Meaning, Truth, Emancipation: From Inflation to Subtraction
摘要
We live at a time of the unleashing of inflation in all different registers. This indicates that inflation is an integral part of capitalism in the entirety of its spatiotemporal growth and, as such, must be analyzed in both economic and non-economic contexts. Although economic inflation is the first thing that comes to mind, it is inflation in the register of language that problematizes the difference between meaning and truth. Since meaning tends to be ensnared in the circular movement of overproduction (as in the overproduction of words, signs, and doxa in the era of social media), it is prone to compulsive repetition and devaluation. Truths, however, disrupt the logic of meaning or knowledge driven by accumulation and inflation, denoting dis-accumulation and subtraction (disinflation or deflation). Drawing on philosophy and psychoanalytic theory, this chapter first reflects on this difference and its link to political and libidinal economies. It then explores the possibility of interrupting inflationary modalities through the subtractive / deflationary capacity of radical politics.