This rings true in so many different ways. From surplus Iraq gear being donated to local police forces, to military style training administered to state and local forces, to large corporations donating large sums of money to police forces to basically make mercenaries … never knew this idea of Foucault (or many others except for Chomsky calling him likeable but unintelligible).
Its like trusting your mistress to be faithful to you after leaving your wife.
Now, the same units which fought in this neocolonialist war are being deployed to the streets of Portland. Herein, lies the Foucaultian Boomerang of the present moment. The same forces which fought in urban battles in Mosul and Baghdad are now fighting an urban battle in an American city — but now, the skills of urban warfare and counterinsurgency which these tactical units have attuned and developed will not be used against people of color abroad, but rather against people of color protesting for racial equality right here at home.
The repression of people abroad is basically training tactics that can one day be done less explicitly on the local populace. Luckily, the article does posit that this boomerang relationship works both ways, so defense tactics that worked abroad can be used internally to fight against repression. This highlights one of the many reasons international solidarity is needed.
It’s funny that you mention both Foucault and Chomsky. There was a post on /r/CriticalTheory not too long ago of a debate they had on human nature.
Thanks, saving for later. A few years ago while looking into Derrida, I think I watched that debate as a tangent.
