Liberalism and Human Suffering: Materialist Reflections on Politics, Ethics, and Aesthetics

245 Pages·2010·1.5 MB·English

by  Asma Abbas (auth.)

Liberalism and Human Suffering
Liberalism and Human Suffering
Materialist Reflections on
Politics, Ethics, and Aesthetics
Asma Abbas
Palgrave
macmillan
LIBERALISM AND HUMAN SUFFERING
Copyright © Asma Abbas, 2010.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-10445-7
All rights reserved.
First published in 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United
States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York,
NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe, and the rest of the
world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers
Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-28898-4 ISBN 978-0-230-11354-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230113541
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Abbas, Asma.
Liberalism and human suffering : materialist reflections on politics,
ethics, and aesthetics / Asma Abbas.
p. cm.
1. Liberalism--Moral and ethical aspects. 2. Suffering—Political aspects.
3. Historical materialism. I. Title.
JC574.A274 2010
320.51—dc22 2010004031
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Scribe Inc.
First edition: October 2010
They seemed to know how to blend together all that life contains,
the real truth, the undeniable last word, the innermost core of
all that is unbearably painful within a heart and all that is
joyful, all that is loved and all that is worthy of love but remains
unloved, lied to and lied about, the unimaginable depths of the
soul where no other can withstand the longing and which few have
the conviction to plumb, the sorrows and the indisputable rage.
—Nadeem Aslam, Maps for Lost Lovers
For Ammi, Abbu, and Apa
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Permissions xii
Introduction: Suffering’s Dead? 1
Part I: Suffering Liberalism 17
1 Incorporating the Victim 19
2 Theater of the Ascetic 45
3 The Liberal Sensorium 73
Part II: Recuperating Materialism 95
4 The Labor of Suffering 97
5 A Fetishism of Injuries 121
6 The Tragic Art of Historical Materialists 143
Notes 189
Bibliography 221
Index 237
Acknowledgments
To claim any ability to completely acknowledge the presences, visita-
tions, and availabilities that have necessitated and enabled this book
would be hypocritical and make for a bad epic poem. The shape and
existence of this work owes everything to the spaces and times within
which it was thought, enacted, courted, loathed, and lived with. From
home in Karachi, to the New School for Social Research, to the Penn-
sylvania State University, to Bard College at Simon’s Rock, the pro-
cession of this artifice (from the dissertation proposal to these proofs)
includes my family, teachers, friends, comrades, and students. I hope
that my gratitude reaches those who are aware and those who are
unaware of this—unless I have done things completely wrong, this
“front matter” cannot be the only way for them to get it.
Nancy Love has taught me to embrace blessings and curses, one
as the other—a necessity haunting this work—and to quest for mem-
ory, hope, and meaning beyond our own privations. She, along with
John Christman, Daniel Conway, Holloway Sparks, Samuel Cham-
bers, James Miller, and Richard Lee fanned an unapologetic courtship
of the political as a question of being itself and made turning back
impossible. The personal and intellectual generosity of many more
teachers continues to charm my life. Beyond the confines of my home
institutions, many vocational political theorists took time and care for
panels, conversations, comments, counsel, and encouragement that
profoundly impacted me as I clutched my project on suffering. For
their care and counsel in bringing closure to this work, Sam Cham-
bers, Gregg Horowitz, David Adams, and Leela Gandhi deserve pro-
found thanks.
The suspected and unsuspected complicities gathered along the
way became the most explicit occasion for this work and for me as
the teller of this story. I could not have hoped for a more vibrant and
endearing community of chosen fellow travelers, and want to thank
my friends who have made needful returns, joys, habitations, and
negations possible. Among many invaluable companions to whom I
am indebted, these folks catalyzed specific ideas, details, and torments
x Acknowledgments
within this project: Michael Scoville, Chad Lavin, Barbara Alfano,
Sushmita Chatterjee, Philip Mabry, George Davis, Paul Youngquist,
Chris Russill, Larin McLaughlin, John Seery, Amitava Kumar, and
Sarah Armstrong.
The Department of Political Science, the College of Liberal Arts,
the Institute of Arts and Humanities, and Bruce Miller generously sup-
ported my work at Penn State. Bard College at Simon’s Rock picked
up where they left off, and has genuinely stood by me. I am grateful
to the fellowship of those at Bard College at Simon’s Rock who exist
as if our relationships of love and learning, reverence and respect, can
change something in this world. My colleagues and guides in Aca-
demic Affairs and the Social Sciences Division have amply enabled this
book’s completion.
Being a teacher has unwittingly scrabbled at the recesses and reaches
of this project. I owe to my students the affirmation, above all, of the
question of suffering as one of joy and the creation of new forms of
life. Thanks to those who have made it with me all this way, who grasp
redeeming and damning infinitudes (and the fact that I am ready to
write this book anew), who have kept my heart, and who still manage
to believe and be surprised. My dearests, you know who you are.
Farideh Koohi-Kamali, Robyn Curtis, and others at Palgrave Mac-
millan stood behind this project gra-ciously, trustingly, and firmly.
Thanks to Sarah Breeding for making beautiful pages out of this story.
The privilege is entirely mine.
I am deeply indebted to every member of my family in Pakistan,
here, and abroad who continues to bless me, and for whom my cho-
sen paths have inspired some faith and closeness rather than rejection
or indifference. This work is in particular awe of the lives, struggles,
strengths, and overcomings of the women in my family—the mothers,
aunts, sisters, and nieces close to my heart who bring much loveliness
and wonder in my life, their resilience a source both of fluster and
strength.
Syed Ali Hasan’s and Zaki Abbas’s words and wishes suffuse this
work. My tribe extends to the companions of Manshoor and Pakistan
Mazdoor Mahaz. Ahmed, unflinching brother and keeper, is present
here, too.
Dreamlike, fragrant presences of my parents permeate these pages.
Bilquis Tufail led the charge with unconditional affirmation, advo-
cacy, and patience as parent and teacher. There would be no labor, no
suffering, no compassion, no defiance, no grace, and no faith with-
out Tufail Abbas’s resolute commitment to the just and the true, and
without Naeema Abbas’s redemptive devotion to the good and the
Acknowledgments xi
beautiful—these words mean anything to me because of who they are.
It is to their lives, loves, and hopes that this book is dedicated.
No one can breathe life and promise into absences, presences, and
possibilities more potently, joyfully, heartbreakingly, and life-affirm-
ingly than Mukhtar Alvi. She made dreaming and aspiring impera-
tive. And she capacitated seemingly impossible steps into, and crucial
claims on, the world. Her prayers and confidence are sewn into every
word of mine.
Then there is Stephen Hager, my abiding witness. The poetry and
music of his being, and the trust that his senses compel, humble me.
That his fingers have run through these pages assures and emboldens
my words. Thanks, lastly, to a feline Herman Melville for feeling and
responding to what no human can.
Permissions
Title photo credit: Pompeii Villa of the Mysteries Frescoes—Initiation into the Cult of
Dionysus, by Nicholas Kaye.
Excerpts from Angels in America in the Introduction come from Angels in America,
Part I: Millennium Approaches by Tony Kushner. Copyright © 1992, 1993 by Tony
Kushner. Published by Theatre Communications Group. Used by permission of
Theatre Communications Group.
Excerpts from Angels in America in Chapter 3 come from Angels in America, Part
II: Perestroika by Tony Kushner. Copyright © 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996 by Tony
Kushner. Published by Theatre Communications Group. Used by permission of
Theatre Communications Group.
Chapter 3 also appears in Abbas, Asma. “Voice Lessons: Suffering and the Liberal
Sensorium.” Theory & Event 13:2 © 2010 The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Reprinted with permission of The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Earlier versions of some arguments in Chapters 3 and 6 appeared in “Damages Inc.:
Making the Sublime Matter,” in Politics and Culture: An International Review of
Books (Special Issue on “The Politics of Disaster”) 6, no. 2 (2005).