Economies of Abandonment AAAllggeerriiiaaannn WWWaaaarrrr,, ’��-’�� Socialism w/ Chinese Characteristics, ’�� BBBrrreeettttttooonnn WWWooooddss,, ’’’����;; MMarshall Plan, ’��; Gold Standard Collapse,’�� Opec Embargo, ’�� Asian Financial Nonaligned Crisis, ’�� US Withdraws Movement, ’�� BBBeeerrrllliiinnn WWWaalll frooommm VVViieettnnaamm,, ’�� Falls, ’�� ���� ���� ���� ���� ���� � Tasmanian Greens’��; British Greens’��; French & German Greens, ’��; Israel, ’��; Suez, ’�� Zapistista’��; Landless Peoples Movement, ’�� Marccchhh ooonnn WWWaasshhiinngton, ’��; Stonewallll RRRiioottss,, ’����;;; WWWoouunnddeedd KKnneee,’�� Keynesian Economics Neo-Liberalism White Man’s Burden Cultural Recognition Civilizational Securi Housing Prices in Darwin, �� Wages & Prices Accord, ’������;;; WWWoorrkkppllaaccee RRelations Act, ’��; ���������kkk,, ’��; ����k,’��; ����k,’��; Maritime Union Strike,’�� ����k,’�� ���� ���� ���� ���� ���� � Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal People), ’�� Aboriginaaalll LLLaaannnddd RRRiigghhttss ((��) Act, ’�� High Court,Mabo v Queensland, ’�� Native Title Act, ’�� High Courttt,,, WWWiikk: Pastoral Leases trump Native Title, ��� land affffffeecctteed,’�� Liberal Gov’t cuts ���� million from Indigenous programs, ’�� EconomiesofAbandonment Social Belonging and Endurance in Late Liberalism AAAll--Qaedaaa AAAttttaaccks US,’�� Financial Markets ElizabethA.Povinelli Collapse, ’�� ��� ���� ���� Keynesian Economics Neo-Liberalism Anarcho Liberalism s Burden Cultural Recognition Civilizational Securitization Australian �: ��c, ’��; ��c, ’��; ��c, ’��; ��c, ’�� ��� ������� ������� Liberal Gov’t abolishes Aboriginal & Duke University Press Torres Islanders Commission, ’�� Durham & London 2011 Liberal Gov’t declares Emergency Intervention in Aboriginaaalll SSSeeexxxuuaall CChhiild Abuse,’�� LLLaaabboouurr GGoovv’t apologizes for the Stolen Generation. Announces continuation of “Intervvveeennntttiiiooonnn,,,”” ’�� Liberal Gov’t reeefffuusseess tto apologize for past harms to Indigenous Australians, ’�� © 2011 Duke University Press. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper ♾. Designed by Jennifer Hill. Typeset in Arno Pro by Tseng Information Systems, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book. To Nuki Bilbil May she rest in peace Even if she is not Where I wish she were Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction The Child in the Broom Closet 1 One The Part That Has No Part 47 Two The Brackets of Recognition 75 Three Road Kill Ethical Substance, Exhaustion, Endurance 101 Four Events of Abandonment 131 Five After Good and Evil, Whither Sacrificial Love? 163 Conclusion Negative Critique, Positive Sociographies 187 Notes 193 Bibliography 211 Index 225 Preface I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and the end, But I do not talk of the beginning or the end. There was never any more inception than there is now, Nor any more youth or age than there is now; And will never be any more perfection than there is now, Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now. Out of the dimness opposite equals advance, always substance and increase, always sex, Always a knit of identity, always distinction, always a breed of life. WAlT WhITmAN, Song of myself This book is a meditation on alternative worlds in the shadow of contemporary transformations of late liberalism, a phrase I will explain more fully in the introduction, but which can here be understood as the governance of social differ- ence in the wake of the anticolonial movements and the emergence of new social movements. It looks at shattered lives and exhausting struggles, at discourses that deflect ethical and social re- sponsibility for crushing if at times imperceptible harms, and at scholarly attachments to miracles of