own funeral or to pay for a wake so all my supposed mates can get drunk and bad mouth me.
that the movement for black lives and the ideals of racial justice rightly demand.
BLM never said 'kindly grieve for your own death. Give yourself a decent burial and weep over your own grave-stone'. It may be that Butler's colleagues are constantly importuning her to get bereavement counselling so as to get over her own death. She should tell them to fuck off. They aren't really her friends. They are trying to gaslight her.
So it’s time for the racists to grieve that loss, but it is doubtful that they will.
Because not even they are as stupid as shit. Meanwhile, Butler will be attending her own funeral and weeping over her own gravestone.
They know that what they imagine to be their natural right can be taken away, is being taken away, and the struggle they are waging is historical.
So, Butler is saying these guys are behaving in a rational, self-interested, manner. Whether they prevail depends on how well they can organize themselves and who they choose to lead them.
They will live out their fantasy until historical reality checks them.
Historical reality can't stop anyone 'living out a fantasy'- at least on weekends. Cosplay is now a 45 billion dollar global industry.
Let us hope that the Biden rejoinder is not to intensify the police state for this purpose.
If Biden ensures that White Supremacists are arrested by the police and sent to jail for their crimes, then he would have abided by his oath of office. Butler says we should hope he does not do his Constitutional duty. Instead he should start mourning for his own demise. If Kamala says 'C'mon Pres, sign that Bill already', he should reply 'I'm dead! Losing my dearly beloved life has been a great blow to me. I am crying so hard, I can't see properly- let alone read any official papers. I must go now to weep over my grave. Judith Butler has explained all this.'
That would be a cruel irony.
No. Biden should discharge his oath of office. If that means ensuring 'homeland security' by locking up seditious militia leaders- so be it. On the other hand, if Biden decided to mourn his own death, the fate of the nation he leads would be cruel indeed.
Of course, it may be, Judith Butler did not write this article for the Guardian at all. The thing is a cruel prank by Nidhi Razdan. The real Butler is too busy mourning her own death, to notice and complain. Ironically, this ends up boosting her academic reputation as the stupidest Feminist ever.
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