Representation is a broad concept that relates to many different spheres of daily life:
language, media, economics, politics, culture and social identity itself. Understanding the
different ways that representation functions is crucial to understanding the operation of power.
When wielded by states and capitalists, representation can be a powerful tool of
manipulation, disenfranchisement, and oppression.
Representation is most commonly understood as a visual, written, or audio depiction
of something, or someone. It can refer broadly to what images mean, and how they come to take
on those meanings. It can also refer to the process of how an individual comes to serve
as a stand-in for a given community, political party, or ideology. The concept of representation
is important for anarchism because of the fundamental role it plays in producing and
reproducing social and political hierarchies. Anti-authoritarian perspectives analyze and
understand how representation sets the terms for what is considered truth,
what is deemed normal,
what we should think of others,
and what we should think about ourselves.
The use of representation as a form of power and a means of control
has been around for centuries.
Powerful nations have always maintained their status
not just through the deployment of military force,
but through the spread of ideology.
And one of the most successful ways of spreading ideology has been through the idea of representation.
The history of colonialism is not just a series of military conquests.
It is also a history of religious decrees, fictional literature,
academic writings,
scientific reporting
museum exhibitions
Western european countries painted the picture of "the other" to describe individuals, communities,
and entire nations who didn't belong to the dominant group, and were therefore different in
some fundamental way.
In other words, people became marked as distinct from "the norm"
or made out to be more prized or vile, based on how they were represented.
The longterm subjugation of colonized people through this racist system of
representation lies at the very foundation of
settler-colonial cultures and political systems.
Colonial depictions of certain ethnic and racial groupings are bound tightly to other forms
of oppression,
such as white supremacy
and patriarchal concepts of gender.
The ruling classes maintain their control by creating images and tropes of common enemies.
Whether this enemy is represented as the figure of the terrorist, immigrant, homosexual, or
anarchist, it can be used to help corral patriotic sentiments and develop a sense of us vs. them,
binding a segment of the people to their rulers through the shared bonds of identity.
This use of representation was foundational to the formation of nation-states.
And to this day,
dehumanizing representations of internal and external enemies permeate popular culture.
It shapes societies' collective psyche,
and forges new forms of reactionary allegiance.
Representation is the life blood of politics.
It is at play every time political actors advocate policy
or act on others' behalf in the political arena
In liberal democracies, elected representatives are understood to reflect the
will of the majority. These politicians claim to represent their constituents' interests, thereby
ensuring that they have a voice in public policy-making.
This is a lie that fools fewer people every year.
Whether a state is ruled by liberal democratic institutions,
military dictatorships,
one-party rule,
or hereditary dynasties,
representation is key to the maintenance of legitimacy and power.
Behind the scenes,
bartering,
optics
competition,
manipulation
nepotism
and an array of underlying social dynamics
always factor into how authority is upheld and maintained.
But to the public,
sacred state institutions and charismatic leaders are represented
as a stand in for abstract concepts like majority rule and a nation's freedom.
Representative democracy promotes the idea that our only way of wielding power
is by choosing who will represent us.
This discourages us from learning how to wield power for ourselves.
Democracy is not alone in this, even if it may be more effective in its illusions.
All governing institutions constrain individuals into passivity and subjugation,
then rely on the language of representation to maintain hierarchies and divisions that
disempower people from taking collective action.
The idea that common people are active participants in a well-meaning political system is a
comforting lie,
which serves to hide the fact that we are, more or less,
merely spectators of a rat race between the people in charge.
We must understand and confront how various institutions use representation
to keep us divided, weak
and tied to the dominant system.
Politicians, corporations, media outlets
organized religions, and non-profits continue to spread dangerous ideologies that result
in widespread marginalization, subjugation, prejudice, micro-aggressions,
and even death.
The detrimental effects of mainstream representation around race,
gender, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, and more cannot be ignored.
At the same time,
we must not fall prey to the myth that being represented in more
positive ways equates to social, political and economic liberation.
The ways in which people are seen, and they ways they see themselves are
essentialcomponents of revolutionary struggle.
But under liberal democratic capitalist regimes,
notions of equality are often conflated with, and swallowed up, by representation.
By co-opting ideas around how historical radical grassroots movements
have addressed their own oppression,
major corporations, non-profit organizations and academic institutions have
attempted to prioritize reformist, non-violent steps towards more progressive representation.
This common political tactic coincided neatly with the rise of neoliberal globalization,
and its increased focus on individualism.
Neoliberalism has restructured the global market
into a worldwide labor pool.
It's been accompanied by an ideology
that places heavy emphasis on privatization and individual responsibility.
Under this system,
states and capital have used representation to weave together the illusion of a global community;
they point to increased diversity within the ruling classes to support the idea that
"free and open" markets
are evidence of how "democratic" and "tolerant" the neoliberal order is.
Neoliberalism has transformed political representation from a framework to address
racism, sexism, and all other forms of injustice that thrive within capitalism
into a demand to diversify the political and economic elite
without addressing the massive
wealth and income inequalities that form the material foundation of oppression.
As a result, a new kind of multicultural universalism has prospered,
one that lionizes difference, even as it ignores real-world, systemic issues.
Today,
capitalisms ability to profit from the representation of marginalized
communities is more evident than ever.
The internet encourages the creation and constant
shaping of multiple accounts and identities, suggesting that our social media profiles can
portray different sides of ourselves to the outside world, in all sorts of
unique, endlessly customizable ways.
So-called 'late capitalism' skews our perception
of representation's power.
Instead of being granted equality,
we are being sold a product:
a representation of "equality" from the very systems that make us unequal.
Representation not only shapes what our culture looks like.
It impacts our sense of reality.
And it is the people who are creating mass systems of representation who end up defining what reality is.
This keeps us all locked in a never-ending spectacle, without honestly
confronting our systemic disenfranchisement and alienation;
it is a constantly shifting trap
for maintaining a status quo that will never address the root of structural inequality.
We must reject increased representation as the ceiling and litmus test for social change.
Instead, we should focus on building new ways to celebrate our diversity
and promote our own means of artistic and cultural production.
This means that any representation we do take part in
should prioritize authenticity, community empowerment,
and an explicit drive to build a new, more liberatory world,
all while challenging the current world order.
Anarchism rejects the idea that anyone can genuinely represent another person's real needs.
It rejects the idea that those in power should coordinate people's desires and interests.
At the base of anarchist philosophy lies a deep desire for an interdependent,
ungovernable world.
No representation or representatives inside a mass system will
ever help us build that world.
We must do it for ourselves.