Object-Oriented Programming: Objects and Political Subjects

In this post, I will consider how object-oriented programming relates to politics. More specifically, I wish to draw a parallel between the computer programmer’s production of the object and the Platonic state’s production of the political subject.

In his Republic, Plato prescribes a utopian society in which all political subjects perform complete vocational specialization for the purpose of achieving and maintaining the ideal political state, as defined by the heads of state: the philosopher kings. For instance, the subject who can efficiently produce commodity x will, at the decree of the state, solely produce that commodity because he or she enjoys a comparative advantage in the production of it. In this way, regardless of how vast one's capabilities may be, as a political subject one is relegated to an object capable of producing only one thing.

In the case of object-oriented programming, the programmer has the power to construct objects, define them via data fields, and assign tasks to them through methods. In this way the programmer is similar to the head of state, insofar as he or she can produce a world in which every object carries out a specialized task in order to produce a perfect outcome, i.e. an outcome that perfectly meets the expectation of the programmer. Similarly, political subjects, in a collective effort, perform individual tasks for the purpose of achieving whatever the philosopher kings consider to be a perfect sociopolitical condition. Thus, we get the sense that object-oriented programming, to a point, reflects the social structure of the Platonic state, because both cases present a structure premised upon the integration of individual efforts into what the authority, i.e. the programmer or the philosopher kings, consider to be a perfect outcome.

There may be a counterargument to this claim: that the production of objects and the production of political subjects are fundamentally different because the programmer constructs the object, whereas the state assigns functions to the pre-existing human body and mind. However, this begs us to ask the question, does self-definition occur at the moment of conception? Or is self-definition determined by external influences, i.e. the state? This question problematizes the notion of self-definition being a birthright, and suggests that identity is perhaps born anew according to the interests of authority. If we consider this proposition, then perhaps the philosopher king does construct the political subject. In other words, the political subject's defining characteristic, i.e. their productive specialization, is commanded by the state. Thus, we get the sense that the programmer and the philosopher kings are similarly committed to producing specialized objects for the purpose of achieving an arbitrarily determined perfect outcome, a computer program or a society respectively.