"What does Obama want of me?" Anxiety and Jade Helm 15. Issue 2 (2nd April 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Matheson, Calum
• Is Part Of: Quarterly journal of speech. Volume 102:Issue 2(2016)
• Page Start: 133
• Page End: 149
• Publication Date: 2016-04-02
• Subjects: Anxiety -- psychoanalysis -- Jade Helm -- conspiracy theories -- fantasy; Speech -- Periodicals; Public speaking -- Periodicals; 808.5
• DOI: 10.1080/00335630.2016.1155127
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0033-5630

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article reclaims the concept of anxiety for rhetoric and demonstrates the usefulness of doing so by examining reactions to the Jade Helm 15 military training exercise. Following Lacan's recently translated seminar on Anxiety, the essay argues on behalf of a conceptualization of anxiety as a result of affective investments in a network of discourse rather than an individual feeling. This rearticulation of anxiety has implications for both rhetorical theory and criticism as well as practical responses to right-wing conspiracy theories such as those surrounding Jade Helm.