Power conceals itself through intense effort, not through passivity

Evidence

Where is the subject that holds power? Against a background of neoliberalism and postmodernity, that question has become obsessive. Adorno’s words indicate a good way to resolve it: it is wherever it is working actively in order to make itself forgotten. The intense activity designed to efface it is what unfailingly singles it out: a great deal of subjective activity, involving huge efforts and enormous energy, designed to cover one’s tracks, efface evidence, and wipe out any trace of a subject involved in action. The aim is to dress all this up as purely methodical functioning, a kind of natural phenomenon endowed with a similar kind of necessity, headed only by administrative systems that from time to time correct bugs, bring things up to date, and regulate access to information. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 651

Categorization

• XREF: Ties into the reader’s interest in impunity for imperial combatants — power erases its own agency as a deliberate project. — connects to: Power identifies itself by the effort spent effacing itself.; Endless theorizing of power can empty power of real meaning; The fundamental form of power is defining reality — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 387 (+9 more)

Related

• Power identifies itself by the effort spent effacing itself. (similarity 0.94)
• Mass passivity enables a power structure whose illusion resists objective unmasking. (similarity 0.81)
• Power grows stronger the less visible it is (similarity 0.79)
• Power legitimates itself through a closed cycle of efficiency and verification. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Power operates partly through perception rather than explicit verbal communication #expands (0.80)
• Endless theorizing of power can empty power of real meaning #complicates (0.40)
• Excessive theorizing can empty power of its material exercise #complicates (0.40)
• The fundamental form of power is defining reality #qualifies (0.35) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 387