Henry A. Giroux - The Terror of the Unforeseen

Praise for The Terror of the Unforeseen

Henry Giroux, a brilliant and revolutionary thinker, helps us understand why we must refuse to equate capitalism and democracy, or to normalize greed or accept individualism as the highest form of human life. In this exciting new take on social reality, Giroux describes how the neoliberalism that has for the past 40 years has been paving a path to fascism that will have a distinctively contemporary flavor, yet will be just as destructive as fascisms of the past. Filled with passion and insight, The Terror of the Unforeseen is a book that should be read by anyone who wants to understand and prepare for the dangers and opportunities of political struggle in the 2020s.

Rabbi Michael Lerner, Editor of Tikkun Magazine
and author of Revolutionary Love

Henry Giroux has, for decades, combined passion and intellect to map out the often terrifying directions of US politics and economics, while recognizing, as too few on the left have, that culture matters. Refusing to give in to despair, The Terror of the Unforeseen argues that education is the necessary cornerstone of any democratic political struggle. It demonstrates, once again, why Giroux is one of the most important public intellectuals in the United States.

Lawrence Grossberg, Morris Davis Distinguished Professor
at UNC Chapel Hill

Henry Girouxs The Terror of the Unforeseen provides an urgent warning in response to Donald Trumps collapsing of language, showing us an alternative path through his own thoughtful, compassionate, sincere, and sophisticated writing.

Nick Pemberton

The Terror of the unforeseen

Henry A. Giroux

LARB PROVOCATIONS

This is a LARB Provocations publication

Published by The Los Angeles Review of Books

6671 Sunset Blvd., Suite 1521, Los Angeles, CA 90028

www.larbbooks.org

Copyright Henry A. Giroux, 2019.

Introduction Copyright Julian Casablancas, 2019.

All rights reserved.

Cover Artwork: Lanpinjarvi Finland by Isaac Cordal, copyright Isaac Cordal. Courtesy of Isaac Cordal.

ISBN 978-1-940660-49-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018965700

Contents

The Terror of the Unforeseen

I. The Unforeseen in the Era of Fear

II. Landscapes of Terror and Struggle

For Rania
For Tony Penna, Donaldo Macedo, Jasmin Habib, Ray Seliwoniuk, friends to the end

Introduction

Julian Casablancas

When I speak about politics, Im not speaking as a musician; Im speaking as a citizen of a country imperiled. And because Henry so kindly and humbly handed me the microphone.

Since the dawn of modern civilization the influence of wealth on power has been a relentless, often brutal, force. It might shape-shift through the eras, but the phenomenon has regenerated itself countless times. Whether it manifests through sheer military might or elaborate fraud and subterfuge, it is ever-present, ever-toxic, and ultra-persistent.

The wealthy dont need to hire armies to maintain their oppressive schemes anymore they bribe politicians and control media elements instead. There is no system of oversight by independent bodies that can be trusted to maintain public welfare or truth as their priority. The internet is now the worlds largest subduction zone of myth. Weaponized media is the new propaganda, essentially an evolution of the medieval model of affluence and oppression.

The elusiveness of truth is a central problem facing democracy as we now know it. Thats why reading and celebrating people like Henry Giroux, who have dedicated themselves to uncovering and teaching the truth, is so important.

In this moving and passionate book, Henry revives a spirit we can find in the great abolitionist Fredrick Douglasss words: It is not the light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed. Henry eloquently describes an economic system that has produced massive inequities in wealth and power, undermining the very notion of justice, equality, and democracy itself.

I wish to offer a rallying cry for the separation of wealth and state, while lovingly confining capitalism to the private sector, as opposed to having a for-profit government, and various other for-profit political vehicles. Of course, not all business activity is bad. But as many folks are finally beginning to realize, the corporate worlds indifferent attitude to the suffering it creates not to mention their control over policy will likely end up trashing earth. The divisive jargon and disinformation in support of neoliberal ideals is all political distraction, a basic con laid out by billionaires for one dumb reason: so that they can pay no taxes.

The word for this clean-cut attitude of modern pillaging is neoliberalism. This savage word is one that Henry uses a whole lot. It sounds so sophisticated, civilized, and reasonable: the free market is to be left alone to do its thing. Sounds positive, right?

But the fatal flaw of unchecked free markets and privatization is that the private sector doesnt care if people die. The private sector doesnt care if people suffer, or even if they are themselves the cause of the suffering.

Capitalism can work (the night is young!), but it must be more in balance with other important human values. Values like truth. Values like freedom while respecting the freedom of others. The value of human happiness over harming people to make a buck.

In an ideal civilized world, companies and people would be incentivized to not hurt people. Currently, its the other way around. Instead of using research to stop deadly behavior we use it to minimize costs. To evolve past medieval cultural values, we have to require that business succeeds without causing horrific suffering.

Our system motivates and rewards this behavior. It perpetuates greed as our only clear value. Corporations will never change the system and relinquish their power; it is the system that must change. Thats why, for the good of everyone, we need to lovingly return real power to the people.

Henry Girouxs work, The Terror of the Unforeseen , is perhaps his most painfully relevant work yet, is a brilliant condemnation of the most oppressive force of this modern era: propaganda. It is a clarion call for citizens who seek truth in the face of disinformation and oppression.

Julian Casablancas

2019

The Terror of the Unforeseen

I. The Unforeseen in the Era of Fear

Chapter 1

The Ghost of Fascism in the Age of Trump

The murdered are [now] cheated out of the single remaining thing that our powerlessness can offer them: remembrance.

Theodor Adorno

In the age of Trump , history neither informs the present nor haunts it with repressed memories of the past. It simply disappears. This is especially troubling when the toxic passions of the fascist past seem to re-emerge in an unceasing stream of racism, demonizing insults, lies, and militarized rhetoric, serving as emotional appeals that are endlessly circulated and reproduced at the highest levels of government and the media. Power, culture, politics, finance, and everyday life have merged in unprecedented ways and pose a threat to democracies all over the world. In the current historical moment, the new mix of old media and new digitally driven systems of production and consumption produce, shape, and sustain desires and modes of agency with extraordinary power and influence. Take, for instance, robot-generated lies and misrepresentations, the endless charges of fake news aimed at traditional media sources critical of the White House, the growing debasement of evidence and facts in a post-truth world, the power of the digital media in spreading viral hoaxes, toxic partisan politics, and misinformation, and the utilization of all of these via Facebook to erode the informational underpinnings of democracy.