Degradation Rituals

Degradation Rituals describes the socioeconomic and political conditions that give rise to the routinization of sadomasochistic mechanisms of survival under increasingly coercive patterns of human interaction. It describes the distortion of conventional mediating methods of social, economic, and political engagement that compels individuals to choose these particular forms of ruthless exchanges, and disentangles a variety of power-based social and sensual phenomenon influencing cruel cultural patterns of sadomasochistic practices in and beyond the bedroom. Based on the author's extensive immersion within motorcycling cultures on three continents, urban ecological squatting with anarchists throughout Europe, participant observations surrounding innovative scientific collaborations at world-class biotechnology trade shows, investigation of self-reported sexual fetish practices, demonstrable Egyptian Islamic intellectual militancy, court cases influencing avant-garde ecological and higher education policies, and many other mixed methodologies; the analysis integrates classic and contemporary theory to demystify the detrimental effects of de-civilizing tendencies that are inadvertently solidifying a surprising simultaneity of extreme cruelty and kindness.