November 14th, 2024 at 3:30pm
The University of Colorado-Denver's Philosophy Department has invited Dr. Geoff Pfeifer from Worcester Polytechnic Institute to present to our community. He will be discussing his research in a presentation titled, "Deleuze, Spinoza, the Sad Passions, and the Precarious Joy of Anti-Fascism" in Student Commons, room ACAD- 2600.
Abstract: Wendy Brown has recently argued that the ascendent right’s aggrieved politics of resentment and its seemly joyful expressions of delight in disregarding issues like climate change, and attacking various groups like immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, and anyone else with whom they disagree bottoms out in a kind of nihilistic ‘authoritarian freedom’ that emerges out of decades of neoliberal governance. I do not think Brown is totally wrong here- but in this talk I do want to say more about these aggrieved politics and to think about the freedom and affective ‘delight’ Brown attributes to its actions. I argue that this not driven as much by nihilism as it is by something else. This is where Deleuze and Guattari can be helpful. Their reading of Spinoza can help us understand right wing affective “delight” as in Spinozist parlance, “Passive joy.” Such passive joy, is rather an expression of a deep lack of freedom. Actual joyful freedom is both ‘active’ and consummately anti-fascist. Such joy however, is precarious, difficult to come by and sustain, but must continue to be the orienting principle of those who wish to counter the right’s claims to the idea of freedom.
Refreshments and conversation will follow the event.