Sunday, January 10, 2016

The Supreme Court is concerned with compelled speech...
We are determined by compelled behavior which results in compelled forms—

"...with the coming of empires and monotheism, one's social or divine debt becomes effectively unpayable. Christianity perfected this mechanism: its all-powerful God meant a debt that was infinite; at the same time, one's guilt for non-payment was internalized. The only way one could possibly repay in any way was through obedience: to the will of God, to the church. Debt, with its grip on post and future behaviours and with its moral reach, was a formidable governmental tool. All that remained was for it to be secularized. 
     "This constellation gives rise to a type of subjectivity characterized by moralization and specific temporalization. The indebted subject practises two kinds of work: salaried labour, and the work upon the self that is needed to produce a subject who is able to promise, to repay debts, and who is ready to assume guilt for being an indebted subject. A particular set of temporalities are associated with indebtedness: to be able to repay (to remember one's promise), one has to make one's behaviour predictable, regular and calculating. This not only mitigates against any future revolt, with its inevitable disruption of the capacity to repay; it also implies an erasure of the memory of past rebellions and acts of collective resistance which disrupted the normal flow of time and led to unpredictable behaviours. This indebted subject is constantly opened up to the evaluating inspection of others: individualized appraisals and targets at work, credit ratings, individual interviews for those in receipt of benefits or public credits. The subject is thus compelled not only to show that he or she will be able to repay debt (and to repay society through the right behaviours), but also to show the right attitudes and assumed individual guilt for any failings."

Slavoj Zizek, Trouble In Paradise, pp 50-1

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