Lubricative Power

"My body shone so brightly in the sun that I felt very proud of it and it did not matter now if my axe slipped, for it could not cut me. There was only one danger- that my joints would rust; but I kept an oil-can in my cottage and took care to oil myself whenever I needed it. However, there came a day when I forgot to do this, and, being caught in a rainstorm, before I thought of the danger my joints had rusted, and I was left to stand in the woods until you came to help me."²

Every morning millions of people open a door, clunk down into a cold seat, and turn an ignition key. Some engines spring to life with a smooth business-like hum, others cough and wheeze before shuddering hesitantly into life. In all, lubricants slide between bearings, quietly slip past pumps, and ease cat-burglar-like — with silent grace — over camshafts, rockers and tappets.

Lubricants are the taken-for-granted of the mechanical world, milling between gears and bearings, sliding between pistons without complaint. Despite the ability of the lubricant to make possible what would otherwise be impossible, and despite its presence in nearly all mechanical devices, it remains a quiet achiever. Lubrication is seldom talked of, despite being frequently practiced. And we only hear about it, quite literally, when the hinge squeaks, the door jams or the engine grinds to an halt. "Get an oil-can and oil my joints" answers the Tin Woodman.³

The tribological system within the internal combustion engine, the dynamics of lubrication and the complex tributaries and oil ways that characterise its movement, provide an interesting way to conceptualise political power. Because the motor is a meeting of force and lubrication, the internal combustion engine offers a metaphor for the interaction of different forms of power. In the same sense as an engine can be conceptualised as incorporating the movements of force (pistons, cranks, valves etc) within a intricate lubricative matrix, the field of power may be conceptualised as an intersection of forces and facilitative effects and gestures; or as I shall outline in this paper, the meeting of two types of power: namely frictional and lubricative. Frictional power can be characterised as a field of force effects, where roughly mechanical velocities meet, direct and rub against each other. Lubricative power, on the other hand, rests upon the connection between facilitation and power. These dynamics might usefully be used as a metaphor to describe the way in which multiple movements within complex systems might be enabled, often through intricate forms of micro facilitation. Understanding the interaction between friction and lubricity would require a return to the metaphor of the machine in order to understand power, but an understanding of mechanism as comprising complex interrelationships of force and facilitation.

I rely here on the conceptualisation of a fluidic relation that actively interacts with and mediates frictional effects of force. Solids are usually assumed to be of a stable mass, form and composition. Configurations of solids in assembly create the frame and internals of the combustion engine. These components must be of a particular strength and durability to withstand repetitive motion. Yet the physical properties which are required of the solid components within the motor are diametrically opposed to that of the lubricative substance. Where the pistons, the crank and the block are required to be solid for their operation, the lubricant is obliged to be flowing, slippery, amorphous. Where the components of the crank are required to move in precise, defined directions, to be situated in designated positions and locations, the lubricant is required to be everywhere at once, anticipating its own lack of presence, filling every gap. Lubricants are contained rather than secured.⁴ Solids are of fixed and designated positions. Interacting solids touch at certain points and not others. Fluids, on the other hand have the capacity to touch everywhere at once: in the internal combustion engine, the "hydrodynamic"⁵ lubricative process is one which stipulates that fluid lubricants are to fill spacings between all rubbing solids.⁶

We should also note that in the...