Verbatim quote · from the corpus

“All social institutions are more or less primitive modes of data collection, storage and interpretation—aesthetics, laws, justice, war, business, technology, etc.—but they are specifically these forms of archiving; so to realize their true character (in both senses of “realize”) is not to discard their shell and making them directly productive of quantifiable forms of knowledge; rather it is to make explicit and enhance the specific form of ostensivity each yields which, if it goes to the point of transforming the institution beyond recognition an exhaustive narrative of that transition will inform the new institution and this narrative will be guided by the solution of the fundamental social problem, the succession problem, through singularized succession in perpetuity. An actor within, say, the legal institution, seeks to ensure the lawyer or judge who follows in his wake will be explicitly and implicitly selected as thoroughly as possible by further ensuring that this succession will maximize perhaps to the point of integration with other orders the institution’s contribution to singularized succession all the way to the top. The further you are from the top, the less direct can be your control over succession; and therefore the more you’re auditioning by offering samples of obedience to orders coming down from the top.”

— Adam Katz, Originary Style · Apr 10, 2022 · Bouvard Substack