Dismantling progress extends to language itself, not just physical structures

Evidence

Purdy’s recommendation echoes Mierle Ukeles when she insists in her “Manifesto for Maintenance Art:” “my work is the work.” If we take this to heart, it suggests that we dismantle not only structures of exploitation and destruction, but the very language with which we conceive of progress. It asks us to stop, turn around, and then get to work. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 656

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines manifest dismantling as operating on the very language of progress, not merely on institutions.
• SEED: The ‘stop, turn around, and then get to work’ reframing is the exact ammunition for the essay defending Odell against the retreat/withdrawal misreading.
• XREF: connects to: Language itself has become a site where reified theory falsifies lived experience — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1100; A language can achieve enduring fixity through rapid self-change — Édouard Glissant, Poetics of Relation, 513; Language extinction is driven by power’s consensus between profits and controls — Édouard Glissant, Poetics of Relation, 501 (+2 more)