Cipher and Dividuality
Gerald Raunig · Qucosa (Saxon State and University Library Dresden) · 2020
The “Postscript on Control Societies” is considered one of the most accessible texts by Gilles Deleuze, contemporary, yet untimely, ahead of its time, perhaps even ahead of our time. In just a few pages, Deleuze here touches on the specifics of discipline and control and subjects them to three perspectives: history, logic, program. On closer reading, however, one comes across some stumbling blocks, where thinking falters. The paragraph in which the word ‘dividual’ appears for the first time in the text is such an instance. Of course, the individuals of control become dividuals, and the masses become banks. But what does ‘code’ mean here, and what is the difference between the ‘precept’ of disciplinary society and the ‘password’ of control society? As is so often the case, the key lies in questions of context and translation.