The Violence of Care: A critical study of bureaucratic power

Matthew Stanley

Power works differently today – instead of outward displays of violence, the sovereign exercises their power invisibly through a vast network of institutions, regulations, and processes. No longer do the people demand a just ruler, more just laws, or fairer punishments, but now the population cries out for the provision of life itself – we wish to receive safety, health, and services.

Running through the 20th century we find a subterranean lineage of critique which unmasks how power operates today through bureaucracy and the exercise of care. This “sociology from below” includes heterodox thinkers from both the Left and the Right — Michel Foucault, Ivan Illich, James Burnham, James C. Scott, David Graeber, Christopher Lasch, and others. What these theorists all share is the task of thinking free and autonomous human activity in the context of our society increasingly dominated by scientific management theories, experts, and the social effects of bureaucratic control.

How do we make sense of the massive system of bureaucratic institutions which structure modern society, diffusing power through a network of machines, bureaucrats, and policies, even to the point of infiltrating our own subjectivity? How does this technology of bureaucracy really work, and what role do humans play in its ongoing function? Further, what is the ultimate telos of this system which turns life into information in order to manage it and put it at stake politically? Together we will attempt to think new and alternative human organizations which diverge from the modern drive towards a vision of flourishing built on expert care and infinite optimization.

(Weekly schedule availaable at the Incite Seminars website)

Facilitator: Matthew Stanley

Matthew is an independent researcher who writes about the intersections of philosophy, religion, and psychoanalysis at Samsara Diagnostics. You can read his occasional forays into political and social theory at his Substack. Matthew takes the theory and practice of human freedom as the guiding problem and theme of his work. He has published on Heidegger and the Kyoto School, Hegel, and most recently, a book about Shusaku Endo’s novel Silence. His career has consisted of leading implementation initiatives for software startups, but he has also enjoyed serving on the board of the Sacramento Psychoanalytic Society.