telling the code, performing power

Anyone with some advice on the relationship between "telling the code" and Jeffrey Alexander et al's recent work on performativity?

Also, wouldn't you say that authenticity is not always the goal of a performance? That sometimes folks just want to make sure that you've crossed your 't's and dotted your 'i's and don't really care if you mean it? Do you think that Alexander would suggest that in such cases we're not talking about performance? I suggest we could still be telling the code in these instances.

Which reminds me of an odd conversation that transpired a couple of days ago. I was speaking to the partner of a woman in my mom's group. This partner works as a police officer. He mentioned an arrest he made the evening before and alluded to a class of people who engage in crimes that are out of bounds. I said, "You mean like stealing someone's diaper bag out from underneath the stroller while they are pushing their child on the swings? That's what happened to us this summer." and he said, "Yeah. When you catch guys like that you just try to get a couple extra licks in."

So, yeah. I understand the drive. I mean, when we were walking around the neighborhood asking after our missing diaper bag, I really felt the desire to do harm to the culprit. It wasn't so much losing the diaper bag as feeling completely violated by the theft of the bag from a space (stroller, playlot) where I imagined one's personal possessions would be MORE safe. At any rate, so maybe it isn't crazy to want to "get a couple of extra licks in" but that a police officer not only admitted the desire but made it clear that he acts on it is crazy. I would think that, even if they do such things, cops would make a point of NOT making it known.

On another note, how about those red sox?