“The result of the normalization of precarization, however, is certainly not that we are currently living in an insecurity society; we still live in a security society, but it is one that has become governable through precarization. The state is not withdrawing from all formerly fundamental institutions of safeguarding. In neoliberalism, however, safeguarding no longer needs the extent of liberal welfare-state techniques of protection. Instead the state increasingly limits itself to discourses and practices of police and military safeguarding, which in turn increasingly operate with disciplinary control and surveillance techniques.” – The Precarious Minimum
control society
“If she crosses state lines it will emit a continuous beep and deliver a message telling her to turn back to her allowed zone” – Immigrant Mothers Released From Holding Centers, but With Ankle Monitors
“I get criticized about: ‘What are you going after graffiti for? We’ve got kids killing each other.’ ” Mr. Bratton said. “It’s just this sense of, in public spaces, who’s in control?” – Bratton Still Sees Challenges in a New York He Made Safer
“To make sense of the surveillance states that we live in, we need to do better than allegories and thought experiments, especially those that derive from a very different system of control. We need to consider how the power of surveillance is being imagined and used, right now, by governments and corporations.” – What tear gas taught me about Twitter and the NSA
“The Panopticon is a thought experiment: a model prison meant to control a society of prisoners. But we are not prisoners. We are not shackled in cells, with no rights and no say in governance.
In our world, pleasure is not banned; it is encouraged and celebrated, albeit subsumed under the banner of consumption. Most of us do not live in fear of the state as we go about our daily lives. (There are notable exceptions: for example, poor communities of color and immigrants who suffer under “stop-and-frisk” and “show your papers” laws.)” – What tear gas taught me about Twitter and the NSA