Control societies govern by indefinite postponement and internalized policing

Evidence

The two remaining options, then, are (1) ‘Ostensible acquittal’, in which the accused is to all and intents and purposes acquitted, but may later, at some unspecified time, face the charges in full, or (2) ‘Indefinite postponement’, in which the accused engages in (what they hope is an infinitely) protracted process of legal wrangling, so that the dreaded ultimate judgment is unlikely to be forthcoming. Deleuze observes that the Control societies delineated by Kafka himself, but also by Foucault and Burroughs, operate using indefinite postponement: Education as a lifelong process… Training that persists for as long as your working life continues… Work you take home with you… Working from home, homing from work. A consequence of this ‘indefinite’ mode of power is that external surveillance is succeeded by internal policing. Control only works if you are complicit with it. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 48

Categorization

• XREF: Directly glosses Deleuze’s ‘Postscript on Societies of Control’ via Kafka — a useful bridge when returning to Deleuze or Foucault on discipline vs. control. — connects to: Control societies operate through indefinite postponement rather than final judgment — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 48; Control societies replace external surveillance with internalized self-policing — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 48; Surveillance controls populations chiefly through internalized self-policing — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 44 (+5 more)
• FICTION: Kafka’s two-acquittal typology is a genuinely suggestive narrative device — slow-burn threats vs. endless procedural deferral could drive a story’s tension machinery.

Broader Connections

• Control societies operate through indefinite postponement rather than final judgment #corroborates (1.00) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 48
• Control societies replace external surveillance with internalized self-policing #corroborates (1.00) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 48
• Control shifts from external surveillance to a deterrence system internalized as the self. #corroborates (0.95) — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 108
• Surveillance controls populations chiefly through internalized self-policing #corroborates (0.92) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 44
• Control societies replace external surveillance with self-policing but require the subject’s complicity. #expands (0.92) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 48
• Control by feedback has replaced centralized external power in late capitalism #expands (0.85) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 99
• Civil society depends on internal self-sanction, not external surveillance, for order #corroborates (0.80) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 70
• Functional civil societies depend on self-governance rather than fear and surveillance #complicates (0.72) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 70