{"id":244,"date":"2019-05-20T16:15:11","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T16:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.c21uwm.com\/tennessenscholars\/?p=244"},"modified":"2019-05-22T14:16:20","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T14:16:20","slug":"on-solidarity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.c21uwm.com\/tennessenscholars\/on-solidarity\/","title":{"rendered":"On Solidarity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Mark Neocleous delivering his keynote talk, “Security’s Insecurities,” at the Center for 21st Century Studies.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is something powerful about\nbeginning a conference centered on the concept of insecurity with a\nland acknowledgement<\/a>. A relatively new tradition of the Center for 21st<\/sup>\nCentury Studies, it is a welcome start to what will be a regaling talk on the\norigins of security culture not as something laudable, but as insidious,\nfoolhardy and inherently productive of insecurity. Beginning the three-day\nconference with a stark reminder of the insecurity embedded in America\u2019s past\ntreatment of indigenous peoples, C21 Director Richard Grusin prefaces Mark\nNeocleous\u2019 keynote, and the entire conference, with a reminder that the concept\nof insecurity<\/em> is more capacious than\nits close relative precarity<\/em>.\nSimultaneously, it stands as a challenge to the utopian notion of resilience<\/em>, which often presumes trauma\nand shock are natural states of being. Ultimately, the proposed concept of\ninsecurity promises room for a novel interdisciplinary approach to\nunderstanding the shifting landscapes upon which our societies are built, and\nNeocleous\u2019 keynote is evidence of that promise. As the next hour and a half of\nthe opening keynote unfolds, I am pushed to consider how the very guardians of\nour security often contribute to our insecurity to further their own aims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Neocleous\nbegins his aptly named \u201cSecurity\u2019s Insecurities\u201d keynote with a lesson on the\netymology of the word \u201csecurity.\u201d At present, the term security implies\nsomething positive: safety, protection, or perhaps even control over the\nindeterminacies of the world. It originated, however, as a term with primarily\nnegative implications. Indeed, throughout early Christianity the term security\nis a pejorative. Based on an idea of removing worry, of being without care,\nsecurity in its early uses was a largely internal feeling of stability or\npeace. . The internal nature of security is further evidenced in its use by\nCicero, the term\u2019s progenitor, who frequently used a similar word, salvus<\/em>, when speaking of safety and\nfreedom from harm. In a sense, Neocleous argues, security as originally\nimagined in this period is not safety but rather a sort of carelessness and\naccordingly the parent of negligence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Through a masterful close reading of the 14th century fresco, \u201cThe Allegory of Good and Bad Government\u201d painted by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in Siena<\/a>, Neocleous argues that Securitas, the angelic female overseer of \u201cgood government town\u201d in the fresco, draws her power from fear of death. Depicted holding the gallows in one hand, she punishes the guilty and in so doing \u201csecures\u201d the town. This depiction, one of security rooted in fear, captures how the concept of security shifts from the 14th<\/sup> century onward. It becomes one of prevention and of power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Having\nmade a compelling etymological case for why the term security is in fact rooted\nin death and negativity, Neocleous then continues his keynote by asking and\nanswering the question, \u201cWhere, then, is insecurity?\u201d Far from the opposite of\nsecurity, he suggests that the two actually work in concert with one another.\nSecurity industries and complexes create insecurity so as to further their own\npower. The systems created to purportedly support \u201csecurity\u201d: the state, the\nmilitary, the police, borders, and so on exist not to ensure safety but to\nenact surveillance. In doing so, they produce insecure subjects. The border\nexists because the state must exist. The state must exist to create national\nsubjects who in turn rely on the state and the figures of power behind it. In\nthis and other enactments, the question of death is buried beneath the\nperformance of security and while we may feel free from care, we are far from\nsafe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Neocleous\u2019 argument is fascinating and his suggestion that concepts such as \u201cfood security\u201d and \u201chealth security\u201d often serve only to obfuscate the contradiction at the heart of the security apparatus is bitingly poignant. Yet it is his response to a question posed during his Q&A that remains with me through the next few days of the conference and will likely remain with me longer still. Demurely, and with what sounded like a touch of fear, an audience member asks the simple question, \u201cWhat is the opposite of insecurity, if not security?\u201d to which Neocleous responds, \u201cSolidarity.\u201d Deeply resonant with my own research interests and even the talk I am slated to give at the conference, the idea that we are likely to find safety not in systems of security, but rather in community is a powerful one. Solidarity, not security, may stand a chance to stave off the insecurity that surrounds us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Josh Rivers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Josh Rivers discusses how the systems created to purportedly support \u201csecurity\u201d: the state, the military, the police, borders, and so on exist not to ensure safety but to enact surveillance. In doing so, they produce insecure subjects. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-josh-rivers","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.c21uwm.com\/tennessenscholars\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Insecurity-13.jpg?fit=5184%2C3456&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pag9B1-3W","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.c21uwm.com\/tennessenscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.c21uwm.com\/tennessenscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.c21uwm.com\/tennessenscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.c21uwm.com\/tennessenscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.c21uwm.com\/tennessenscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.c21uwm.com\/tennessenscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249,"href":"https:\/\/www.c21uwm.com\/tennessenscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244\/revisions\/249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.c21uwm.com\/tennessenscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.c21uwm.com\/tennessenscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.c21uwm.com\/tennessenscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.c21uwm.com\/tennessenscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}