Networks are how power operates, not how it gets dissolved

Evidence

Since the right is now prepared to talk in these terms, it is clear that networks and open systems are not enough in themselves to save us. Rather, as Gilles Deleuze argued in his crucial essay “Postscript on the Societies of Control”, networks are simply the mode in which power operates in the “control” societies that have superseded the old “disciplinary” structures. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1583

Categorization

• DEFINE: States Fisher’s/Deleuze’s counterintuitive reading that networks serve control societies rather than liberating people from hierarchy.
• XREF: connects to: Power circulates through networks rather than being possessed by rulers — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 47; Disciplinary power is a network function, not a possessed property — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 273; Power operates through indirect communication, not direct action — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 604 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Power circulates through networks rather than being possessed by rulers #corroborates (0.95) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 47
• Disciplinary power is a network function, not a possessed property #corroborates (0.90) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 273
• Power operates through indirect communication, not direct action #expands (0.75) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 604
• Power operates as a communication medium of conditional alternative-pairs, not raw force #expands (0.75) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 624
• Media are neither state-controlled nor autonomous but oriented within power structures #corroborates (0.72)
• Organizational decentralization reduces power to mere veto power that informal networks then compensate for. #qualifies (0.72)
• Reintroducing context does not necessarily align a network with physical place. #expands (0.70) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 582