The Cambridge Analytica Scandal, part 2: biopower

In Part 1 of this two-part series, I looked at the Cambridge Analytica ‘scandal’, seeing how a corporation with knowledge of a population’s ‘hobby-horses’, could steer, with targeted social media posts, enough people to get the vote they wanted. I argued that the ‘scandal’ was not, as was presented by some, about Facebook stealing our data. I suggested it is about what Michel Foucault called ‘biopower’. In part 2, I explain what that means and then go on about the smoking ban a bit.

This Changes Not Very Much: Reflections on the state reaction to the Paris murders

“To all those who have seen these awful things, I want to say we are going to lead a war which will be pitiless.” said Francois Hollande after the murders in Paris on November 13^th.[1] It sounded dramatic and the impression we were given by sensational headlines and news reports was (to misappropriate Naomi Klein) ‘this changes everything’. Angela Merkel, Queen Elizabeth II, David Cameron, the Dutch foreign minister and the NATO secretary general were all among those who said they were ‘shocked’ by the murders.[2] Yet, if we look at what Cameron said three days later at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet[3] [insert joke about pigs, snouts and troughs], we see something more real to the facts: “The more we learn about what happened in Paris the more it justifies the approach that we are taking in Britain.” We see that the PM does not see UK’s response as a change in direction but a ‘redoubling’ of efforts for an ‘approach’ Britain was already perusing.

Reflections on the Election (2015)

“Middle England Rises Up and Saves Britain from Red Ed”

declared the Daily Mail on the morning of the Conservative’s election victory. I disagree. Unfortunately, the Tories’ meagre victory was more about a failure to rise up. The mass of disenfranchised, exploited, oppressed, intelligent, humane people, the whole badly served public failed once again to rise up. Neglecting to seize power for ourselves, we allowed the corrupt fill-your-own-elitist-pockets to triumph while the dreadful morality of Middle England droned and whined its nasal victory songs.