Become Ungovernable

'Phenomenal ... Offers us possibilities for rescuing the concept of democracy from its fatal entanglement with racial, heteropatriarchal capitalism'—Angela Y. Davis 'Embraces the unruliness of collective struggle, and recognizes freedom not as a destination but practice—an abolitionist, feminist, anticapitalist, antiracist, radically inclusive practice'—Robin D.G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams 'A compelling and inspiring book that belongs in our movements and our classrooms'—Chandra Talpade Mohanty, author of Feminism Without Borders 'An elegantly written masterpiece'—Barbara Ransby, author of Making All Black Lives Matter Become Ungovernable is a provocative new work of political thought setting out to reclaim “freedom”, “justice”, and “democracy”, revolutionary ideas that are all too often warped in the interests of capital and the state. Revealing the mirage of mainstream democratic thought and the false promises of liberal political ideologies, H.L.T. Quan offers an alternative approach: an abolition feminism drawing on a kaleidoscope of refusal praxes, and on a deep engagement with the Black Radical Tradition and queer analytics. With each chapter anchored by episodes from the long history of resistance and rebellions against tyranny, Quan calls for us to take up a feminist ethic of living rooted in the principles of radical inclusion, mutuality and friendship as part of the larger toolkit for confronting fascism, white supremacy, and the neoliberal labor regime. H.L.T. Quan is a political theorist, award-winning filmmaker and Associate Professor of Justice and Social Inquiry in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. Quan is the author of Growth Against Democracy and editor of Cedric J. Robinson.

H. L. T. Quan is a political theorist and an award-winning filmmaker. She is an Associate Professor of Justice and Social Inquiry in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. Quan is the author of Growth Against Democracy: Savage Developmentalism in the Modern World and editor of Cedric J. Robinson: On Racial Capitalism, Black Internationalism, and Cultures of Resistance.

Preface
Part I: The Metaphysics of Ruling
1. Against Tyranny: An Introduction
2. The Myth of White Autarky
3. Democratic Thought and the Unthinkable
4. Love and Freedom: Jeffersonian Antidemocracy and the Politics of Governing
5. The Empty Sounds of Liberty
Part II: Beyond Governing
6. From Home Politicus to Robo Sapiens: Transhumanism and the Tyranny of Techno-Aristocracy
7. iLife and Death: The New/Old Capitalist Algorithm
8. Governments Reform, People Revolt
9. Speculative Justice and the Politics of Mutuality
10. Towards a Democratic Ethic of Liberation