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This paper utilizes marxist psychoanalysis to provide a diagnosis for the pathology of settler co... more This paper utilizes marxist psychoanalysis to provide a diagnosis for the pathology of settler colonialism such that treatment options can be derived for settlers who wish to engage in the process of decolonization. The diagnosis identifies two mechanisms through which settler colonialism produces itself: the catastrophic violence of conquest, and the fantasy of white supremacy. It discusses their operation in settlers and the states they create to demonstrate the ways in which the fantasy causes violence that serves to maintain it. A special focus is given to the relation of capitalism to dispossession as I contend that attending to this injustice will give treatment the greatest chance of success. Building from this I argue that the only way to stop being a settler is to let go of the land, and that this will require nothing less than a mass movement against global capital. From this the discussion of treatment holds that settlers must learn how to engage in radical action without reproducing the violences of the system they seek to oppose and that this depends on their ability to confront the operation of fantasy within themselves. It is hoped this can be accomplished through the development of settler grounded normativity, a process which above all requires taking heed from indigenous nations already engaged in the struggle. The paper closes with a discussion of the parade and the blockade as two distinct methods for articulating grounded norms in the face of catastrophe.
York University, 2019
This paper inquires after the question “how did the Oka Crisis unfold across the pages of the Glo... more This paper inquires after the question “how did the Oka Crisis unfold across the pages of the Globe and Mail?". Unfolding is taken to mean the sensation of reading and unfolding a paper, as well as the ways in which media folds sensation into narrative. It is argued that control of the media is not just achieved through direct coercion but also through the appointment of people with views the state deems acceptable to positions of power. In the case of the Globe and Mail's coverage we see both the physical suppression of journalists by the military and the police, and the honest opinions of citizens who simply do not want the order of power to change. We also see a shameful lack of indigenous voices, as the Globe and Mail had no indigenous staff writers covering the conflict. No matter their position on the conflict, all struggled to explain the contradictions between Canada’s image of itself, and the images produced by the crisis. Some sought to fold these events back into a cohesive national myth, and thus justify their position in the social order, while others boldly took the event as an opportunity to rethink the nation itself.
This paper utilizes marxist psychoanalysis to provide a diagnosis for the pathology of settler co... more This paper utilizes marxist psychoanalysis to provide a diagnosis for the pathology of settler colonialism such that treatment options can be derived for settlers who wish to engage in the process of decolonization. The diagnosis identifies two mechanisms through which settler colonialism produces itself: the catastrophic violence of conquest, and the fantasy of white supremacy. It discusses their operation in settlers and the states they create to demonstrate the ways in which the fantasy causes violence that serves to maintain it. A special focus is given to the relation of capitalism to dispossession as I contend that attending to this injustice will give treatment the greatest chance of success. Building from this I argue that the only way to stop being a settler is to let go of the land, and that this will require nothing less than a mass movement against global capital. From this the discussion of treatment holds that settlers must learn how to engage in radical action without reproducing the violences of the system they seek to oppose and that this depends on their ability to confront the operation of fantasy within themselves. It is hoped this can be accomplished through the development of settler grounded normativity, a process which above all requires taking heed from indigenous nations already engaged in the struggle. The paper closes with a discussion of the parade and the blockade as two distinct methods for articulating grounded norms in the face of catastrophe.
York University, 2019
This paper inquires after the question “how did the Oka Crisis unfold across the pages of the Glo... more This paper inquires after the question “how did the Oka Crisis unfold across the pages of the Globe and Mail?". Unfolding is taken to mean the sensation of reading and unfolding a paper, as well as the ways in which media folds sensation into narrative. It is argued that control of the media is not just achieved through direct coercion but also through the appointment of people with views the state deems acceptable to positions of power. In the case of the Globe and Mail's coverage we see both the physical suppression of journalists by the military and the police, and the honest opinions of citizens who simply do not want the order of power to change. We also see a shameful lack of indigenous voices, as the Globe and Mail had no indigenous staff writers covering the conflict. No matter their position on the conflict, all struggled to explain the contradictions between Canada’s image of itself, and the images produced by the crisis. Some sought to fold these events back into a cohesive national myth, and thus justify their position in the social order, while others boldly took the event as an opportunity to rethink the nation itself.