Synopses & Reviews
Drawing inspiration from Guy Debord's
Society of the Spectacle and a wide range of other free thinkers and intellectuals, Brad Evans and Henry A. Giroux analyze how today's dominant economic systemneoliberalismuses consumerism, privatization, and mass media to neutralize and control the public's participation in its own affairs. The consequence, they argue, is a "mode of existence that encourages us all to become voyeurs of suffering, while denying us the ability of connecting subjugation and willful oppression to wider systemic forces."
Brimming with ideas and insights, Disposable Futures offers a sweeping, big-picture critique of consumption-driven society and how state and corporate power use and abuse violence to redefine citizenship, national security, and economics in order to enrich the few. From movies and entertainment to extreme weather and acts of terror, Evans and Giroux take readers on a fascinating exploration of politics, culture, and power to expose how the production of spectacle shapes and controls social realities while diminishing meaningful civic life and community.
Centered on the power of public education, Evans's and Giroux's critique is rooted in a deep sense of hope in humanity and the emancipatory possibilities for dignified and nonviolent forms of living, learning, and resisting.
"Brad Evans and Henry Giroux offer a trenchant analysis of neoliberalism's ills: its violence, its dystopian vision, its intrusiveness, and its attempt to eradicate all critical consciousness and with it all hope. They diagnose our exposure to disposability in an era marked by the collapse of a vision of a viable future. In doing so, they have laid out the challenge before us. The only question left is, do we have the will, as the authors suggest, to fabricate a nonviolent response to it?"--Todd May, Class of 1941 Memorial Professor of the Humanities, Clemson University
"Beginning with Primo Levi and ending with Deleuze, Evans and Giroux map the radical transformation that has affected the representation of cruelty between the 20th and the 21st century: from 'exceptional' status, associated with the ultimate figures of state sovereignty, it has passed to 'routinized' object of communication, consumption and manipulation. This is not to say that everything is visible, only that the protocols of visibility have been appropriated by a different form of economy, where humans are completely disposable. To counter this violence in the second degree, and preserve our capacity to face the intolerable, a new aesthetics and politics of imagination is required. This powerful, committed, exciting book does more than just evoke its urgency. It already practices it."--Etienne Balibar, author of Violence and Civility
"Disposable Futures confronts a key conundrum of our times: How is it that, given the capacity and abundance of resources to address the critical needs of all, so many are having their futures radically discounted while the privileged few dramatically increase their wealth and power? Brad Evans and Henry Giroux have written a trenchant analysis of the logic of late capitalism that has rendered it normal to dispose of any who do not service the powerful. A searing indictment of the socio-technics of destruction and the decisions of their deployability. Anyone concerned with trying to comprehend these driving dynamics of our time would be well served by taking up this compelling book."--David Theo Goldberg, author of The Threat of Race: Reflections on Racial Neoliberalism
Brad Evans and Henry A. Giroux are internationally renowned educators, authors, and intellectuals. Together, they curate a forum for Truthout.com that explores the theme of "Disposable Futures." Evans is director of histories of violence project at the University of Bristol, United Kingdom. Giroux holds the global TV network chair professorship at McMaster University.
Review
"
Disposable Futures is an utterly spellbinding analysis of violence in the later 20th and early 21st centuries. It strikes me as a new breed of street-smart intellectualism moving through broad ranging theoretical influences of Adorno, Arendt, Bauman, Deleuze, Foucault, Zizek, Marcuse, and Reich. I especially appreciated a number of things, including: the discussion of representation and how it functions within a broader logics of power; the descriptions and analyses of violence mediating the social field and fracturing it through paralyzing fear and anxiety; the colonization of bodies and pleasures; and the nuanced discussion of how state violence, surveillance, and disposability connect. Big ideas explained using a fresh straightforward voice."--Adrian Parr, author of
The Wrath of Capital: Neoliberalism and Climate Change Politics"Brad Evans and Henry Giroux offer a trenchant analysis of neoliberalism's ills: its violence, its dystopian vision, its intrusiveness, and its attempt to eradicate all critical consciousness and with it all hope. They diagnose our exposure to disposability in an era marked by the collapse of a vision of a viable future. In doing so, they have laid out the challenge before us. The only question left is, do we have the will, as the authors suggest, to fabricate a nonviolent response to it?"--Todd May, Class of 1941 Memorial Professor of the Humanities, Clemson University
"Beginning with Primo Levi and ending with Deleuze, Evans and Giroux map the radical transformation that has affected the representation of cruelty between the 20th and the 21st century: from 'exceptional' status, associated with the ultimate figures of state sovereignty, it has passed to 'routinized' object of communication, consumption and manipulation. This is not to say that everything is visible, only that the protocols of visibility have been appropriated by a different form of economy, where humans are completely disposable. To counter this violence in the second degree, and preserve our capacity to face the intolerable, a new aesthetics and politics of imagination is required. This powerful, committed, exciting book does more than just evoke its urgency. It already practices it."--Etienne Balibar, author of Violence and Civility
"This profound and timely paperback covers the tragic and disheartening phenomenon of the continuing increase of violence in the world today. It is evident in film and video games where the carnage is appalling; it is revealed in the militarization of the police; it is supported by the trampling on human rights to privacy through widespread surveillance; it is showcased in the great disparities of wealth and poverty; and it is present in the dehumanization policies of ISIS and of those who willing to do anything to win the terror wars."--Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
Synopsis
A dazzling exploration of the seduction of violence and spectacle in politics, culture, entertainment and everyday life
Synopsis
"This is a must-read book for anyone ready to transcend fear and imagine a new reality."--Tikkun
Disposable Futures makes the case that we have not just become desensitized to violence, but rather, that we are being taught to desire it.
From movies and other commercial entertainment to "extreme" weather and acts of terror, authors Brad Evans and Henry Giroux examine how a contemporary politics of spectacle--and disposability--curates what is seen and what is not, what is represented and what is ignored, and ultimately, whose lives matter and whose do not.
Disposable Futures explores the connections between a range of contemporary phenomena: mass surveillance, the militarization of police, the impact of violence in film and video games, increasing disparities in wealth, and representations of ISIS and the ongoing terror wars. Throughout, Evans and Giroux champion the significance of public education, social movements and ideas that rebel against the status quo in order render violence intolerable.
"Disposable Futures poses, and answers, the pressing question of our times: How is it that in this post-Fascist, post-Cold War era of peace and prosperity we are saddled with more war, violence, inequality and poverty than ever? The neoliberal era, Evans and Giroux brilliantly reveal, is defined by violence, by drone strikes, 'smart' bombs, militarized police, Black lives taken, prison expansion, corporatized education, surveillance, the raw violence of racism, patriarchy, starvation and want. The authors show how the neoliberal regime normalizes violence, renders its victims disposable, commodifies the spectacle of relentless violence and sells it to us as entertainment, and tries to contain cultures of resistance. If you're not afraid of the truth in these dark times, then read this book. It is a beacon of light."--Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
"Disposable Futures confronts a key conundrum of our times: How is it that, given the capacity and abundance of resources to address the critical needs of all, so many are having their futures radically discounted while the privileged few dramatically increase their wealth and power? Brad Evans and Henry Giroux have written a trenchant analysis of the logic of late capitalism that has rendered it normal to dispose of any who do not service the powerful. A searing indictment of the socio-technics of destruction and the decisions of their deployability. Anyone concerned with trying to comprehend these driving dynamics of our time would be well served by taking up this compelling book."--David Theo Goldberg, author of The Threat of Race: Reflections on Racial Neoliberalism
"Disposable Futures is an utterly spellbinding analysis of violence in the later 20th and early 21st centuries. It strikes me as a new breed of street-smart intellectualism moving through broad ranging theoretical influences of Adorno, Arendt, Bauman, Deleuze, Foucault, Zizek, Marcuse, and Reich. I especially appreciated a number of things, including: the discussion of representation and how it functions within a broader logics of power; the descriptions and analyses of violence mediating the social field and fracturing it through paralyzing fear and anxiety; the colonization of bodies and pleasures; and the nuanced discussion of how state violence, surveillance, and disposability connect. Big ideas explained using a fresh straightforward voice."--Adrian Parr, author of The Wrath of Capital: Neoliberalism and Climate Change Politics
Brad Evans and Henry A. Giroux are internationally renowned educators, authors, and intellectuals. Together, they curate a forum for Truthout.com that explores the theme of "Disposable Futures." Evans is director of histories of violence project at the University of Bristol, United Kingdom. Giroux holds McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest, and is the Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy.
Synopsis
Disposable Futures makes the case that we have not just become desensitized to violence, but rather, that we are being taught to desire it.
From movies and other commercial entertainment to "extreme" weather and acts of terror, authors Brad Evans and Henry Giroux examine how a contemporary politics of spectacle--and disposability--curates what is seen and what is not, what is represented and what is ignored, and ultimately, whose lives matter and whose do not.
Disposable Futures explores the connections between a range of contemporary phenomena: mass surveillance, the militarization of police, the impact of violence in film and video games, increasing disparities in wealth, and representations of ISIS and the ongoing terror wars. Throughout, Evans and Giroux champion the significance of public education, social movements and ideas that rebel against the status quo in order render violence intolerable.
"Disposable Futures poses, and answers, the pressing question of our times: How is it that in this post-Fascist, post-Cold War era of peace and prosperity we are saddled with more war, violence, inequality and poverty than ever? The neoliberal era, Evans and Giroux brilliantly reveal, is defined by violence, by drone strikes, 'smart' bombs, militarized police, Black lives taken, prison expansion, corporatized education, surveillance, the raw violence of racism, patriarchy, starvation and want. The authors show how the neoliberal regime normalizes violence, renders its victims disposable, commodifies the spectacle of relentless violence and sells it to us as entertainment, and tries to contain cultures of resistance. If you're not afraid of the truth in these dark times, then read this book. It is a beacon of light."--Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
"Disposable Futures confronts a key conundrum of our times: How is it that, given the capacity and abundance of resources to address the critical needs of all, so many are having their futures radically discounted while the privileged few dramatically increase their wealth and power? Brad Evans and Henry Giroux have written a trenchant analysis of the logic of late capitalism that has rendered it normal to dispose of any who do not service the powerful. A searing indictment of the socio-technics of destruction and the decisions of their deployability. Anyone concerned with trying to comprehend these driving dynamics of our time would be well served by taking up this compelling book."--David Theo Goldberg, author of The Threat of Race: Reflections on Racial Neoliberalism
Brad Evans and Henry A. Giroux are internationally renowned educators, authors, and intellectuals. Together, they curate a forum for Truthout.com that explores the theme of "Disposable Futures." Evans is director of histories of violence project at the University of Bristol, United Kingdom. Giroux holds McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest, and is the Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy.
About the Author
Brad Evans:
Brad Evans is founder/director of the Histories of Violence project. A Senior Lecturer in International Studies at the University of Bristol, UK, he continues to lecture around the world on questions of global political and philosophical importance. Brad is currently a visiting fellow at the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University, New York (2013-14).
He is a listed contributor for the Guardian Newspapers Comment is Free, and regularly writes and features in prominent new sources such as BBC 4.
His projects have been featured in various outlets including the New York Times, CBS news, El Pais, TruthOut, CounterPunch and Art Forum. Brad sits on the editorial boards for a number of reputable international academic journals in the fields of political philosophy. He also serves as a consultant on violence to a number of cultural organizations. He is currently a member of the Global Insecurities Centre (University of Bristol); serving board member for the Centre for Scholarship in the Public Interest (McMaster University, Ontario); founding member of the Society for the Study of Bio-Political Futures (Syracuse University, NY); and honorary associate of the Zygmunt Bauman Institute (The University of Leeds).
Evans has published extensively on the global problems of insecurity, power and political violence. He has also collaborated in articles/dialogues with renowned scholars such as Simon Critchley, Henry Giroux, Julian Reid, Mark Duffield and Michael Hardt.
Evans' latest books include Liberal Terror” (Polity Press: 2013); Deleuze and Fascism: Security, War, Aesthetics” (Co-edited with Julian Reid, Routledge: 2013); Resilient Life: The Art of Living Dangerously” (Co-written with Julian Reid, Polity: 2014).
Henry A. Giroux:
Henry A. Giroux is a world renowned educator, author and public intellectual. He currently holds the Global TV Network Chair Professorship at McMaster University in the English and Cultural Studies Department. His most recent books include: The Violence of Organized Forgetting with City Lights, 2014; Zombie Politics and Culture in the Age of Casino Capitalism (Peter Lang, 2011); Henry Giroux on Critical Pedagogy (Continuum, 2011); Education and the Crisis of Public Values (Peter Lang 2012); Twilight of the Social: Resurgent Publics in the Age of Disposability (Paradigm Publishers, 2012); Disposable Youth (Routledge 2012); Youth in Revolt (Paradigm, 2013); The Education Deficit and the War on Youth (Monthly Review Press, 2013) A prolific writer and political commentator, he writes regularly for Truthout and serves on their board of directors.
He currently lives in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada with his wife, Dr. Susan Searls Giroux.