New Criticals


PRISM, particularly for white Americans, is a "non-violent" transgression of the already problematic public/private digital space. Again, we are doing nothing wrong, we have nothing to hide. The inconvenience is terrifically minor. We are upset, but abstractly. It is a luxury to consent to surveillance (ideologically, rhetorically) because, illusory or not, it's an action that emerges from our autonomous operation. The luxury to allow our already luxury technologies to be searched and monitored and archived; the luxury to choose our violations, even consent to them. Does the blame lie with the government, the State? Or will the privileged (white) targets identify another culprit that resides at the heart of informated late capitalism itself, in the technology sector that has effectively taken our data choices out of our hands at ever turn? In order to participate (though total refusal is a fantasy) it's always: "I Agree".