ABSTRACT
Perform or Else initiates a challenge, one that links the performances of artists and activists with those of workers and executives, as well as computers and missile systems. From congressional attacks on performance artists to the performance specs of household appliances, from the iterative training of high performance managers to the performativity of everyday speech, performance so permeates US society that it evokes that mysterious circle of mist which Nietzsche said envelops any living thing and without which life becomes “withered, hard, and barren.” “Every people,” the philosopher wrote, “even every man, who wants to become ripe needs such an enveloping madness, such a protective and veiling cloud.”1
