“A rain, a flood, an epidemic, an infestation”
Bruno Latour writes, “Where should we start? As always, it is best to begin in the middle of things, in medias res. Will the reading of a newspaper do? Sure, it offers a starting point as good as any. As soon as you open it, it’s like a rain, a flood, an epidemic, an infestation. With every two lines, a trace is being left by some writer that some group is being made or unmade.” The fourfold metaphors depict the uncertainty that is intrinsic in a newspaper. Uncertainty underwrites construction and disassembling of social groups.
‘Like Jesus’
Latour explains, “Action is borrowed, distributed, suggested, influenced, dominated, betrayed, translated. If an actor is said to be an actor-network, it is first of all to underline that it represents the major source of uncertainty about the origin of action—the turn of the word ‘network’ will come in due time. Like Jesus on the cross, it is of the actor that one should always say: ‘Forgive them Father, they know not what they do.” The allegorical comparison of an “actor network” to Jesus underlines the vagueness regarding the trigger of a precise social accomplishment. As a result of the uncertainty, societal members would not be certain about the meticulous activation of an action in the same way as Jesus’ oppressors were unconscious of their regrettable deeds.
‘Rugged Landscape’
Latour recommends, “If sociology has been marked from the start by the discovery that action was overtaken by other agencies, it has been spurred even more forcefully by the ethical, political, and empirical discovery that there exist hierarchies, asymmetries, and inequalities; that the social world is just as differentiated a landscape as a rugged and mountainous terrain; that no amount of enthusiasm, free will, or ingenuity can make those asymmetries go away.” The allegorical ruggedness accentuates the imperfect information which is ubiquitous in the social realm. Accordingly, asymmetrical presumptions are made regarding various social occurrences. Discrepancies of social actualities cannot be exterminated due to the divergent agencies that are integral in the society.
