The Revenge of the Real: Politics for a Post-Pandemic World

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The Revenge of the Real envisions a new positive biopolitics that recognises that how populations govern themselves is literally a matter of life and death. We are grappling with multiple interconnected dilemmas - climate change, pandemics, the tensions between the individual and society - all of which have to be addressed on a planetary scale. Even when separated, we are still enmeshed. Can the world govern itself differently If so, what models and philosophies are needed Bratton argues that, instead of thinking of technology as something that happens to society, we must see how it can form the basis of a politics of infrastructure, knowledge, and direct intervention. He urges us to reconsider questions of surveillance in the face of necessary testing and care. He asks what did the mask wars reveal about the destructive nature of individualism as the basis of sovereignty The book proposes that it is time to transform how we live, work and thrive. Rethinking governance means rethinking how we interact with each other as a global population, and how we ensure our obligations to each other. For this, we should build a society based in a new rationality of inclusion, care and foresight.

Reviews

Endlessly thought-provoking -- Kim Stanley Robinson
Breaks more new ground than a carpet bombing. -- Bruce Sterling
Cuts through many received ideas about technology, globalization, and so forth and presents a fresh vision of the architecture of the world. -- McKenzie Wark

Author Bio

Benjamin Bratton is Professor of Visual Arts and Director of the Center for Design and Geopolitics at the University of California, San Diego. He is Program Director of The New Normal programme at Strelka Institute of Media, Architecture and Design in Moscow. He is also a Professor of Digital Design at The European Graduate School and Visiting Faculty at SCI_Arc. He is the author of the hugely influential The Stack as well as The New Normal and Terraforming.