The ascension of Donald Trump has coincided with a paradoxical situation where the traditional norms setting the limits of what is considered acceptable behaviour and expression are being reimposed with increasing violence and rigidity. At the same time, those responsible for the clampdown exempt themselves from the very norms they impose. Trump’s posture of exceptionalism discharges him from prevailing norms of personal and political behaviour. By extension, it gives his followers leave to take licence for themselves. State power under Trump, rather than legitimating itself, takes licence and gives licence in a way that encourages the growth and consolidation of fascist tendencies endemic to the social field. The norms, while still powerfully in play, no longer define the overall regime, whose logic is shifting from reason of state to an affective register (of reaction and contagion).
This talk attempts to understand the logic of the regime in terms of “normopathy”: the malady that is the normative, related to the way it paradoxically beckons and includes its own beyond. The problem is that the logic of the norm is underwritten by the traditional logic based on principles of identity (non-contradiction and the excluded middle). This logic claims neutrality as a simple mechanism of right thinking and presents itself as the only workable image of thought. It will be argued that not only is this not the only image of thought possible, but it is also inherently political and works only by covering for its deficiencies and denying its own critical points of breakdown in ways that can only be described as an exercise of power.
The talk asks what an alternative image of thought, implying a different, anti-fascist, political logic, would be like — a logic of mutual inclusion based on “differing difference” rather than identity. A suggestion of a radically non-normative ethics, and an associated politics of differencing, will be developed with reference to contemporary issues of heteronormativity and whiteness.
This event will be moderated by Awad Ibrahim, Full professor; the Vice-Provost of equity, diversity and inclusive excellence; and the holder of the Air Canada Professorship on Anti-Racism.
If you have any questions about this event, please contact directly the Office of the Vice-Provost, Equity, Diversity and Inclusive Excellence.
A Zoom link will be sent to registered participants the day before the webinar.
