In other wor(l)ds
To begin with a lengthy but useful passage, Paul Virilio writes:
“Displacement is not neutral; as with all movement, each displacement […] engages a specific speed, and this speed affects the representation under consideration […]. Measurement is thus displacement. One not only displaces oneself, in order to take the measure, but one also displaces the territory in its representation.” (54-56)
Therefore, measurement—whether through statistics, language, description, conceptual thinking, cartography, etc.—in a single motion both captures and changes the world. In other words, apprehending the world continually makes and remakes the world. As per Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, as described earlier, concepts do not merely describe the world but reimagine it and allow it to take new forms (What Is Philosophy? 16). To conclude this course’s extended engagement with ecological thought, climate catastrophe, and anthropocentrism, we must find ways to turn these concepts into weapons which both destroy the world as we know it and rebuild it in the image of equity, sustainability, and interdependence. Brian Massumi’s foreword to A Thousand Plateaus reiterates this point: “A concept is a brick. It can be used to build the courthouse of reason. Or it can be thrown through the window” (xi). Many windows need to be broken so new mosaics can be reassembled from the shards.
One actionable proposition is through the deployment of “in other wor(l)ds,” a phrase which understands that every summarisation of an idea is also a reimagining of what that idea could do for us. No re-articulation is neutral. Every time an idea is redescribed it allows for the possibility of change. Whenever you instinctively write or say “in other words,” think about what it would mean to instead write “in other worlds.” This reminds us how the concepts we deploy now will lay the groundwork for possible futures, and reimagining already existing ideas to serve future needs is a simple place to start. This certainly has some similarities to Guy Debord’s notion of détournement: a productive plagiaristic misappropriation. However, in other wor(l)ds recognises that every invocation or re-description of past ideas is always a form of displacement. Every idea plagiarises and détournes, even if it is imperceptible. The goal is to weaponise this already existing, ongoing process and become aware of its transformative powers.
This idea arose alongside Guattari’s conception of “virtual ecologies” (88-97) which describes how our connection to the multitude of potential futures operates ecologically. Similar to how every aspect of the currently existing world is deeply interconnected to every other aspect, virtual ecology shows us that our current world is similarly interconnected to all possible future worlds. These potentialities are existent and real but not yet actualised. Every re-description of an idea and every deployment of in other wor(l)ds opens access to new possibilities.
In the face of systematic subjugation via global capitalism and climate catastrophe due to myopic anthropocentrism, new potential worlds are the only inhabitable realms left.
works cited
Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. What Is Philosophy?. Columbia University Press, 2014.
Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus. Translated by Brian Massumi. Bloomsbury, 2013.
Guattari, Félix. Chaosmosis: an Ethico-Aesthetic Paradigm. Power Publications, 1995.
Virilio, Paul. The Lost Dimension. Semiotext(e), 1991.