~ DI-H-TAGE-B-CT-OUFATTHB ~ Democratic Institutions – Have – To A Great Extent – Become – Commodities – Offered Up For Auction To The Highest Bidder

~ D-IACH-WRE ~ Democracy – Is A Cruel Hoax – Without Relative Equality

~ I-RE-I-ANCOMAF-HCIBGETTS?-B-TAP-TAOTSINAO ~ If – Relative Equality – Is – A Necessary Condition Of Mutuality And Freedom – How Can It Be Guaranteed Except Through The State? – Both – Theoretically And Practically – The Abolition Of The State Is Not An Option

~ TS-HH-TL-CO-LA-PD ~ The State – Has Historically – Thwarted Lower-Class Organization – Let Alone – Public Defiance

~ IP:F-D/P/P/D/S/D/A/S/F ~ InfraPolitics: Foot-Dragging / Poaching / Pilfering / Dissimulation / Sabotage / Desertion / Absenteeism / Squatting / Flight

~ AY-TAOTOEMOSPACHME ~ And Yet – The Accumulation Of Thousands Or Even Millions Of Such Petty Acts Can Have Massive Effect

~ SC-HHNHTLO-OPO-THNPTFW-M/C/C-A-M-A-PCFB ~ Subordinate Classes – Have Historically Not Had The Luxury Of – Open Political Organization – That Has Not Prevented Them From Working – Microscopically / Cooperatively / Complicitly – And – Massively – At – Political Change From Below

~ FO-I-C/C/A-TE-MWH-ATQEOMP ~ Forms Of – Informal – Cooperation / Coordination / Action – That Embody – Mutuality Without Hierarchy – Are The Quotidian Experience Of Most People

~ LMHGBTIOJ ~ Leviathan May Have Given Birth To Its Own Justification

~ YCST-HTG-O-PASC-HBT-SOOTA-WTDMAA-YCBPSTSHGTW ~ You Could Say That – Historically The Goal – Of – Peasants And Subaltern Classes – Has Been To – Stay Out Of The Archives – When They Do Make An Appearance – You Can Be Pretty Sure That Something Has Gone Terribly Wrong

~ MOT-GPR-O-TNATW-HBABEEO-CD/R/L/TDOPO-A-ATL-CW ~ Most Of The – Great Political Reforms – Of – The Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries – Have Been Accompanied By Massive Episodes Of – Civil Disobedience / Riots / Lawbreaking / The Disruption Of Public Order – And – At The Limit – Civil War

~PTGFO-LD-ITHFTSPTVEASIOTLADTTI-TFTDPARAITDVOMEO-E-ID-IMICTTPODAT-IOPC-IWBW-A-IF-D-TCTS-L-SP-AOEGLTMSR-TMILTGR-TROCR-A-IEC-TOORD-N-IIUTMEOMRHNBIWMDATROETCANT ~ Perhaps The Greatest Failure Of – Liberal Democracies – Is Their Historical Failure To Successfully Protect The Vital Economic And Security Interests Of Their Less Advantaged Citizens Though Their Institutions – The Fact That Democratic Progress And Renewal Appear Instead To Depend Vitally On Major Episodes Of – Extra-Institutional Disorder – Is Massively In Contradiction To The Promise Of Democracy As The – Institutionalization Of Peaceful Change – It Would Be Wrong – And – In Fact – Dangerous – To Claim That Such – Large-Scale Provocations – Always Or Even Generally Lead To Major Structural Reform – They May Instead Lead To Growing Repression – The Restriction Of Civil Rights – And – In Extreme Cases – The Overthrow Of Representative Democracy – Nevertheless – It Is Undeniable That Most Episodes Of Major Reform Have Not Been Initiated Without Major Disorder And The Rush Of Elites To Contain And Normalize Them

~ OOTCOGP-I-NHTL-TATBOTHA-IG-BTTTATT ~ One Of The Characteristics Of Great Power Is – Not Having To Listen – Those At The Bottom Of The Heap Are – In General – Better Listeners Than Those At The Top

~ TM-H-P/R/F-ASOEOI-TMLIITB-POIP-TTFSDNRAWWICNCTE-FPTTFOCACAM ~ The More – Highly – Planned / Regulated / Formal – A Social Or Economic Order Is – The More Likely It Is To Be – Parasitic On Informal Processes – That The Formal Scheme Does Not Recognize And Without Which It Could Not Continue To Exist – Formal Processes That The Formal Order Cannot Alone Create And Maintain

~ TROT-M-AN-H-PM-OT-N-S-DATC=AHOVPF:SB/T/FC/LCOT/MC/E ~ The Rise Of The – Modern – And Now – Hegemonic – Political Module – Of The – Nation-State – Displaced And Then Crushed – A Host Of Vernacular Political Forms: Stateless Bands / Tribes / Free Cities / Loose Confederations Of Towns / Maroon Communities / Empires

~ OIP-TM-(N-)S-SA-HIP-AT-P-D/V-P-TEAGPOH-AHVOLAD-OMU-W-LTS-STA-SNL-OTDOTDR-TLTTDO-L/LL/M/L/WWOM-TDOSVNHBM-OWNWTSTTDOAVAAU-TRIAMDI-C/P/E-D-AMHI-L/C/PS/PF-AAA-MOSATLTST ~ Once In Place – The Modern – (Nation-) State – Set About – Homogenizing Its Population – And The – People’s – Deviant / Vernacular – Practices – This Entailed A Great Project Of Homogenization – A Huge Variety Of Languages And Dialects – Often Mutually Unintelligible – Were – Largely Through Schooling – Subordinated To A – Standardized National Language – Often The Dialect Of The Dominant Region – This Led To The Disappearance Of – Languages / Local Literatures / Music / Legends / Whole Worlds Of Meaning – The Disappearance Of Some Vernaculars Need Hardly Be Mourned – One Would Not Want To Spring To The Defense Of All Vernaculars Against All Universals – The Result Is A Massive Diminution In – Cultural / Political / Economic – Diversity – A Massive Homogenization In – Languages / Cultures / Property Systems / Political Forms – And Above All – Modes Of Sensibility And The Lifewords That Sustain Them

~ T-IAL-IF-TWPOT-T-A-MA-BTDOL-OTL-WTBDTWPITOMSTCEBL-IWDDTE-A-CK-A-TPTKCOW-TL-WPOA-D/S-W-IW-O-‘H’-CBESFA-ID-IOW-OWWMLC-T-‘S’-OTW ~ The – Industrial Assembly Line – In Fact – The Whole Point Of The – Time-And-Motion Analysis – Behind The Division Of Labor – On The Line – Was To Break Down The Work Process Into Thousands Of Minute Steps That Could Easily Be Learned – It Was Deliberately Designed To Eliminate – Artisanal-Craft Knowledge – And – The Power This Knowledge Conferred On Workers – The Line – Was Premised On A – Deskilled / Standardized – Workforce – In Which – One – “Hand” – Could Be Easily Substituted For Another – It Depended – In Other Words – On What We Might Legitimately Call – The – “Stupidification” – Of The Workforce

~ ST-IR-A-HU-AVISOTP-HB-P-A-DOLHOFTL ~ Since The – Industrial Revolution – And – Headlong Urbanization – A Vastly Increasing Share Of The Population – Has Become – Propertyless – And – Dependent On Large Hierarchical Organizations For Their Livelihood

~ AS-D-OC-SPIPW ~ Authoritarian Settings – Do – Of Course – Shape Personalities In Profound Ways

~ TDF-A-F-COTWD-A-TSOFAS-RSCP-IA-VUSA ~ The Desire For – Autonomy – For – Control Over The Working Day – And – The Sense Of Freedom And Self-Respect Such Control Provides – Is A – Vastly Underestimated Social Aspiration

~ AAFO-SP-IHT-M/T/P-I-RRAE-B-TV-C/V/M-OIA ~ Almost All Forms Of – Small Property – Is Hard To – Monitor / Tax / Police – It – Resists Regulation And Enforcement – By – The Very – Complexity / Variety / Mobility – Of Its Activities

~ OKTT-OP-OTLF-LPITPT-EOS-PR-IDS-TUSALAMIATF ~ One Key To The – Oligopoly Position – Of The Largest Firms – Lies Precisely In Their Power To – Eliminate Or Swallow – Potential Rivals – In Doing So – They Undoubtedly Stifle At Lest As Much Innovation As They Facilitate

~ A-S-DB-SAS-CCT-E-AT-POOTMOP-TAESYD ~ A – Society – Dominated By – Smallholders And Shopkeepers – Comes Closer To – Equality – And To – Popular Ownership Of The Means Of Production – Than Any Economic System Yet Devised

~ C-BA-ISDAOATN:O/N/PS-BTA-OC-C-BAIDP-IPABDITTOC:WTM-HTMI-CO-‘D’-‘A’-‘C’-HOATINV-A-HTNVAUIDM ~ Cost-Benefit Analysis – Its Success Depends Absolutely On Appearing Totally Nonpolitical: Objective / Nonpartisan / Palpably Scientific – Beneath This Appearance – Of Course – Cost-Benefit Analysis Is Deeply Political – It’s Politics Are Buried Deep In The Techniques Of Calculation: What To Measure – How To Measure It – Conventions Of – “Discounting” – And – “Commensuration” – How Observations Are Translated Into Numerical Values – And – How These Numerical Values Are Used In Decision Making

~ DAP-AMTDBTTAAB-CSWDCAPA-NSEFPV Discretion And Politics – Are Made To Disappear By Techniques That Are At Bottom – Completely Saturated With Discretionary Choices And Political Assumptions – Now Shielded Effectively From Public View

~ T-GEG-F-HF-HNBTRO-OIP-BO-D/U/S-A-COTSOFB ~ The – Great Emancipatory Gains – For – Human Freedom – Have Not Been The Result Of – Orderly Institutional Procedures – But Of – Disorderly / Unpredictable / Spontaneous – Action – Cracking Open The Social Order From Below