Nick Axel - Transcending the Elements of Circumstance

7/29/2019 Nick Axel - Transcending the Elements of Circumstance

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RANSCENDING THE ELEMENTS O

IRCUMSTANCE

ick Axel

et us reflect on the past few years, and recall the stories we have come ntact with and have affected us the most. WikiLeaks, the Arab Spr

M, #OWS, Anonymous; just these will suffice. Some of the most hea

ublicized aspects of these specific events are the constitutive processe

eir becoming: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, hacking, public assembly,

e list goes on, ad infinitum. It is captivating to recount the story of

gyptian protestors effectively networked themselves throughout the cit

nite in protest in Tahrir Square while thwarting police effortsppression. Or, the vital role of personal media-journalism that spread

OWS movement like wildfire, West across the great plains to encomp

rtually all of American society. What else in recent memory has been a

do such a feat? To unite, to reveal a common spirit of such a diverse

parated group of people is perhaps the most important historical even

ke place in America in (at least) the past 30 years.

happened. Let's not look over this fact too quickly with dismis

marks such as "well what is it doing now?" or "what did it really chang

the end, particularly within the asymptotic curve of technolog

ployment coupled with cultural progress, what is most remarkable,

ost essential thing about all of these events is thatthey happened. Not w

ot what, not when, not where, not why, not how, but that. While I do

ean to dismiss the means by which these events were able to come istence, these tools must be critically reframed in respect to the fide

ey have already engendered, lest their critical efficacy become obsolete

en worse, subsumed.

order to tell a story now, we must reframe the means by which the stor

ow has been told thus far. So then, where are we? What is the story of

esent? We can begin in a negative manner, in relation to what was,


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hat brought us here. The #OWS movement has been crippled with

ssolution of its body; it merely exists as loose organs and flai

endages. 15M met largely the same fate. The Arab Spring, followin

ore traditional and explicit form of revolution is still in turmoil, with

ansition of Egyptian power still in flux, threatening to plunge the cou

ck into the former structure oppression. In the meantime, WikiLeaks

nonymous continue their offensive while the sentiments of Fascism harted to surface throughout Europe once again.

hile this notion itself has been haunting these social movements from t

ry inception, it is at the moment, more than ever, imperative to articu

e world we are striving for. What if the greatest obstacle we face is not

tualization of our dreams, but their enunciation? What if just by say

mething exists makes it exist? The neoliberal-consensus machine fectively engendered a universal language that embodies Orwel

ewspeak. It is revealing, the name Orwell gave this concept, "Newspe

he five (six) notions I previously mentioned, also called the "element

rcumstance" (who, what, when, where, why, and how) originated a

ncept from the Ancient Greeks, and was adopted in modern times a

urnalistic and police formula for proper investigative reporting

formation extraction1.

he horizons for speech have been retarded. As what often occured w

rticipants were asked about the 15M and #OWS movements, t

uestions were met with silence. The events which took place transcen

is basic epistemological framework, revealing it as the limit of

nguage and our understanding. But you can easily ask any person

rticipated in these events: the inability to communicate it in no way mothing was understood, or nothing was said2. A new form of con

merged, a new metric of value, which subsequently demands no

chniques of its representation and communication.

his fidelity of a possible future engenders an ethical responsibility

ntinue its progression and development3. For this future to cont

coming, we should focus not on the technique, not the representati


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pacities of specific tools that revealed its spirit, but the content that ca

fectively communicated with whatever tool. It is not that the way sto

e told should be ignored, but the fact that stories can and are being

ould be venerated to the highest degree. This is the goal, this is wha

eded. It is not just to expect a clear statement of intent when the

nfronts and surpasses the limits of our epistemology. Only by tel

ories can we truly discover the potentials of its communicative deviut more importantly, the spirit of what is being told.

Everything you can imagine is real"- Pablo Picasso

1. See the historical development of the "Five W

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Ws ^

2. The incapacity of speech is the representative element of an abso

truth. See Slavoj Zizek inLess than Nothing: Hegel and the Shado

Dialectical Materialism and Giorgio Agamben in Remnants

Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive. ^

3. The event as the creation of fidely is that which engenders

possibility of an ethical realm. See Alain Badiou inEthics, an Essaythe Understanding of Evil. ^

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Nick Axel - Transcending the Elements of Circumstance