Jon Beasley-Murray

Beasley-Murray picked up some interesting ideas about the long run of Latin American history (resource extraction, intoxicants, the distribution of affect and the "Latin spirit" as compensatory enabling discourses, the era of military rule, the history of "disappearance" as a tactic, the "left turns"--Latin America from Bartolome de las Casas to the present day), fretted with them for a bit, presented Mexico as the exception with little discussion of why or anything beyond "the horror, the horror!" (the "death drive" also mentioned) intimated that this (the move from state violence to entrepreneurial violence) is the future for all of us, and called it a night. We need people to do more to help us understand these terrifying developments than he did.… (meer)