"This is a must-read book for anyone ready to transcend fear and imagine a new reality."--Tikkun
Disposable Futures makes the case that we have not just become desensitized to violence, but rather, that we are being
taught to desire it.
From movies and other commercial entertainment to "extreme" weather and acts of terror, authors Brad Evans and Henry
Giroux examine how a contemporary politics of spectacle--and disposability--curates what is seen and what is not, what
is represented and what is ignored, and ultimately, whose lives matter and whose do not.
Disposable Futures explores the connections between a range of contemporary phenomena: mass surveillance, the
militarization of , the impact of violence in film and video games, increasing disparities in wealth, and
representations of ISIS and the ongoing terror wars. Throughout, Evans and Giroux champion the significance of public
education, social movements and ideas that rebel against the status quo in order render violence intolerable.
"Disposable Futures poses, and answers, the pressing question of our times: How is it that in this post-Fascist,
post-Cold War era of peace and prosperity we are saddled with more war, violence, inequality and poverty than ever? The
neoliberal era, Evans and Giroux brilliantly reveal, is defined by violence, by drone strikes, 'smart' bombs,
militarized , Black lives taken, prison expansion, corporatized education, surveillance, the raw violence of
racism, patriarchy, starvation and want. The authors show how the neoliberal regime normalizes violence, renders its
victims disposable, commodifies the spectacle of relentless violence and sells it to us as entertainment, and tries to
contain cultures of resistance. If you're not afraid of the truth in these dark times, then read this book. It is a
beacon of light."--Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
"Disposable Futures confronts a key conundrum of our times: How is it that, given the capacity and abundance of
resources to address the critical needs of all, so many are having their futures radically discounted while the
privileged few dramatically increase their wealth and power? Brad Evans and Henry Giroux have written a trenchant
analysis of the logic of late capitalism that has rendered it normal to dispose of any who do not service the powerful.
A searing indictment of the socio-technics of destruction and the decisions of their deployability. Anyone concerned
with trying to comprehend these driving dynamics of our time would be well served by taking up this compelling
book."--David Theo Goldberg, author of The Threat of Race: Reflections on Racial Neoliberalism
"Disposable Futures is an utterly spellbinding analysis of violence in the later 20th and early 21st centuries. It
strikes me as a new breed of street-smart intellectualism moving through broad ranging theoretical influences of Adorno,
Arendt, Bauman, Deleuze, Foucault, Zizek, Marcuse, and Reich. I especially appreciated a number of things, including:
the discussion of representation and how it functions within a broader logics of power; the descriptions and analyses of
violence mediating the social field and fracturing it through paralyzing fear and anxiety; the colonization of bodies
and pleasures; and the nuanced discussion of how state violence, surveillance, and disposability connect. Big ideas
explained using a fresh straightforward voice."--Adrian Parr, author of The Wrath of Capital: Neoliberalism and Climate
Change Politics
Brad Evans and Henry A. Giroux are internationally renowned educators, authors, and intellectuals. Together, they curate
a forum for Truthout.com that explores the theme of "Disposable Futures." Evans is director of histories of violence
project at the University of Bristol, United Kingdom. Giroux holds McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the
Public Interest, and is the Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy.