The internet left seems to be seduced by models that reduce doing the right thing politically to checking off boxes on a list. Do this. Don’t do that. Have you done this? Until you can be seen to have done this, you can’t… Check. Check. Most of our day-to-day experience with actual checklists, though, has less to do with doing the right thing—whatever that might mean—than with needing to obtain the right credential, with, for instance, getting authorized by the state to drive a vehicle, with being examined by medical practitioners, with being looked at and (if we’re in a relative position of power) looking at others with an evaluative eye. Checklisting, in other words, is less about politics than it is, ultimately, about policing—about who gets to inspect and regulate and authorize, all in the name of maintaining the smooth functioning of a social order. It’s a strange move to so enthusiastically adopt this form in the name of disrupting and/or transforming such an order.
yes
yes
fluidity is key
(via crankyskirt)
