The Exploit: A Theory of Networks - asounder

14 Prolegomenon
this book. “The novelty of the coming politics,” writes Giorgio Agamben
on the topological nature of political struggle, “is that it will no
longer be a struggle for the conquest or control of the State, but a
struggle between the State and the non - State (humanity).” 4
While the new American exceptionalism is at the forefront of our thoughts
today, we would like to situate it within a larger context by making reference
to three diagrams for political conflict, each finding its own historical actualization:
a politics of symmetry rooted in opposed power blocs, a politics of
asymmetry in which power blocs struggle against insurgent networks, and
a second model of symmetry in which networked powers struggle against
other networked powers.
The first topology is a “politics of symmetry” perhaps best exemplified
in the modern era by the symmetrical conflicts between the
Soviets and the Americans, or earlier between the Allied and Axis
powers. But this mode of political conflict was gradually superseded
by a second one, in the second half of the twentieth century, which
might be called the “politics of asymmetry.” This is best exemplified
in the guerrilla movements of the past several decades, or in terrorism,
but also in the new social movements of the 1960s, and the newly
networked societies of the 1990s. In all these examples, an asymmetrical
conflict exists: grassroots networks posed against entrenched
power centers. In an asymmetrical conflict, it is not possible to compare
strategies of conflict one against the other. They are incommensurate.
The conflict is actually rooted in asymmetry, without which
there would be little antagonism. (It is not simply that feminism is
opposed to patriarchy, but that they are asymmetrically opposed;
racism and antiracism are not just opposed but exist in a relationship
of asymmetry.) In conventional warfare, a networked insurgency will
fail every time; however, in unconventional warfare (suicide bombing,
hostage taking, hijacking, etc.), the insurgent is able to gain some
amount of influence. Asymmetry—the diagram is the tactic. This second
phase, roughly concurrent with what is called postmodernity, may
best be understood through a proposition: postmodernity is characterized
by frictions between structurally incommensurate political dia -