Radical social change in the United States : Badiou's apostle and the post-factual moment

This book tackles the question of why the United States is so resistant to radical change towards economic justice and peace. Taking full stock of the despair that launched the popular support for Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, Swanger historicizes the political paralysis of post-1974 United States that deepened already severe economic inequalities, asking how the terrain for social movements in the early twenty-first-century US differs from that of the 1960s. This terrain is marked by the entrenchment of neoliberalism, anti-intellectualism, and difficulties paradoxically posed by the ease of social media. Activists now must contend with a paralyzing "post-factual" moment. Alain Badiou's thought informs this book on breaking through contemporary political paralysis.-- Provided by publisher Acknowledgments 5 Preface: 42 Days Before the US Invasion of Iraq 6 Notes 9 Contents 11 Chapter 1: Introduction: So Close, and Yet So Far 12 Fighting the Good Fight, Without History 12 Crane Shot 20 The Post-Factual 21 Notes 26 Chapter 2: Paul: Patron Saint of the Post-Factual 34 Notes 56 Chapter 3: The Lure of the Ancien Regime 64 The Truth Will Out: The Seduction of Speaking Truth to Power 64 Who Is the Witness? Will the Witness Please Stand? 75 Notes 97 Chapter 4: Nothing but the Truth 102 Tortuous Journey, Tortured Truth 103 The Unconcealable Scandal and the Camera’s Blank Stare 107 Inflationary Pressure in the Omnipresent Gaze 126 Notes 134 Chapter 5: Nothing Cures Malaise Quite Like Torture 145 Part One: Sacrifice, Torture, and Earned Opposition 146 Liberalism, the Count, and the Carapace of Control 156 Notes 170 Chapter 6: To Have Seen Too Much: The 1960s and the Turning of the Camera 182 The Revelry of Revelation 186 Re-placing the Outplace: The Camera Turns Away 203 The Middle Distance and the Construction of Collective Identity 207 Notes 215 Chapter 7: Now What? 232 The Audience Has Left the Building 232 The Uniqueness of the Apostolic Gesture 237 Inadmissible Truths 246 Agamben, Badiou, Paul, and the Remnant 254 The Apostolic Gesture and the Trope of the (White) Middle Class 271 Conclusion: Justice Without Law, the Refusal of Debt 281 Notes 296 Bibliography 318 Index 327 Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Introduction: So Close, and Yet So Far....Pages 1-22 Paul: Patron Saint of the Post-Factual....Pages 23-52 The Lure of the Ancien Regime ....Pages 53-90 Nothing but the Truth....Pages 91-133 Nothing Cures Malaise Quite Like Torture....Pages 135-171 To Have Seen Too Much: The 1960s and the Turning of the Camera....Pages 173-222 Now What?....Pages 223-308 Back Matter....Pages 309-328