#destituent

Critique of Violence — Walter Benjamin

Since  its  original  publication  in  1921,  Walter  Benjamin’s  “Critique  of Violence”  has  become   a  foundational  work  in  the  field  of  political   philosophy.  Attempting  to  formulate  a  critique   of  violence  that  does  not depend  on  reference  to   the  just  ends  or  means  of  violent  acts, Benjamin   elaborates  the  relationship  between  the  law  and   violence  in  its “lawmaking”  and  “law-preserving”   functions,  positing  a  “divine  violence” capable   of  suspending  the  law  in  its  entirety,  thereby   dismantling  state power  without  positing  a  new  law.

What is a Destituent Power? — Giorgio Agamben

“if revolutions and insurrections correspond to constituent power, that is, a violence that establishes and constitutes the new law, in order to think a destituent power we have to imagine completely other strategies, whose  definition is the task of the coming politics. A power that was only just  overthrown by violence will rise again in another form, in the incessant,   inevitable dialectic between constituent  power and constituted power, violence which makes the law and violence that preserves it.” 

In this essay based on a lecture given in central France in the summer of  2013, Giorgio Agamben develops and clarifies his understanding of the  political and, in particular, the notion of destituent power (Potenza  destituente). In contrast to attempts to affirm a constituent power independent  of a relation to constituted power, which for Agamben both reproduce the governmental structure of the exception and represent the apex of  metaphysics, destituent power outlines a force  that, in its very constitution,  deactivates the governmental machine. For Agamben, it is in the sensible  elaboration of the belonging together of life and form, being and action,  beyond all relation, that the impasse of the present will be overcome. Ultimately, Agamben points not only towards what it means to become Ungovernable, but towards the potential of staying so.

SoleCast | It's Going Down | February 7th 2019

The post Introducing, “Battle Rap Against Oblivison” From Sole’s New Album, Destituent appeared first on It's Going Down.

It’s Going Down is excited to team up with hip-hop artist Sole, who’s music is featured at the start of our podcast, to showcase his brand new album and song, Destituent. Destituent is sole’s new album that drops on 2/22, its an album exploring the tension between urban and rural life, and what it means […]

→ READ MORE ←