Politics of The Future:

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POL 672 Fall 2014 Prof: Jairus Grove
Ofce: Saunders 608
An interviewer once asked J.G. Ballard why he seemed so pessimistic. He said, I would sum
up my fear about the future in one word: boring. And that's my one fear: that everything has
happened; nothing exciting or new or interesting is ever going to happen again... the future is
just going to be a vast, conforming suburb of the soul. This class is dedicated to the
investigation of futures and political practices that take as their enemy the suburb of the soul.
The question before us is what tools, ideas, theories, media, and visions can we leverage to
better understand and intervene in the many futures already incipient in the present.
Since we live in an age of vast global violence, ecological catastrophe, technological
mutation, newly emerging forms of life and old forms of life all of which are vying for our
attention we must look is broadly as possible for useful ideas. So the course will draw on an
unusual assortment of social science text, Alternative Futures, Critical Theory, Queer theory,
New Media theory, Indigenous theory, Ecological studies, Animal studies, and Technologies
studies to pursue this task. The diversity of thinking is required because traditional political
institutions as well as political theories are vastly outmatched by the scale and intensity of
these changes. If we are to live up to the challenge of our times we will need to think about
the overlooked or overtly marginalized trajectories of life on this planet and what role they
can play in the moments of bifurcation between better and worse futures. While we can never
predict the future there are also better and worse techniques of speculation and foresight. We
will explore many different ways to approach the unknowable as something that nonetheless
has to be theorized and acted upon. The goal is to arm you in the war against the dullards and
snake oil salesman of futures committed to more of the same. Something adventurous,
something better, something else.

Assignments:
First Assignment: Before class begins everyone will be expected to have completed Eric
Schmidt and Jared Cohen, The New Digital Age: Transforming Nations, Businesses, and Our
Lives. This book captures Ballards suburb of the soul future quite well and represents the
dominant agenda for Google, The U.S. State Department, and much of Silicon Valley quite
well. It will provide a good common source of conversation and criticism as the class moves
along.

Second Assignment: Outline The New Digital Age. What are the major drivers of change for
Schmidt and Cohen? What is the image of the future? Who are the actors and decision-makers
in the making and maintaining of their image of the future? Due week 2 to be used in class.

Third Assignment: Write your own manifesto of any length. Due week 6

Fourth Assignment: 10-12 Page Review Essay. Choose any of the books read during the
semester. The ideas is to use the critical tools developed through out the semester to show
Manifestos
Week 1

F.T. Marinetti, The Futurist Manifesto, 1909 http://vserver1.cscs.lsa.umich.edu/~crshalizi/T4PM/
futurist-manifesto.html (Control Fascist)

Marx Engles and Frederick Engels, The Communist Manifesto, http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/
works/1848/communist-manifesto/index.htm (Transformation)

Week 2
Ted Kaczynski, Industrial Society and Its Future http://editions-hache.com/essais/pdf/kaczynski2.pdf
(Collapse)

Alex Williams and Nick Srnicek, #ACCELERATE MANIFESTO for an Accelerationist Politics http://
criticallegalthinking.com/2013/05/14/accelerate-manifesto-for-an-accelerationist-politics/ (Control,
Socialist)

Paul Kingsnorth and Dougald Hine, Uncivilization: The Dark Mountain Manifesto http://dark-
mountain.net/about/manifesto/ (Collapse, Begin Again)

Drivers:
Week 3
Technology
Stanislaw Lem, Summa Technologiae

Week 4
Imitation
Gabriel Tarde, Laws of Imitation, https://archive.org/details/lawsomitation00tard

Week 5
Ecology
Thom van van Dooren, Flight Ways: Life and Loss at the Edge of Extinction


Doing Futures: Methods and Maneuvers

Week 6
Sohail Inayatullah, Causal Layered Analysis- Deepening the future http://www.wfsf.org/resources/
pedagogical-resources/articles-used-by-futures-teachers/88-inayatullah-causal-layered-analysis-
deepening-the-future/le

Week 7
The Universe of Things: On Speculative Realism (Posthumanities) Paperback
by Steven Shaviro


Many Futures, Otherwise than Normal
Queer Futures, No Futures?
Week 8
Jose Esteban Munoz Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity

The Future of Work, Economy, Value
Week 9
Franco Berardi, After the Future

Indigenous Futures or Why History Isn't Finished
Week 10
Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life Across the Borders of Settler States
by Audra Simpson

Futures of Life
Week 11
Brad Evans and Julian Reid, Resilient Life: The Art of Living Dangerously


Visions of the Future
A Future of Security
Week 12
Jose Padiha, Robocop (Benjamin Bratton, The Black Stack, http://www.e-ux.com/journal/the-
black-stack/)

A Future of Love
Week 13
Spike Jonze, Her (Berlant and Lee Edelman, Sex, or the Unbearable)

A Future of Politics Regained
Week 14

Neill Blomkamp, Elysium (Gilles Deleuze, Postscript on the Societies of Control https://
les.nyu.edu/dnm232/public/deleuze_postcript.pdf)

A Future of Politics Returned
Week 15
Joon-ho Bong, Snowpiercer (Timothy Morton, The End of the World in Hyberobjects: Philosophy
and Ecology after the End of the World)