Resistance and Biopower: Shame, Cynicism, and Struggle in the Era of Neoliberalism and the Alt-Right

Abstract:This essay examines the relation between neoliberalism and the alt-right, showing that their shared cynical amoralism elevates irresponsibility to the level of absolute morality, such that the Democrats’ exhortation to shame proves counterproductive. The alt-right’s outrage-inducing effect on the Democrats is due to its double relation to biopower: insofar as biopower governs the society of shameless jouissance, the alt-right conforms to the biopolitical rules and flaunts its own modes of jouissance; but insofar as biopower must hide its political nature, the alt-right breaks the rules by revealing biopower’s hidden (sovereign) underside. This raises the question of whether resistance should operate according to the rules of overt or covert sovereignty.