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August 31, 2005
Zero-institution
Anthropologist, Claude Lévi-Strauss made an important inference based on stories collected by Paul Radin among the Winnebago (Ho-Chunk), a First Nations tribe. A village was divided into two moieties, exogamous social groups within a community that include more than one clan. Members from each moiety were asked to make a drawing of their village. Rather than drawing a literal, plan drawing of their houses, people drew one of two distinct representations of their village. People from one moiety drew their houses organized into two concentric circles, one closer to the village centre and the other further away. People from the other moiety drew the village as circle with a single line bisecting the community.
How to make sense of these two distinct ways of representing the same community? In his paper "Do dual organizations exist?", Lévi-Strauss argues against the idea that either representation is more true or accurate than the other in comparison with a literal drawing of the village groundplan. He further argues against a cultural relativist position in which both representations would be considered equally true or that truth was dependent on the perspective of the person making the drawing. Rather, the two different stories about the village implied by the two different drawings both rely on a third, shared understanding that is never represented. While neither group agreed with the other's representation of social organization in the village, in fact producing mutually exclusive visions of how the community was organized, both groups agreed that the village community could be represented as a whole. While people disagreed about the structure of their community they shared a more important agreement that these two groups belonged to the same community. Lévi-Strauss describes this shared, unspoken common understanding as a "zero-institution". This is a kind of institution which, unlike an exogomous marriage relationship or traditional clan structure, is so taken for granted that it is generally represented only by inference through the social divisions of which it is composed.
Slavoj iek takes up Lévi-Strauss' argument as an illustrative example in a number of his published works (including this Matrix article). He elaborates on the anthropologist's observation by pointing out that where tradition and kinship have been superseded by modernity "the nation" (or I would say more importantly "the state") takes on the role of a zero-institution. "Liberals" and "conservatives" may have opposing, or even mutually exclusive, understandings about social organization but both groups agree they belong to a larger community that binds them together regardless of conflict and difference. In fact, from a structuralist point of view, our taken-for-granted shared community is built from the articulation of these conflicts.
This is all a somewhat roundabout way of pointing out how fundamental are our taken for granted ideas about the reality of those zero-institutions upon which we rely not only to make sense of our communities but as the binding assumptions that such communities exist at all. When fervent anti-globalization demonstrators burn the flag or brain-washed islamist dupes blow themselves to bits on the London Underground they may believe they are fighting the good fight against imperialism, the Devil or the Man. But no matter their political aims they share a belief, indeed they reinforce a belief, in the existence of an unspoken shared community of which their opposition is a part. Were it not for the outward expression of our belief in our taken for granted shared community, be it membership in the Turtle Clan or the ideological appeal of a beer commercial, we would be left with a Hobbesian war of all against all.
From all appearances, it is this latter catastrophe which faces people in much of the Gulf coast region of the United States. I have no idea what the true scope of the challenge faced by individuals, families or communities destroyed by the hurricane and its aftermath. I can only infer from problematical news reports what actions are being taken by the civil power. But to me images of looting are more troublesome than the worst horrors of bodies pulled from the wreckage of a skyscraper or a subway train. The sacrifice of a son in war, the heroism of firefighters or even the tragic mistakes of the police may seem like subjects over which our civilization is fought but they are in fact the arguments from which our civilization is built. What we glimpse in stories of families fleeing for their lives in neighbourhoods lost to barbarism is the spectre of anarchy.
It is time to start shooting looters.
Posted by Ghost of a flea at August 31, 2005 08:41 AM
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Comments
Surely not the person who takes a bottle of water, though, or food for the child where there is no mechanism to get clean water or safe food. Or the lady I saw coming out of a store with only two or three packs of diapers - a product that the waters will destroy. There is natural right, too, as well as criminal law even in the Hobbsean world that these people may face until evacuated. So arrest them all - I am fine with that - and feed them all and jail the ones with cars filled with stereo equipment and make examples of them.
Interesting to note that two LA parishes asked for martial law to be imposed but the state's constitution barred it. This is when the wisdom of the calm thought of the past shows its strength.
Posted by: Alan McLeod ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.ghostofaflea.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at August 31, 2005 11:45 AM
Alan, you once again demonstrate a distressing capacity to assume that neither me nor the police are capable of making the same distinctions based on wisdom and common sense that you do. People are not in flight from mothers looting diapers. While it would be nice to "arrest them all" I am not certain how you propose this be done when it is transparent that the authorities are thus far incapable of finding everyone who has been swept up in the storm let alone rescuing them, feeding them and housing them. Perhaps you can lend the authorities your magic wand along with your pious and insulting pronoucements. Otherwise we must either rely on the Draconian measure I propose, one which too is grounded in tradition and necessity, or cede the streets to riot. In the meantime, looters are not only making off with perishables and diapers, or even jewelry and television sets, but with food and supplies the community as a whole may need to distribute in the days and weeks to come.
As a side point, my post says nothing about martial law. In fact, under Canada's constitution there is no provision whatsoever for martial law because there is no context in which the civil authorities can relinquish their power to the military. This same legal understanding may be reflected in the cases you mention but this wisdom has nothing whatsoever to do with the necessity of asserting the civil power in the face of rapine and pillaging.
Posted by: Ghost of a flea at August 31, 2005 11:51 AM
I was actually being done yesterday and the police were making that distinction without shooting. There were rounding up people in boats and guarding them on the interstate - a makeshift detention centre that servec the civic purpose. Add SWAT teams and national guard on corners as they did last night and there is no riot.
I cannot but point out the implicit need for a martial law declaration if we were to follow through with your recommendation - as there is no reason otherwise to shoot a looter in law. This is especially the case when they can be treated as sensibly and civilly as has happened in New Orleans.
Posted by: Alan McLeod at August 31, 2005 12:19 PM
Only at the Flea can one find an entry starting with Levi-Strauss & Zizek and ending with a call to shoot looters!!
Posted by: Varenius at August 31, 2005 01:39 PM
Alan: You appear to be confused about the term "martial law", an expression that has different specific meanings in different specific contexts. As I have pointed out, no such condition exists in Canadian law and yet under certain conditions peace officers are not only empowered but obligated to use deadly force. This is certainly the case under the curfew in New Orleans or, should it prove necessary, the provisions for limited martial law that exist in the United States (see Ex Parte Milligan, 1866). But by all means continue judging the police services and public policy on the basis of Les Miserables if you wish. I can only hope your decision making is limited to the next terror attack on Kingston rather than being imposed on those of us in downtown Toronto who are rather more likely to have to live with your result of this sort of nail biting anxiety for the fate of those who feel no obligation to their fellow citizens, the law or simple compassion.
Varenius: That's why I make the big bucks.
Posted by: Ghost of a flea at August 31, 2005 04:22 PM
Alan: Though I should say I am glad somebody is paying attention. I thought my calls for hanging would get the wind up some folk but it was as a pond on a summer day with no breeze. I am not certain what to demand after hanging and shooting but I imagine I will come up with something.
Posted by: Ghost of a flea at August 31, 2005 04:28 PM
You do seem rather bloodthirsty these days, Nick. But then, Desperate times call for desperate measures.....
Posted by: Dr_Funk at September 1, 2005 03:05 AM
We have a rich and interesting relationship, Maestro F., so you just remember that you being there making me think "can this be?" over porridge and tea is elemental. These are bleak times. I am a dreamy optimist and perhaps fear less having used up mine worrying in my teens when the world would be glazed.
Posted by: Alan McLeod at September 1, 2005 07:36 AM
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