What they do not know is that their social reality itself, their activity, is guided by an illusion, by a fetishistic inversion. What they overlook, what they misrecognize, is not the reality but the illusion which is structuring their reality, their real social activity. They know very well how things really are, but still they … Continue reading Unity via an Ideological Fantasy
Author: RH
The name of the strict father
I’ve been thinking about how I used the concept of the big Other to describe the manner by which Ranil Wickremesinghe, the current Sri Lankan President, functions with a section of the electorate that supports him. https://twitter.com/rajit_h/status/1547386139472199683?s=61&t=qy9dc_UC7o7gX5duEQJkuQ Recently, after some theatrics in Parliament by him, I referenced the (non-Lacanian) strict father model. https://twitter.com/rajit_h/status/1628671355649683459?s=61&t=oPwwWezWWxnELuIstV7oLw Both these … Continue reading The name of the strict father
The SJB-JVP battle for votes
The jockeying for voters between the NPP/JVP and the SJB provides an excellent opportunity to reflect on the importance of ideology and identity for a political party. https://twitter.com/ravirannaneliya/status/1628239362352881664 As things stand, polling suggests while ex-SLPP voters are moving to other main parties, the greatest number have gone to the JVP. https://twitter.com/ravirannaneliya/status/1628239374172422145 A question that I’ve … Continue reading The SJB-JVP battle for votes
An auto-exploiting labourer of your own psyche: notes after reading Byung-Chul Han
Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power The Disappearance of Rituals: A Topology of the Present Having recently read two books by Byung-Chul Han, I thought it worth summarizing the most personally relevant aspects of each book. I've mixed quotes from both books, where they overlap and drive home the points I want to focus … Continue reading An auto-exploiting labourer of your own psyche: notes after reading Byung-Chul Han
The future of “Go Home Gota”: Occupy Wall Street?
Occupy was, at its core, a movement constrained by its own contradictions: filled with leaders who declared themselves leaderless, governed by a consensus-based structure that failed to reach consensus, and seeking to transform politics while refusing to become political.https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/the-triumph-of-occupy-wall-street/395408/ If one is searching for movements analogous to “Go Home Gota”, Occupy Wall Street is a … Continue reading The future of “Go Home Gota”: Occupy Wall Street?
Yahapalanaya & “Go home Gota” as master signifiers
A couple of introductory notes: This section of the Wikipedia article on the 2015 Sri Lankan Presidential election gives some idea of the complex dynamics of Yahapalanya. For an understanding of current events in Sri Lanka, and the "Go home Gota" movement, I recommend this.A summary of what is meant by a master signifier can … Continue reading Yahapalanaya & “Go home Gota” as master signifiers
The creation of the subject and reality: some notes on theory
PART of Constructing a Party Core to our system is understanding humans as a "subject" and the idea that reality is a social construction. This reality can be manipulated through institutions to form a voter (subject) that will vote for the party. The human as a subject In theories of human subjectivity, a distinction is made … Continue reading The creation of the subject and reality: some notes on theory
Crypto as a semiotic sign and a master signifier
What is a sign in semiotics? A linguistic sign1 is not a link between a thing and a name, but between a concept [signified] and a sound pattern [signifier]. This link is arbitrary -- anything can be signified by any word. As the figure above illustrates, the sign "Crypto" represents a number of concepts prevalent … Continue reading Crypto as a semiotic sign and a master signifier
the big Other(s)
I'm reading the book, "Six Moments in Lacan: Communication and identification in psychology and psychoanalysis" and the first chapter immediately struck me as providing a way to analyse seemingly irreconcilable political divides globally and in the US in particular. I've chosen to cite some findings from PRRI's 2021 American Values Survey to give context to … Continue reading the big Other(s)
Stenner, authoritarianism & winning over status quo conservatives
As someone from the left/liberal camp, a fascinating Twitter thread led me to discovering potential communication tactics for "status quo conservatives" and how to differentiate them from voters with authoritarian tendencies. https://twitter.com/dasvee/status/1450404018258391046 The tweets are largely based on the work of Karen Stenner, a political psychologist and behavioural economist. Stenner's research leads her to conclude … Continue reading Stenner, authoritarianism & winning over status quo conservatives