Postscript: Affirmation without Credit

The postscript turns its attention to the concept of affirmation to explore the difference between optimism and affirmation. Through a close reading of Nietzsche’s account of affirmation, the postscript proposes a rethinking of the politics of affirmation in the context of Fred Moten and Stefano Harney’s concept of debt. Key concepts are fabulation, the power of the false, and fugitive planning, all of which are necessary for the creation of an undercommons. Idle No More, a First Nations activist formation, is discussed as an example of an affirmative practice.