Giroux, Henry A.
Series: Popular Culture and Everyday Life - Volume 23
General Editor: Toby Miller
New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, Oxford, Wien, 2011. X, 168 pp.
ISBN 978-1-4331-1226-3 pb.
Year of Publication: 2011
Book synopsis
Zombie Politics and Culture in the Age of Casino Capitalism capitalizes upon the popularity of zombies, exploring the relevance of the metaphor they provide for examining the political and pedagogical conditions that have produced a growing culture of sadism, cruelty, disposability, and death in America. The zombie metaphor may seem extreme, but it is particularly apt for drawing attention to the ways in which political culture and power in American society now operate on a level of mere survival. This book uses the metaphor not only to suggest the symbolic face of power: beginning and ending with an analysis of authoritarianism, it attempts to mark and chart the visible registers of a kind of zombie politics, including the emergence of right-wing teaching machines, a growing politics of disposability, the emergence of a culture of cruelty, and the ongoing war being waged on young people, especially on youth of color. By drawing attention to zombie politics and authoritarianism, this book aims to break through the poisonous common sense that often masks zombie politicians, anti-public intellectuals, politics, institutions, and social relations, and bring into focus a new language, pedagogy, and politics in which the living dead will be moved decisively to the margins rather than occupying the very center of politics and everyday life.
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Zombie Politics, Democracy, and the Threat
of Authoritarianism 1
SECTION I. ZOMBIE POLITICS AND THE CULTURE
OF CRUELTY
1. Zombie Politics and Other Late Modern Monstrosities in the Age
of Disposability 31
2. The Politics of Lying and the Culture of Deceit in Obama’s America:
The Rule of Damaged Politics 41
3. Zombie Language and the Politics of the Living Dead 49
4. Everyday Violence and the Culture of Cruelty: Entertaining
Democracy’s Demise 57
5. Market-Driven Hysteria and the Politics of Death 65
6. Torturing Children: Bush’s Legacy and Democracy’s Failure:
Salvos from the Culture of Cruelty 73
SECTION II. ZOMBIE THEATER AND THE SPECTACLE
OF ILLITERACY
7. The Spectacle of Illiteracy and the Crisis of Democracy 83
8. Zombie Politics and the Challenge of Right-Wing Teaching
Machines: Rethinking the Importance of the Powell Memo 89
9. Town Hall Politics as Zombie Theater: Rethinking the Importance
of the Public Sphere 95
10. Reclaiming Public Values in the Age of Casino Capitalism 101
SECTION III. BRUTALIZING YOUTH IN THE AGE
OF ZOMBIE POLITICS
11. No Bailouts for Youth: Broken Promises and Dashed Hopes 111
12. Zero Tolerance Policies and the Death of Reason: Schools
and the Pedagogy of Punishment 123
13. Brutalizing Kids: Painful Lessons in the Pedagogy of School Violence 133
14. Tortured Memories and the Culture of War 137
15. Youth Beyond the Politics of Hope 143
SECTION IV. CONCLUSION
16. Winter in America: Democracy Gone Rogue 153
Index 163
About the author(s)/editor(s)
Henry A. Giroux holds the Global TV Network Chair in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University in Canada. His most recent books include The University in Chains: Confronting the Military-Industrial-Academic Complex (2007), Youth in a Suspect Society: Democracy or Disposability? (2009), Politics Beyond Hope (2010), and Hearts of Darkness: Torturing Children in the War on Terror (2010).
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