ABSTRACT
In 2013, as we find ourselves in the middle of another wave of popular protests arising globally with what seems a spontaneous ease, it is appropriate to begin by quoting from a recent article that frames this situation in a paradigmatic manner. The journal in which the article was published (ROAR Magazine: Reflections on a Revolution) describes itself somewhat poetically as “the online journal of the radical imagination that seeks to amplify the voice of our generation amid the clamorous cacophony of a rapidly changing world.” The article begins with a curiously symptomatic remark that reads like a back-cover blurb of a Thomas Pynchon novel: “What do a park in Istanbul, a baby in Sarajevo, a security chief in Sofia, a TV station in Athens and bus tickets in Sao Paulo have in common? However random the sequence may seem at first, a common theme runs through and connects all of them.” That much is certainly true, it does not take a very precise analytical instrument to notice there might be a common logic to these events. In fact, the global solidarity of the protesters-Turkish flags in Brazil, and vice versa-makes it plain to see.
