Everything Under Control?

Antonio Facenda

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In January 2024 the German research network Correctiv published a report on a secret meeting held by right-wing extremists in which a so-called master plan for remigration was devised. Pictures secretly taken at the location in Potsdam near Berlin were also published.[1] 

A huge outcry emerged after these fantasies of overthrowing the political system were uncovered and brought to the attention of the public. On the one hand, protests and mass demonstrations were sparked in many German cities out of concern about the solidity of our democracy.  On the other hand, politicians of the far-right party AfD (Alternative for Germany) criticized the journalistic methods used associating them with conspiracy theories (journalists acting on behalf of the government) and with the figure of a totalitarian “surveillance state.” This raises the question where this belief in the existence of powerful (almost magical) forces endowed with power, knowledge and an omnipresent gaze comes from. 

However, the “surveillance state” discourse is not just an aspect of the far-right. Discussions about privacy or data protection from access by the state and big corporations to personal and private data are also taking place amongst a moderate majority. These discourses raise the question about a space that is not subject to the aggressive and malicious "absolute gaze" of forces such as the state, the government or the greedy "big corporations" striving for control and domination.

The German expression "alles/alle im Blick haben" (literally: “to have everything/everyone in view”) doesn’t necessarily have negative connotations. The former mayor of Berlin, Franziska Giffey, used this slogan during her election campaign in 2021, promising to take the needs of all Berliners into account.[2] How could one be against knowing that everyone is being watched out for by those representing us? Even such "socially acceptable" discourses, quite harmless and understandable at first sight, turn out to be what Miquel Bassols defines “poisoned speeches with a honey flavour, also in the name of love.”[3]

All these considerations apparently lead to the question of the existence of this all-seeing master that many of us fear and fight against but that all the same is supposed to protect and acknowledge us and whose existence many take for granted in our democracy.  However, Dominique Holvoet in his blog post speaks of a "blind master", thereby opening up the space for new questions.[4]

Who is watching and who is being looked at? When it’s us being looked at - is the master complete or does he lack something (his sight)? And if it’s rather us watching the master – are we able to see everything or do we miss something? Is there a “stain in the picture”?[5]

All these questions point us to the core of Lacan’s project: 

“It is a matter of articulating a logic which, no matter how feeble it may seem to be […]is still strong enough to comprise what is the sign of this logical force, namely incompleteness.” [6]

References

[1] https://correctiv.org/en/latest-stories/2024/01/15/secret-plan-against-germany/

[2] https://ballhauswest.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Hauseingang_1.jpg

[3]  Cf. Bassols, M., “Killing Me Softly,” available online:  https://www.amp-nls.org/nls-messager/european-forum-zadig-in-belgium-miquel-bassols-killing-me-softly/

[4] Holvoet, D., “The Blind Master,” 2024 NLS Congress Blog, https://www.nlscongress2024.amp-nls.org/blogposts/blindmaster

[5] Roy, D., Presentation of the Theme of the 2024 NLS Congress. Available here: https://www.amp-nls.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/ARGUMENT-ENG.-CONGRES-NLS-2024.pdf

[6] Lacan, J., The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book XVII: The Other Side of Psychoanalysis, ed. J.-A. Miller, trans. R. Grigg, London: Norton, 2007, p. 203