Nate Turner and the Political

 

Nate Turner and the Political

Peter Schultz

 

                  The following is from Mark Ames’ book, Going Postal: Rage, Murder, and Rebellion.

 

                  “The fact that Nate Turner [was] … delusional does not disqualify the inherent political nature of his rebellion.” [p. 57]

 

                  Exactly. Turner, , although being delusional, was being political, just like those who were hunting Turner. Those who “go postal,” like those who cause them to go postal, are similarly political and delusional. As Ames points out, those “going postal” are acting politically, i.e., delusionally, just as are those they are acting against, who are also acting politically.

 

                  Turner, e.g., went postal, thereby acting politically, which is to say delusionally, just like the “white vigilante group [that] terrorized the region’s blacks, killing hundreds….” [57] As Ames emphasized, the white vigilante group “foreshadowed the rise of the KKK … years later.” This illuminates the character of the political, of being political, of affirming the political. Being political seems indistinguishable from being delusional. And isn’t it pretty obvious that delusions are what excite or incite humans to be political, e.g., waging war and killing one’s enemies?

 

                  So: the political are the delusional. Or: the political is delusional. So, it is not simply that delusional humans corrupt the political, although of course that can happen. It is that the political and the delusional are inseparable, that we political animals are, by virtue of being political, delusional.