In this fascinating collection , Jacques Ranciere, one of the world's most important and influential living philosophers, explores

the nature of consensus in contemporary politics.

Consensus is not peace. Instead it refers to a map of operations of war, of a topography of the visible, of what is possible and what can be thought, in which war and peace live side-by-side. Lying at the heart of these consensual times are new forms of racism and ethnic cleansing, humanitarian wars and wars against terror. Consensus also implies using time in a way that sees in it a thousand devious turns. This is evident in the incessan t diagnoses of the present and of amnesiac state p oliti c s , in the farewells to the past, the commemorations, and the calls to remember.

All these twists and turns tend toward

the same goal : to show that o nly one reality exists and that we have to consent to it. But democratic politics stands in the way of this undertaking. These chronicles aim to re-open the space in which it can again be thought.

CHRONICLES OF CONSENSUAL TIMES

Also ava i l a ble from C on t i n u u m:

A l a i n Badiou A l a i n B a d iou Infinite Thought, A l a i n B a d i o u LOHics o f Worlds, A l a i n B a d i o u Theoretical Writings, A l a i n B a d i o u Tileory o f the Subject, A l a i n B a d i o u Seeillg the Invisible, M i chel H e n r y After Finitude, Q u ent i n M e i l la ssou x Time for Revolution, A n to n i o Negri Dissel1slIs, Jacques Ra ncie re P,llitiCl or Aesthetics, Jacq ucs Ra nciere Tile Five Senses, M ichel S e r rcs Art alld Fear, Pall l V i r i l io NCf/ilt ivc Horizon, Palll V i r i l i o
Being and Event,
C,JI1ditiol1s,

Fort hcom i n g:
Althusser's Lesson, Mal/anne,

Jacq u e s Ra nciere Jacques Ra ncierc

CHRONICLES OF CONSENSUAL TIMES

Jacques Ranciere

Translated by Steven Corcoran

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"

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O rigi n ally published in French as Seuil, Olender This English t ra n sl ation

Chroniques des temps consensuels E ditions du 2005, Collection La Ubrarie du XXle siecle, sous la direction de Maurice

Cont in uum 2010

.

This work is published with the support of the French Ministry of Culture

Centre N a tion al du Livre.

No part of this publi cati o n lII ay be repro duced or transmitted in any fmlll or by any Illeans, electronic or mechanical. including photoc opyi ng re co r d in g , or any information storage or retrieval systelll, with out prior permission in writin g from the publishers.
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catal og u e record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978-0-8264-4288-8
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Contents

Preface The Head and the Stomach, Jan uary 1996

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

vii

B orges in Sarajevo, March 1996

Fin de Siecle and New Millennium, May 1996

4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 49 53 57 62 66 70 74

C old Racism, July 1996 The Last Enemy, November 1996 The Grounded Plane, January 1997 Dialectic in the Dialectic, A ugust 1997 Voyage to the C ountry of the Last S ociologists, November 1997 Justice in the Past, April 1998 The Crisis o f Art or a Crisis o f Thought? July 1998 Is Cinema to B lame? March 1999 The Nameless War, May 1999 One Image Right Can Sweep Away Another, October 1999 The Syllogism of C orruption, October 2000 Voici/ Voila: The Destiny of Images, January 2001 From Facts to Interpretations: The New Quarrel over the Holocaust, April 2001 From One Torture to Another, June 2001 The Filmmaker, the People and the Government, August 2001 Time, Words, War, November 2001

CONTENTS 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34
P h i l o s o p h y in th e B a t h ro o m , Pri s o n e rs of t h e Infinite,

January 2002

78 82

Ma rch 2002 June 2002 A ugust 2002 A pri/2003

From O n e Month o f Ma y t o A n o t h e r,

87 92 97 101 1 06 1 10 1 14 1 20

Victor Hu go: T h e Ambi g u i t i e s o f a B icente n a ry, The Mach i n e a n d th e F oe t u s, Th e D ea t h o f t h e A u t h o r The Logic of A m n e s i a ,

or

January 2003

t h e Li fe o f t h e A rtist?

JlIne 2003 September 2003 November 2003 June 2004

The Insecur i t y Pri n ci p l e , Th e New F i ct i o n s of E v i l , C riminal D e m ocra cy?

March 2004 A ugust 2004

The D i f fi c u l t Legacy of M i c h e l F o u ca u l t , The New R e a s o n s for the Lie, Beyond Art?

1 24 1 29

October 2004 February 2005 May 2005

ID
1 37 141 1 45 1 49

The Pol i t i cs of Images,

Democracy a n d I t s D o ct o r s ,

Notes

Index

vi

P refa ce

The chronicles collected here are chosen from those I wrote over a IO-year period at the invitation of a large Brazilian daily newspaper, the Folha de Sao Paulo. The themes broached were sometimes proposed to me by the newspaper. More often, I was left to choose them from among the facts thrown up by what we call current affairs: national debates and worldwide conflicts, exhibitions or new films. But the chronicle is not a way of responding to the events of passing time. For passing time, precisely, does not encounter events. Events are always ways of stopping time, of constructing the very temporality by which they can be identified as events. To speak of a chronicle is to speak of a type of reign: not the career of a king, but the scansion of a time and the tracing of a territory, a specific configuration of that which happens, a mode of perception of what is notable, a regime of interpretation of the old and the new, of the important and the ancillary, of the possible and the impossible. I believed I could sum up what reigns today under the name of con sensus. But consensus is not at all what is apt to be written about it by a disenchanted literature: a state of the world in which everyone con verges in veritable worship of the little difference, in which strong pas sions and great ideals yield to the adjustments of narcissistic satisfactions. Twenty years ago, some minds, thinking themselves facetious, praised this new mood, sure to accord the institutions of democracy with its mores. Today, more minds, and often the same ones, thinking them selves solemn, condemn this reign of 'mass individualism' - in which they see the root of all dictatorships - for its enfeebling of the great col lective virtues. We know common o rigin of these acts of bravery in the service of intellectual debates: they take from Tocqueville both his praise
vii

PREFACE of the gen tle m o re, of d e m o c ra cy a n d h i s co n d e m n a t i o n of its i nclination

to servitud e . T h e pages that foflow reca l l to u s that cons e n s u s does not consist i n the pacification of a t t i t u d e s a n d bodies t h u s d e s c ri b e d . New f o r m s of racism and eth n i c clea n s i ng, ' h u m a n i taria n ' w a rs and ' wars a g a i n st terror' a re at the core of the conse n s u a l t i m e s c h ro n i cl e d he r e . A l s o fea t u ri n g p ro m i n en t l y a re ci n e m a togra p h ic fictio n s o f total wa r a n d ra dica l evi l, a n d i n t e l l ectual p o l e m i c s o v e r t h e i n t e rpretation of the Nazi genoci d e . C o n

sens u s i s n o t p e a ce . I t i s a m a p of w a r opera ti o n s , a topogra phy o f the

v i sibIe. the thi n kable and the possible i n w h ich war a n d peace a re lodged . What con s e n s u s m e a n s , in effect. is n o t p e o p l e 's agreement a m ongst thc m selves but the m a t c h i n g of s e n s e w i th s e n se: t h e accord m a d e between a s e n s or y reg i m e of t h e p r e s e n t a t i o n of t h i ngs a n d a m o d e o f i n t e rp retation of the i r mea n i n g . The c o n s e n s u s gove r n i n g u s i s a rna chi nl' of powl'r i n s ofa r a s it i s a ma chinl' of vision . It cla i m s to obse rve merely t h a t which we ca n a ll see i ll a li g n i n g two propositions about the state o f the world: o n e m a i n t a i n s t h a t we h a v e come a t l a s t to l i v e i n t i m e s o f peace; t h e othe r states t h e c o n d i t i o n of t h a t p e a ce - t h e recognition t h a t t h e r e i s no m o re t h a n w h a t t h e r e i s . A l l t h e a rg u ments developed o n behalf of the e n d of u t o p i a s a n d o f history ca n be s u m m e d up i n t h i s n utshell . A l l egedly, we h a d a t i m e o f w a r. T h i s w a s t h e t i m e when people wanted more than what there w a s: not simply economic groups but s ocial classes, n o t simply a population but a p eople, not simply v a r i o u s diffe rent interests to a l i g n w i t h o n e another b u t w o r l d s i n conflict, not simply a f u t u re to predict b u t a future to liber a t e . S o , we now live i n times of peace for having liberated o u rselves o f a l l these s upplem ents, of a l l these phantoms, for realizing h e nceforth that what is, i s all there i s . B u t a l l t o o often t h e p e a ce invoked evades i t s obvi o u s n e ss: a b o d y o f workers rej ects t h e a s s e rtion that there i s only what t h e re i s , a n d t h a t o n l y governments know h o w to l i n k what i s to what w i l l b e ; extremis! parties renew the war a g a inst foreigners to the race; new wars i nscribe rights of blood and soil o n m a s s acred bodies; terror a n d t h e w a r a g a i n s t terror take e a ch othe r O il . COllsensu s , therefore, is the machine of vision and interpretation that m u s t ceaselessly set appearances right, p u t w a r and peace b a ck i n t h e i r place . Its p rinciple a i m s to b e simp l e . War, s a y s t h e machine, t a k e s p l a c e e l sewhere a n d in the p ast: i n countries that a r e s till subj ugated to the o b s c u r e l a w o f b l o o d a n d s o i l , i n the archaic

viii

PREFACE

tensions of those who cling to yesterday's struggles and obsolete privi leges. But because 'the elsewhere' avers that it is 'here' and the 'past' that it is 'today', the consensual machine must continuously redraw the b orders between spaces and the ruptures of time. Often bombs are required to divide spaces and confine 'archaic' wars to the margins of the consensual world. Time, as for it, is easier to manipu late. The consensus asserts a reality that is unique and incontrovertible, but only in order to multiply its uses, in order to bend it to the imperious scenarios of the present which leaves no room in which to dispute its presence, to scenarios of the past in which one confines the recalcitrant the lame of modernity or survivors ill-cured of utopia - and of the future which commands the total deployment of energies. The chronicles gath ered here strive to analyse the twists and turns accredited to time: con tinual diagnostics of the present and politics of amnesia, farewells to the past, commemorations, duties of remembrance, explanations of the rea sons why the past refuses to go, repudiations of the futures which claimed to sing, exultations of the new century and of new utopias. So, to analyse these consensual games, a chronicle must shift the sites of its investigation, venture to see other markings of time and invent its own temporal scenarios: for example, to compare the machines in Cronenberg's fictions or Matthew B arney's installations with those of Zola or Picabia; see, in present- day exhibitions, the Christly exultation of real presence confront a politics of the archive; discern the face given to the present in the new fictions of evil, historical or catastrophe films; or, the way that the legal debates on image-property rights are effacing the political status of the visible. Even so, these chronicles do not claim to be providing an inventory of the signs of the times. This would remain within the logic of consensus, part its interpretative machine, which incessantly examines the times lor its symptoms and looks into all the troubles of the social body, always recognizing in them the same evil: a want of adjustment to the present, a lack of adherence to the future. The consensus says that there is but a single reality whose signs must be depleted; that there is but a single space, while reserving the right to redraw its borders; that one unique time exists, while allowing itself to multiply its figures. All this goes to show that we are merely being asked to consent. The recent actuality of a referendum gave us the plainest illustration of this fact: even as it gave us the choice of voting yes or no, we were expected to say yes, or else
ix

PREFACE

,wow ourselves as worshippers of n o t h i ngness. For the o n l y oppositions

t h a t it recog n i ze'> a re t h ose of t he p resent a n d the p a st, of a fli rmation a n d nega t ion, of hea l t h a n d sicknes s . I n t h i s p l a y of oppositions, the very pos s i b i li t y of a specifi c co nfl ict n ecess a r i l y d i s a ppears without rema i nder:

one which bears on what t he re i s , w h i ch lays cla i m to one p resen t against <lnotl1l'r a n d affi rms t h a t the visible, thi n k a ble a n d possible ca n be described in many ways. This other way has a n a me. It is ca lled p o l i t ics. The fo l l o wing ch ron icles a t tem p t in their way to reopen its space .

CHAPTER ONE
The Head and the Stomach, January 1996

The p e ople need something to believe in, the elites had said until recently. Today it is instead the elites who n e e d something to believe in. Would o u r realist governors be able t o accomplish their task had they not, from the Platonic utopia, retained at least one certitud e : in the sta t e as in the individual, the intelligent head must command the greedy and ignorant stomach? In Plat o 's time, the heads o f philosophers were turned too far towards the skies and they o ccasionally fell in wells . The heads of our governors are fi rmly planted in front of the screens that announce the monthly indexes , t h e daily market reactions and the specialist outlooks for the short. middle and long terms . S o they know very precisely what sacrifices the stomachs must make t oday for tomorrow and for the stom achs o f tomorrow. They no longer n e e d to convince the ignorant masses o f the nebulo u s d emands of the good or justice . They need o nly to show the p e ople of the world of needs and d esires exactly wha t i t i s that ciphered objective necessity dictates. This, in s hort, is the meaning of the word consensus. This word apparently exults the virtues of discussion and consultation that permit agreement between interested parti e s . A closer look reveals that the word means e xactly the contrary: consensus means that the givens and solutions o f problems simply require people to see this finding which, being ohvious, no longer even needs doing. The French Prime Minister thus proceeded to announce to the popula tion that from now on it would be necessary - in order to make up account deficits and balance retirement schemes - to forgo certain tradi tional social gains and that public s e rvice employees would have to work l onger to get the right to retirement. Faced with a general publi c tran s p o rt
1

fi n d

that they leave no room for discussion, and that governments can fore

CHRONICLES OF CONSENSUAL TIMES

s t rike and the p o p u l a t i o n 's u nw i l l i n g n e s s to e n t h u s e a g a i n s t these 'pri v i leged' t ra i n a n d h u s d r i v e r s , w h o m a d e t h e m w a l k i n t h e m i d dl e o f w i n t e r, the pa rty of i n t e l l i g e n c e bega n to p o n d e r. How c a n an ohviously necessary reform be refu s e d by the people o f n e cessity? It m u st be, they concl u d e d , tha t the reform w a s not w e l l e x pl a i n ed to the m . They would have t o work hard a t i t . The a ffa i r i s , a l l the s a m e , s t ra n ge. Beca use wha t do t h e a u thorities and t he med ia do througho u t the y e a r, i f n o t precis e l y e x p l a i n to the popul a t i on that nothing c a n b e d o n e e x ce p t w h a t o u r govern m e n t s a r e already d oing? How n o t to despa i r from the virtues o f t h i s pedagogy? The act o f e xplaining is, i n truth, e v e ry bit as strange a s it s e e m s s i m p l e. W e , t he govern ments, a re, they s a y, too rational to be u n d e rstood by the people, which is by no means ratio n a l. H o w, i n fact, will t h e i n t e l l igent h e a d ever make i t self s t u p i d enough to be u n derstood by the u n i n t elligent stom a ch? How ca n people, w h o do n o t u n d e rsta n d by d e fi n i t io n , be m a d e \0 unders tand? S o m e thi n k e rs of the elite fo u n d t he recipe - a ga i n a Pla t on i c o n e, in its own w a y : between the hea d a n d the stomach, there i s the heart a n d , if the popula t i o n were to be spo k e n to in the l a nguage of the heart . . . U n fortu n a tely, there i s no s chool by which to know what the heart cou l d s a y clearly in t h e s e m a tters. There is a furt h e r hypo t h e s i s , o n e that n o serious govern m e n t will ever a dmit. since i t u nd e r m i n e s t h e bases o f its fai t h : i f the explanation had no e ffect on the ignorant s t o m a c h s , then it is beca u s e t h e y understood very well and d o not t h i n k it convincing, in s h ort, beca u s e they are not ignor ant stoma chs but intelligent h e a d s . This hypothesis, r u i n o u s for gover n ments, fo unds what there i s real cau s e t o call politics. Politics will continue to be confused by many people with the activity that i t inces s antly counters - the a r t o f governing . Politics i s the way of concerning o neself with h u ma n a ffairs ba s e d o n t h e m a d presupposition that a n y o n e i s as intelligent as anyone else a n d that a t least one m ore thing can always be done other than what i s being done . S a y o u r elites: all that was well and good i n times o f abun d a n ce . We can n o longer afford the l u x u ry o f such extravagances. We s h a l l J e a r n with o u r thinking h e a d s abo u t the laws of necessity and shall h a v e the s t u p i d s t o ma chs take note of this factual necessity. This is the bottom of t h e matter. The thinking h e a d of the Platonic legislator was reproached for being too f a r removed from the stomach to g overn i t usefully. T h e h e a d o f o u r governors s u ffers from t h e reverse

THE HEAD ANDTHE STOMAC H

misfortune : it is unable to distinguish itself from the stomach. Today's governing intelligence is but a knowledge of the automatism o f the great global stomach of wealth . The opposition between the governors and the governed is turned into that between the ideal stomach and the vulgar empirical stomach s . This is perhaps the ultimate meaning of the word consensus: that the head which governs us is no more than an ideal stomach. The government used to say, in the old style, in the military styl e : there must be only one head. The watchword of our governments now is: there must b e no more than a single stomach . Hence , the sym bolic violence of conflicts such a s the French strikes of winter 1995. Observers compared them to the victorious shows of force conducted by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher to break once and for all the power of workers' organizations . The governments here, in short, con duct a b attle for the monopoly of the stomach, a battle to have it admit ted that the system of needs has but one centre and a sole way o f functioning. Our elites promptly say that it is a matter of make or break, when con fronted with the bad will o f the p eople . However, there is very little bad needed for it to break. It suffices if the 'ignorant' simply realize one thing: that by identifying itself with the government of the stomach, the govern ment of intelligence abandons intelligence's only recognized privilege the right to attend to the future . It is in vain that our governments have their experts make long-term forecasts to justify the sacrifices that they ask for today. The mere announcement that the day's Stock Exchange is up and that 'the markets ' have 'reacted p ositively' to these measures for the future suffices to instruct the ' ignorant', in bringing back that future to the daily activitie s of speculation. For the machine to jam, then, it is enough that the small stomachs to persist - as did the French transport workers in the defence o f what the government calls their 'privileges ' and, step b y step, the game gets turned around. The thinking heads then find themselves accused o f being the mere organ of the great anonymous stomach of wealth, while the small greedy stomachs start speaking like intelligent beings and demand the right to attend to the future forgotten by our governors . Say the wise, these follies will be short-lived. Notwith standing, from time to time it happens that societies suddenly relearn two or three unheard-of things : that intelligence is the best shared thing in the world and that inequality only e xists by virtue of equality. These unheard-of things are simply what make politics meaningful.
3

CHAPTER TWO
Bo rges in Sa ra jevo, March 1996

In the i n t rod u ctio n to his gra n d book Les Mots et les Chases, I M i c he l
F ouca ult evokes the b u r l e s q u e c l a s sifica t i o n of a certa i n 'Chinese en cyc

lopaedia' cit e d b y Jorge Luis B o rg e s , which d i vides a n i m a l s i n t o t h o s e

' b e l o n g i n g t o the E m pe ro r ' , 'cm ba l m e d ' , 'suckl i n g pigs', ' w h o b e h a v e

l ike
o ur

m ad m e n ' ,

'who h a v e j u st b r o k e n a pitcher' a n d s i m i l a r s o r t s of ca t

egori e s . What strikes u s , h e m a i n t a i n e d , before t h e s e lists which b l u r a l l catego ries of t h e s a m e a n d t h e o t h e r, i s t h e p u re a n d s i m p l e imposs i b ility of thinking that. Western reason has a p p a r e n t l y m a d e progress since. A n d the t h i n k i n g political heads of the great p o w e r s recently brokered a p e a ce agreement
for ex-Yugoslavia giving de f acto recog n i t i o n of the d i v i s i o n o f B o s n i a

Herzegovina i n t o three ethn i c i t i e s : S e rb i a n ethnicity, C roatian e t h n i city and Muslim ethnici t y. The l i s t i s a dmittedly n o t a s rich in imagination a s that invented by B orges b u t i t i s n o l e s s aberran t . I n w h a t common genus could a philosopher teach us to d i st i n gu i s h between the C roatian species and the Muslim species? What ethnologist w i l l ever tell u s a b o u t the distingui s h i n g traits of 'Mu s l im ethn i city ' ? We c o u l d ima g i n e m a n y vari ations of s u ch a m o d e l . For e x a m p l e , th e American n a ti o n divided i n t o Christian ethnicity, femi n i n e e th n icity, ath e i s t ethnicity and imm igran t e thnicity. People will s a y t h a t t h i s i s n o l a ughing matter. O f t h i s I a m utterly convince d . H e g e l s a i d t h a t the g r e a t tragedies of world history were re-enact e d a s come d i e s . Here, conversely, it is fa rce that becomes tragedy. The B o s n ian war is a m i litary coup de force that not only cau s e d a country to be torn apart, b u t that has a l s o imp o s e d as a n 'obj ective giv e n ' o f c o l d reason a way o f employing the categories of t h e S ame a n d the Other that makes our logic fal t e r in a n exemplary mann e r.

BORGES IN SARAJEVO

In classical terms, the B osnian war was a war of annexation separately undertaken by two states, Serbia and C roatia, with the support of local irredentist populations, against another state, B osnia-Herzegovina. Now, the chief endeavour of the aggressors was to impose, in liell of this classic description, a new description of the situation: in its terms, an opposi tion, on the ground, between three ethnicities, whose identities, histo ries and cultures apparently prevented them from coexisting. The logical obstacle to this deSCription was that there is no Bosnian ethnicity, and that B osnia-Herznogovina is peopled with populations of diverse origins and religions who have coexisted for centuries, more or less well, as people often do under the sun. But we know, since Hegel, that death is dialectical, and the problem was resolved by the killing fields of ethnic cleansing. Killing the Other as Other is the surest way to constitute him in his identity, to impose on everyone and on himself the self-evidence of that identity. By systematically massacring Muslim populations in the conquered zones, the Serb aggressors proved by this act that they actu ally were an ethnicity. Of course, it is meaningless to talk of an 'ethnicity' defined by religious belief. But the problem is not to have criteria lhal make sense. They need merely exist in making coincide a specific diHer ence and the tracing of a line on a map. This coincidence, we know, is the same one to which a certain ration ality also lays claim: the geopolitical rationality of the great powers. These great powers, while containing the territorial ambitions of the aggressors, also granted them their essential point: the 'rationality' of their principle of division in assigning each ethnicity its own territory. The big powers it seems were quite unconcerned by the contradictions that might arise between the great declarations of a supranational Europe and the ethnic gerrymandering of this small nook of that same Europe. But perhaps there is no contradiction. The logic of the great powers itself rests on a simple division. The great supranational spaces are for democracies. The countries of the former communist world will be able to enter it when, by their representative institutions and above all by their commercial development and budget control measures, they have proven them selves to be 'good students', ready to enter the great worldwide circula tion of people and capital. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, so long as its state of development does not allow it to be able to afford the 'luxury' of democracy, it is better for it to be governed, as in times of old, according to the 'natural' criteria of birth, tribe and religion. In this logic,
5

CHRONICLES OF CONSENSUAL TIMES

t hree te rritoria lized eth nicitic s b e a t a n indefi n a b l e a n d divided people. The u n l ocatable ' M u slim' e t hnicity thus fits q uite n a t u ra l l y into the most c o n s t a n t division o f western rea s o n , the same one that B o rges ' t e x t plays with: whoever says ' M u s l i m ' s a y s ' Orienta l ' , and the p a rtitio n o f B osnia

is a way of intro d u cing into the heart of old E u rope an ideal line of divi
sion . This line separates t h e world of western rea s o n o n the m a rch t owards a fut u re of com m o n ratio n a l prospe rity a n d an 'orien ta l ' world d oomed, for an ind efi nite peri o d , t o l a n g uish in irration a l classifi ca tions a n d t h e obscure ide ntity l a w s o f trib e s , religion and poverty. This symbolic geogra p h y, which places J a p a n in the west a n d B o snia in t h e Orient, a n d this p o litica l imagina ry, which increasingly i d e n tifi es d emocratic u n iversality wit h the global law o f wealth, forgets, however, what happened a lit tle cast of S a raj evo 2 5 c e n t u ries a g o . In this era , a n Athenian ca l l e d C listhenes h a d h i s co - citizen s a d o p t a s t r a n g e reform. U n t i l then A t h e n s had been divided into territori a l tribes dominated by l o cal chcfferies of a ristocrats w h o s e legendary a n tiq uity obscured their p ower as landowners. C list h e n e s replaced this n a tu r a l division with an a rtificia l one: h e n ceforth each t ribe w o u l d be c o nstit u t e d of s e p a rate ter ritoria l grou ps - a coa s t a l , a city a n d an i n l a n d one - t h rough the d r a wing o f l o t s . T h e s e t e rritoria l circ u m s criptio n s w e r e called demes in Greek a n d i t was th u s tha t C listh e n e s i n v e n t e d d e m o cracy. D e mocracy is n o t simply the 'p ower of the peop l e ' . It is the power of a certain kind of people: a peop l e deliberately 'inve n t e d ' to dismiss sim u l t a n e o u s l y the o l d power of b i rth a n d t h e p o w e r t h a t s o n a t u r a l l y s t e p s in to t a k e its p l a ce - wea lth . I t is a people that affirms, b e y o n d differences of birth, the simple conti n g e n cy of the fact of being in s u ch - a n d - s u ch a p l a ce a n d not in a n other; a people that contras t s the d u b i o u s divisions of nature with abstract divi sions of territory. Democracy consists above a l l in the a ct o f revoking the law o f birth a n d t h a t of wealth; in affirming the pure contingency whereby individ u a l s a n d populations c o m e t o fi n d themselves i n this o r that p l a ce; in the a ttempt to b u i l d a common w o r l d o n the basis of that sole contingency. And that i s exactly what was at s t a k e in the B osnian conflict: confronted both with the Serb and C ro a tian aggressors, and also with the claim o f B osnia 's Muslim i d entity, B osnian democrats strived t o a s s e rt the prin ciple of a u nita ry i dentity: a territory in which the common law w o u l d b e t h e o n l y p rinciple of coexistence - t h e people as demos. I n the facts, the other people triumphe d: the p e o p l e as ethnos, the people supposedly

BORGES IN SA RAJEVO

united by bonds of blood and ancestral law, however mythical. This tri umph is not merely a local affair confined to a small end of Europe . No doubt we should remain level-headed about the prophecies announcing the widespread outbreak o f ethnic, religious and other types of identity fundamentalism. Yet, so long a s ' s o cialists' and 'liberals' act in concert to identify democratic government with the global law of wealth, partisans of ancestral law and o f separating 'ethnicities' will be permitte d to pres ent themselves as the sole alternative to the power of wealth . And there will never be a shortage of appropriate classifications. For when it is for gotten that the first word of political reason is the recognition of the contingency of the political order, every absurdity proves rational .

CHAPTER THREE Fin de Siecle and New Millennium, May 1996

mllst 'let t i m e take i t s t i m e , ' the l a t e French President Fran<;ois was fond of saying. Lionel Josp i n , his l u ckless s u ccessor ca n didate, adopted a s t h e fi rst poi nt of h i s progra m m e t o take France i n t o the third mille n n i u m . No d o u b t s e n t e n t i o u s remarks about t h e t i m e t h a t w e m u st wait f o r and t h e time that w i l l not wait a re p a r t of t h e wisdom o f n a t i o n s a n d, conse q u e n t l y, of the rhetoric of o u r governme n t s . B u t we ca n all well see t h e s u rp l u s v a l u e that t h e latter can e xtra ct from a finde-siec!e that is also the close of a millen n i u m . To say that we must 'let t ime take its time' a m o u nts to placing oneself as the h i storical j u dge of t he age of revol utions a n d comm u n i sms, in which the ma rch of time was identi fied with the advent of a n e w era . This tells us, in short, that time is nothing other than time : the i n compressible interval necessary for the s ugar to melt and the grass to grow. C onversely, to take I Janu a ry 2000 a s the beginning of a new age, requiring all our thought and efforts in a dvance, is, on the contrary, to say to u s that time is much more than t ime, that it i s the inexhaustible power of production of the new and life, whose part we must play on pain of perishing. These contrasting expressions of fin d e siecle scepticism and new mille narism point to the strange mixture of realism and utopia that character izes prevailing thinking. If we are to believe the discourse of the wise, our fin de siiecZe is the fi nally conquered age of realism . We have buried Marxism and swept aside all u topias. We have even buried the thing that made them possible: the belief that time carried a meaning and a prom i se. This is what is meant by the 'end of history', a theme that was all the rage a few years ago. The ' end of history' i s the end of a n era i n which we believed in ' history' , in time m arching towards a goal, towards the
We Mittl'fan d 8

FtN DE StEeLE AND NEW

MILLENNIUM

manifestation of a truth o r the accomplishment of an emancipation. Ends of centuries in general lend themselves to the task of burying the past. But ours inj ects a very specific touch of resentment into this epochal task. The thinkers who have made it their speciality to remind u s with out respite of all the century's horrors also explain to us relentle s sly that they all stem from one fundamental crim e . This crime is to have believed that history had a meaning and that it fell to the world's peoples to real ize it. And even commemorations, of which our era is so fond, have assumed this necrological meaning . Not long ago they were designe d to remind us of the meaning of our history, that is to say our debt towards the past and our obligation to accomplish its promise in the futu r e . Today, their function has been inverted : their stake is to re-bury - or, at the very least, to set us at an exotic distance from - the time when we believed in history. So, of course we no longer b elieve in promises. We have become real ists . Or, in any case, our governments and our wise experts have b e come realists for u s . They stick t o 'the possible', which precisely does not offer a great deal of possibiliti e s . This 'possible' is made of small things that progress slowly if they are handled with caution by those who know. We must no longer wait for the tomorrows that sing and for freedom to come and overturn oppression. We are implored simply to wait for the ' conj uncture ' to be overcome . The good measure of realist time is not the present (we must learn how to wait). B ut neither is it the distant future . It is the time of conj uncture : we work for the following semester or the next year. And thus we measure, from one day to the next, the time that we must give to time s o that, if all goes well, we will have one hundred thousand less unemployed the following year, or, if it doesn't, no more than a hundred thousand more . B u t they do not get away with b eing realists so easily, and the modesty of the time that must be awaited suddenly reveals its other face: the fran ticness of time, which, as for it, does not wait. We can say that time needs time, but this will never b e enough to see it yield its modest fruits. Time is not a leader of a liheral company, it is an old-fashioned monarch . It wants to be obeyed and loved before all else . It does not only want for us to follow its march . It wants u s to go ahead of it, to give it in advance the gifts of our persons and our thoughts . Time's specificity is not only to be slow. It is never to stop . For their part, human beings have, we know, a distressing tendency to stop. As decades of workers ' struggles have
9

C H RONICLES OF CO NSE NSUAL T IMES

shown, people m a y wa n t t h e fut u re reign of work a n d t o live in advance a fut u re of infinite progres s . Th i s does not prevent. to the contra ry, great ca rl' from bdng ta ken for t h e m o m e n t t o separate clearly between l e i sure t i m e and work t i m e a n d strictly l i m i t the latter to the advantage of t he former. There is a wa y of living t h e fut ure a n d a n other way of living t he prese n t . Th e u t opias o f n e w man a n d of glorious work sought in vain to red ress this double appreciation o f t i m e, to prove that the present and t Ill' fut u re, leisure and work were not d i fferent i n thdr essence. Our govern ments and our realist wise e xperts today take up the same s on g a s t h e shamed u topia n s . By comparison with the latter, they prom ise liS, it is true, very littl e . B u t for this little. they set the m a x im u m c o n d i t i o n . If. next year, we d r e to get an a d d i tional 0 . 2 per cent growth a nd a 2 per cen t fJll in u n e mployment. we have to mobil ize full-time, we I11l1St s t o p cl inging - l ike backwa rd i n d ividuals - to t h e ' rigidities' of work t i llle and its measure i ll sala ry terms, and put ou rselves e n t i rely at the d isposi t i o ll of time. We m u st become completely 'flexibl e ' . This i s n o t bccausc t i m e always needs u s . But it can have need of u s at a n y time. And we m u st be completely available, both lor the moments when it needs u s and for those when it doesn't. Time will yield u s its modest fru i", on one conditio n : that we cease from s topping and from stopping it. [ II his theses Ober den BegritJ der Geschichte.! Walter Benjamin evokes the insurgents of the 1 8 3 0 French revol ution who showed symbolically their will to break with t h e cou rse o f time b y firing gun shots at clocks. Our realist governments a n d entreprene u rs a re utopians of another kind. They, too, would promptly b reak t h e clocks, b u t f o r another reason : because clocks sound the interruptions of time - the end of work, the closing of shops, the passage to recreation o r from the history to the mathematics class . . . it is at this point that the sad economic reality is s uhlima ted into the grand mystiqu e of the new millennium. The future, to be built cautiously, step by step, becomes the Future which calls u s a n d does not wait, t he Future that we risk losing forever if we do not get a move on, if we do not o u rselves rid of everything that keeps u s from a dopting its rhythm . The fin-de-siccle managers of disenchanted realism then turn into prophets of the new millennium. They have preache d submission to the law of the present and of the merely p ossibl e . They now exult the infin i t e deploymelll of o u r potentials for action and imagination. They a s k u s 1 0 cast ' o l d man' completely aside and m uster u p a l l t h e energies that
10

FIN DE SIEeLE AND

NEW MILLENNIUM

will make us men of the future. Time, then, is no longer the support of a promise whose name would be history, progress or liberation. It is what takes the place of every promise. It is the truth and the life which must penetrate into our bodies and souls. This, in short, is the quintessence of futurological science. This science does not, in actual fact, teach us much about the future. Whoever reads its works to find out what shall be done in the future will generally be left wantinig. This is because its aim is dif ferent: it is not to teach us about the future, but to mould us as beings of the future. This is why school system reform always constitutes the core of the futurological promise. School is the mythical place whe re it is pos sible to fantasize about an adequacy between the process of individual maturation, the collective future of a society and the harmonious and uninterrupted progression of time. In the way of great indispensable mutations, Alvin Toffler once enlisted in a singular reform to the school system, which suggests that we dispense with the old routine of teaching blocks of literature, history or mathematics. From now on, it ought to teach the ages of life: childhood, adolescence, maturity and old age. 2 No longer was it a matter, in the old style, of a school system's preparing people for life. It was a matter of making these latter indiscernible with one another, in short of forming beings who are entirely o f the times. B ecause the Time which is no longer susceptible to realize any utopia has itself become the last utopia. B ecause the realism which pretends to lib erate us from utopia and its evil spells is itself still a utopia. It promises less, it's true. But it does not promise otherwise.

11

CHAPTER FOUR
Co l d Rac i s m , July 1996

At the heart of the supranational and liberal West, marching towards the absolute rationalization of social behaviours and the elimination of all ideological archaisms, racism is back. This march against time is some thing that might be wondered at. But political science is not philosophy. If, according to Aristotle, the latter begins with wonderment, the for mer's axiom is that nothing is ever surprising. And one of its favourite exercises is to demonstrate the utter predictability of the phenomenon t ha t, moreover, it was powerless to foresee. When it comes to racism and xenophobia, the explanation is always pre-prepared. These are phenomena, we are told, of backwardness. And phenomena of backwardness are the inevitable consequences of the march forwards. There is no economic modernity without a shaking up of traditional sectors of activity and a weakening the social strata linked to them. These worried populations, their futures threatened, thus develop regressive and archaic behaviours. They look for scapegoats and find them in 'others': foreigners who take workplaces, abound in the cities and receive all the considerations of the political class. The origin of these schemas is easily recognizable; they are taken from old Marxist funds: when societies transform, the endangered petit bour geois classes hold on tightly and enlist in the reactionary backlash. More over, we know that this type of Marxism has, practically everywhere, become the official ideology of liberal states and their intelligentsias, The reason for this apparent paradox is simple. There is one thing that liberal optimism is congenitally powerless to understand: the reason for which the march forwards can produce the march backwards. If there is one
12

COLD RACISM

thing, by contrast, that Marxist literature brought to a point of impass able perfection, it is e xactly thi s : the analysis of the historico-economico sociological reasons for which history always gives rise to something other than that which it should. The advantage o f such e xplanations by means of sociological and eco nomic conditions is that they always work, regardless of the said condi tions . And they work for a simple reason, which is that, at the end of the day, they do no more than state a pure tautology, namely that the back ward are backward. This tautology has, above all, the merit o f assuring, without any need even to make it explicit, its incontestable converse, namely, that the advanced are advanced. There are two things that the advanced seem to have a problem under standing. The first is that there is no need to be socially threatened or culturally 'handicapped' t o resent the other as an obstacle to e nj oyment and a threat to identity. In lieu of the specialists of political science, it was a psychoanalyst, Jacques Lacan, who announced,

20 years ago, the new

racism to emerge within the very heart of a society that is completely occupied with endless e nj oyment . The second is that, conversely, the pleasure in speaking and in reasoning is also shared by the s o - calle d dis empowered classes . If racist statements have always proliferate d in com pany with the promises o f unprecedented sexual performance s - in the dilapidation of public toilets as well as in the modernity of internet net works - the reason is because they procure equal pleasure . And there is no need to suspect the combination of socio-economic misery and s e xual misery. There is obj e ctive pleasure in playing with the formulations that serve to identify the traits of the other - as ridiculous, detestable o r sim ply inferior. Above all, because there is pleasure in playing with words. The theory of the advanced is that the backward only use words in weighing them down with a meaning which is that of their needs, pas sions, feats or frustration s . In the racist utterance, according to their argument, there will necessarily b e a burden of popular or populist pas sion s . In short, it will b e necessary to believe in this utterance and to have great reasons for b elieving in it, if it is to function. The advanced seem not to perceive that the 'backward' are also daily the addressees of messages - political o r publicity - that play on one or other o f the two dominant registers of communication: expert explanation and derision . And the 'backward' follow very well . In one respect, racists speak like experts : they speak their language; they say less and less that Negroes are
13

CHRONICLES OF CONSENSUAL T IMES

dirty or lazy; they expla in more and more that there are economic con straints and thresholds of tolerance, and that, in the end, foreigners must be driven off, beca use if they are not, there i s a risk of creating racism. In another respect, they know very well how to play on the undecidable status of reality and the status of ambi guous utterances which character ize the circula tion of med i a messages . Today. there i s practically no advertisement for a product that is not a play on words; barely any appeal to desi re, or request to adhere to a belief, that does not pass via a susp i cion o r a derision, more o r less pronounced, o f the object o f desire o r of the very form of belief. It is not stea dfast belief, rooted in lived exper i ence, that makes us adhere to the order of o u r societies . On the contrary, it is word plays, suspi cions of belief and the undecidability of opinion. So, the racism developing today is not the fact of the 'backward of p rogress'. It is perfectly synchronous with the forms of legitimation of enlightened governments and a dvanced thinking. It reproduces the dominant forms of description of society and the preva iling mode of opinion, that of unbelieving belief, of belief that no longer needs to be believed to have an effect. Postmodern sociology, in agreement on thi s point with tra ditional Marxism a s w i t h government discourse, imagines that the defl ation of belief is an impediment to collective passion and thereby a ssures social pea ce. B ut the dedu ction is false. Unbelief and suspicion can simply produce more intellectual. more ludic, more indi vid ualized, and, consequently, more effective passions, ones that are bet ter adapted to the reign of s ceptical adhesion and unbelieving belief.
A good example i s provided by the growing excess of negationist arg u

ments . The contribution that these arguments make i s , i n a sense, purely 'intellectual', conceived in vitro. The weapons of negationism were forged, without objective need or apparent passion, by university aca demics, who availed themselves o f the favourite themes o f advanced thinking: scepticism concerning the big words in need of deflation; rejec tion of globalizing interpretations and Manichean explanations . They declared that science had no taboos, that 'extermination' was a little bit too big a word, and that things needed to be examined in detail to see if they were proven and formed a single chain of causes and effects. And the reasons for the success o f their arguments are simple: owing to the chosen object, they simply give a provocative form to the modes of think ing and the forms of belief germane to the dominant regime of opinion. If diverse parliaments have had to pass laws prohibiting people from
14

COLD RACISM

denying the extermination, this is precisely because it was the sole solu tion by which to prohibit this exemplary transformation of the dominant modes of thinking into anti - Semitic provocation. It is because the daily bread and butter of advanced thinking is able, at any moment, to be translated into its 'backward' version. 'Enlightened classes, enlighten yourselves!' said Flaubert. This is the most difficult commandment to apply. Who will look for what he is assured of possessing? And why submit to examination theories that work in every case? Perhaps, quite simply, so that we no longer need to make them work.

IS

CHAPTER FIVE
The Last Enemy, November 1996

The extraterrestrials arc here. They've already struck. Los Angeles has disappeared in a deluge of fire. And upon interrogation as to what he wants on earth. the sole alien to be captured responds ill virtually the only English he knows: death. On the morning of this July 4, as the United States celebrates its independence, the juvenile president addresses a circumstantial message to his troops: we arc no longer fight ing, he says in essence, for freedom and democracy as our ancestors did, we are fighting for our survival. The participants are overcome with enthusiasm at the idea of this new challenge, so much more exciting than the old, and which will be victoriously achieved through the exem plary cooperation between a white brain and two black arms. This, we know, is an American fiction currently showing on cinema screens throughout the world by the name of Independence Day. And it might be wondered whether taking this declaration of political fiction seriously is worth the bother. Is the bombast placed on the fight for sur vival not simply part of the dose of shock stimuli that make up the cock tail of catastrophe films' The argument would be convincing precisely if the formula of the film did not appear slightly out-of-kilter. In this film, the visions of apocalypse and the special effects are, all in all, modest as compared with films of the same genre. What is striking, on the contrary, is the depiction of a tranquil America, where a president confronted with an extermination nevertheless strictly continues to share his paren tal duties as regards his daughter, and whose domestic virtues lead by their example to the regularization of free unions, the reconciliation of broken households and the rehabilitation of drunkards.
16

THE LAST ENEMY

In short, the catastrophe scenario involves a strange discordance: on the one hand, it appeals to all the moral values in which a people likes to recognize itse lf, to the point o f p ortraying the slightly outdated m orality of a pilot who, having regularized his marital status, makes for a more effective combatant; o n the other, it teaches us that in times of great threat, the common ideals o f freedom and democracy associated with these private virtues can, as for them, be shelved in the antiquities store . We can then question the relation between the moral virt u e 0 1 g o o d family fathers and a political virt u e in which the fight agaimt d e a t h com pletely supersede all democratic ideals. We recognize in it. of c o u rse, the persistence of a binary logic strippe d of its other. B efore the aliens, it was the landing of the Reds in Los Angeles or San Francisco that we awaited. In those times, the sureness o f American victory was that of the victory o f freedom and democracy over their mortal enemies. One fought. or one feigned to fi ght. to find out whether it was better to be ' re d ' o r 'dead ' . Since we n o longer risk being red, the threat of death is all that remains, so the slogan of the supreme combat can be stated simply: bet ter alive than dead. The deduction is logical . Nevertheless, this fi ctional logic gives out a singular ring against the d ominant tone of contemporary political sci ence and historiography. These latter say that the collapse of the S oviet empire was the triumph of a democracy definitively reassured of its ide als in a world no longer subj ect to a division between two h ostile blocs. Victory over the totalitarian enemy made the reign o f democracy and the reign of peace identical. An entire present -day schoo l of historiography identifies this end o f our century 's revolutionary cycle a s t h e end of the long cycle of revolutionary demo cracy that began with the French Revo lutio n . The revolutionary pretension to re - found radically the commun ity is deemed to have tie d democracy to the void of ideology and t h e violence of terror, f o r a p e riod from which we have only just emerge d . Today, at the o t h e r end of this long catastrophe, we are able to reconnect with the good tradition o f democracy - that of the American Founding Fathers - that is, with the reasonable democracy - liberal and realist which bases public p e a ce on the e x ercise o f private virt ues and the enter prising spirit o f individuals. Now, this is the exemplary ' Americanness' that the discourse o f t h e president -aviator shatters. It works to ruin t h e edifying identi fication of
17

C H RO N IC LES OF CONSENSUAL T IMES

good government with the reign of peace, enterprise and liberty. C a tas trophe films are not only fi ctions that restore, with little cost. emotions to populations that simultaneou sly want to enj oy the benefi cial effects of democra tic peace and to combat the enn u i that it engenders . They rem ind us that the fi ctions of sta te cannot d ispense so ea sily with the fig ure of the enemy, with the representa tion of an absol u te threa t . In
o n t'

sense, the moral of the special- effect cata strophe fil m is no different

to the one we are fed day after day by our reasonable governments : our

societies must no longer be concerned with the fight for freedom and e q u ality against their enemies, but with the struggle for survival. which is prey to the slightest blu nder. The smallest wage rise, the smallest drop in interest rates, the slightest u nforeseen market reaction is, in fa ct. t' n o ugh to d i srupt the acrobatic balance on which our societies rest and plunge the entire planet into chaos. The invasion of extraterrestrial monsters who want nothing less than deJth is, in short, a grand spectacle that provides a face for the rampant fea r that founds the legitimate exercise of governmental management. And it further illustrates for us one of the great founding my ths of mod e rn political philosophy : that threa t o f absolute war which demands each
of us be alienated from our rights . In Hobbes' work, however, the threat

of death comes from every man's being against the other. And, up until
n o w, the enemy, and its threat of servitude or death, has always taken

the face of another people, another political system. The America of Independence Day, as for it. i s no longer threatened by any enemy other than death itself. B y the same token, however, figuring this absolute e nemy becomes problematic. Another recent catastrophe film helps u s to understand this . In The
Rock, it is not from an army of extraterrestrials that the threat of chemical

war being unleashed on San Francisco comes . It i s from an American General. a former Gulf War hero, j ust like the president i n Independence

Day. The reason he takes the town hostage is that he wants to obtain
i ndemnities for the families of the soldiers he has lost and America does not want to recognize . It is, in short, to gain recognition for the reality of death in real wars . This is precisely a right. however, that no longer has any currency. The wars that the Great Natio n u ndertakes are mere police operations during which everyon e is guaranteed a safe life . The only ' true' war i s the total war against absolute D eath. As a good patriot. the rebel general ends up recognizing this . H e renounces the murderous
18

THE LAST ENEMY

enterprise destined to prove the empirical existence of death. He lets himself be killed to prove that death does not exist. All is well that ends well. There is nevertheless a strange game being played here between death confronted and death denied, between absolute fear and the calm confid ence j ointly presented to us by the special effects of apocalypse films and the ordinary discourse of governments. According to Aristotle, tragedy has to purify the fear that it elicits, in order to transform troubles of iden tification into the pleasure of knowledge and contain passion within the play of theatrical space. We may ask what exactly is yielded by these apocalypse comedies with their fears, at once gigantic and so easily dis sipated. We may ask what is gained from these promises to deliver us of empirical death at the price of a total mobilization against imaginary death. Do they not lead us to seek out imaginary culprits to blame for the threat that, promise or no promise, continues to weigh upon every life? This absolute other - the alien, death - which alone is authorized to give face to the enemy, is this not the one that, at the hour of the great pro claimed democratic peace, comes more prosaically stand in for this figure so close to the other: the representative of the other race, of the irrecon cilable ethnicity or of the maleficent religion that imperils our identity and our survival?

19

CHAPTER SIX
The G rou nded P l a ne, January 1997

O f a cinematographic oeuvre, as with any creative effort, there are two

ways of speaking. The first is to judge it in accordance with its idea and to compare what the artisan has d one with what he/she ought to have done or wanted to do. We thus begin with the fact that Crash is the filmic adaptation of a novel by J . C . Ballard, a sort of counter-utopia in the form of a pornographic science fiction novel, in which the automobile is placed at the centre of a Sadean scenario of pleasure founded on the intliction of destruction. We can further mention the interests of the director, David Cronenberg, in the great mythologies of our time, in mutant figures or man-machine hybridizations. And so we judge the film's images as the more or less adequate realization of the intentions of the one and the other. And then there is the other way, based on what one knows nothing of or on the fact that we want somc escapism, which involves placing our selves before the thing, looking at the images and picturing the fable that their sequence proposes to us. We thus start off with what the film's first images show: a plane hanger. A young woman, apparently driven by an imperious desire, approaches a plane. She open her corsage, pulls out a breast from her bra, presses it ecstatically against the metal of the aircraft cabin and begins, with the machine, a body-to-body eTOtics that the soundtrack accompanies with the appropriate panting. Meanwhilc, a man comes from behind to join in the party, and returns, in short, the young woman's machinic enjoyment to its human normality. At the film's end, we see the same young woman on the embankment of a highway, laying beside her overturned car, and ignoring her contusions
20

THE G RO U N D E D PLANE

to make love with her hushand o r privileged companion, who had amused himself by forcing her car off the road. The film, in short, might b e described as the story of a n aviator who renounces flying . Her being in the hanger, then, had to d o with her preparation for her pilot's licence, undoubtedly for the euphoria of cutting through the skies with the dream machine. But in the mean while, her companion initiates her into something that he himself has learnt: there i s a totally other way to make love with machines and to use them for the fulfilment o f one's desire . Prekrable to the e nj oyment of the beautiful plane cutting through the sky. is the car headlong on the encounter with another: the car which causes blood to flow, breaks the limbs, gashes the skin with scars, covers the body with pro s the ses but also, and above all, the car that one dents, smashes up, flips ove r, destroys, sets in flames. So we might say that t h e point to which tale of

Crash bring s

LI S

i s the

latest episode, the finale of the great opera of the wedding of man and mach i n e . Ind eed, for the morale of this sulphurous film, whi ch is given in its last image, could be considered the strict counterpart of anothe r final image, a literary image t h a t in fact marks this adventure's begin ning . At the e n d of his

La hete humaine, I after the conductor and his

chauffeur have killed each othe r, ending a long tale of desire s , j ealousies and murderous folly, E mile Zola describes the deserted locomotive as it continues alone along its impla cably straight line, driving, in spite of its crushed victims, humanity towards its future . The crime or the m a d n e s s of i t s h e r o Jacque s Lantier was p e rhaps to have preferred the e nj oyment of the feminine fl esh and of human blood to the faithful love of the machine . Then, conversely, in the 1 9 2 0s, there emerged the great utopia of machines, which, harmonizing the aspirations of cinematographic art with the grand enterprise of constructing New Man, wante d t o repeal the shamefu iness of the ' bete humaine' in favour of a humanity that is in harmony with the faithful precision of the machin e . 'In the face of the machine we a r e ashamed of man's inability', said D ziga Vertov, 'to con trol himself', in contrasting the 'unerring ways of electricity' to 'the dis orderly haste of a ctive p e ople and the corrupting inertia of passive ones ' . The obstinacy o f the heroes of

Crash, not seeing in vehicl e s anything

but machines b y which t o produce accidents for the purpose of procur ing enj oyment, stages the revenge of man's disorderliness and corrupting

21

C H RON I CLES OF CONSENSUAL TIMES

feeb leness. S o , where some s e e a celebration of t h e futurist figu re of man h yb ri d i zed with the m a c h i n e , I ra t h e r s e e t h e l iq u i d a ti o n of t h e s e c u l a r u topia o f the couple o f N e w M a n a n d t h e d r e a m machine. Ulti m a t e l y, t h e fi l m s h ows us t h a t t h e o n l y m a c h i n e t h a t c a n s t a y t h e course is t h e s m a l l h u ma n sex u a l m a c h i n e , w h i c h t u r n s metallic machines a n d t h e i r d e s t r u ct i o n t o u se , a n d which, i n o r d e r t o atta i n its g o a l s , could d o j u st a s

wel l with o u t t h e m by co n te n t i n g i t s e l f - a s the c o u p l e w h o ' v e ma stered

t h e ga m e shows u s - to conj u re t h e m i n word s . I n fact, all these scen e s o f h o rro r a n d a u tomobile orga s m s m i g h t s i m p l y b e stories t h a t t h e cou

p l e t e l l e a ch other in bed to a d d spice to t h e i r p l e a s u r e .

In t h i s way, t h i s fi l m o f f u t u rist p o r n o - fiction appea rs to prese n t u s a t re n d y a n d paradoxical version of t h e g ra n d t h e m e of t h e e n d of celestial i d eo l og i e s a n d o f t h e ret u rn to t h e s i m p l e a n d solid s a t i s fa c t i o n s that h u ma n i t y gets i n to when i t fa l l s o u t o f love with utopia s . It is a h u m a n i s t f i l m i n its wa y. A n d i f we back u p a centu ry, we ca n a l so s e c i n i t t h e

rev e rsal o f a n o t h e r sce n e : t h e sce n e o f u n i o n between t h e absol u t e o f

l ibert y a n d t h e a b sol u t e o f e n j o y m e n t procu red by other's tortured body, i l lust ra t e d by de S a d e i n t h e e r a o f t h e French Revol u t i o n . Not s o l o n g ago, in a n a rticle t i t l e d ' K a n t with S a d e ' , J a c q u e s L a c a n e n d e a v o u red t o show h o w t h e absoluteness of t h e S a d e a n i m p e rative regarding t h e o t h er's s u bmission t o m y e nj oy m e n t wa s the h i d d en t r u t h b e n e a t h t h e u ncon di t i ona lity o f t h e K a n t i a n l a w a n d m o r a l impera t i v e . E v e rythi n g t ranspires a s t h o u g h the fi l m inverts t h e d e m o nstra tion. Let's l o o k , for e x a mple, a t the two fem a l e characters who g o to the ca r p a r k to m a k e l ove in a c a r . They appear a s t h o u g h they h a ve c o m e to fulfil their d u t y : a d u t y fixed b y t h e script, initially. T h e o t h e r heterosexual or h o m o s e x u a l combinations h a v i n g a l r e a d y b e e n e x h au sted, i t i s now their t u rn to have a go. This t h e y do wit h o u t appa rent enthusiasm a n d witho u t a n y obvi o u s interest on b e h a l f of the director, who cuts their frolics short. The reason for this is that the fictional d u t y i s ultimately a moral one: a n a s s e rtion o f the e q u a l right o f every constitutable hetero- o r h o m o s e x u a l couple t o t a k e e nj o y m e n t i n a ss ociation with t h e machine. The S a dean game of permutations has become a contract of generalized e nj oyment a n d the viole n ce on which i t r e s t e d for d e S a d e i s precisely situated in t h e relations of m a n a n d machine. B etween p a rtners a sort of pre - e s tablished harmony appears to prevail in w h i c h t h e enj oyment t h a t one desires to obtain from the other seems, a t each occasion, t o be matched e x actly b y that w h i c h t h e other desires t o o b t a i n from m e .

22

THE G ROUNDED PLANE

In refusing to have his film labelled pornographic, C ronenbe rg con trasts these sex scenes to the standard cinema tales of love and seduction, which he claims are fundamentally rape scene s . Love stories , we might answer, do in fact share a common feature with S adean cruelty, which is that they are always based upon an inequality between two desires . The presupposition of the pornographic scene, by contrast, is that you do to the other wha t the other wants you to do. Pornography thus illustrates, in its own way, the liberal version of the social contract . This is why its visual empire develops along with the rhythm of development of con sensual neo-liberalism. This is precisely what the final sequence gives us to see and hear: 'Are you alright? ' asks the hero to his companion, whose car he has j ust pushed over the railing and who he finds again lying con cussed on the side o f the road underneath. 'I'm alright' she responds, which is to be understood not a s an expression of her physical state but as an invitation, saying : 'you can go for it. I also desire what you desire ' . I n this way, all violence i s reduced t o the contract, and all the power of the machine to human desire . In the end, then, the film presents u s with the counter- utopia of the brave new world, a rather fitting p a rable for prevailing notions about the 'end of utopias ' .

23

CHAPTER SEVEN
Dialectic in the Dialectic, A ugust 1997

How, today, a re we to come to grips with Adorno's a n d Horkheim er's Dia lectik der Aufkliiru ng? ! Its bril liance seems to have fa ded twice over: a ( i rst time, like that of a star of t h e constellation i rremediably distanced i n t he p a s t called Ma rxism; a second t i m e , on the contra ry, as the p roto t ype, hackneyed by its copies, of the double discourse that is part of the bana lized regi m e in which we live: the critique of the tota litarianism of E n l i ghtenment reason that p rovides t h e liberal governmental order with its intellect u a l crowning point; and the critique of the culture industry that fuels the vaguely contestatory desires of intellectual opinion. In one respect, in fact, this book seems to be part of the oft- attempted h istory of tearing Marxism, as a thinking of emancipation, away from the reason of the Enlightenment; away from a critique of the religion that sends religion earthbound after chasing i t from the sky; away from a fa ith in science that reduces its spirit to a technical mastery of the world; and away from a progressist vision of history that subordinates tlIe potential for emancipation to the necessities of the history of dom ination. Marxism, in one sense, i s only the perpetually disrupted move ment of that tearing away; it begins with the Marxian critique of the relations between human rights and the logic o f capitalism . It continues via the recurrent polemic against evolutionist p h ilosophy, which Adorno i llustrates as much as Lenin or B e nj amin or Gramsci . It i s manifest once again in the I 9 60s with the Althusserian polemic against the twofold heritage of economism and j uridical humanism. And this interminable tearing away undeniably bears traces of the con flict between the philosophies of h istory within which Marxist theory
24

DIALECTIC IN THE DIALECTIC

and politics unfolded. The emancipatory confidence of the Enlighten ment has perhaps only ever existed in the writings of C ondorcet and a few others. And the Marxist identification between scientific theory and a practice of emancipation soon ran into a twofold denegation. On the one hand, Schopenhauerian pessimism, or the theories of decadence, inverted the assertions of progressivism, by accusing the rationalist pre tension to worldwide mastery and human liberation of an original sin or illusion. On the other, scientism, with Spencer, Renan and many others, linked evolutionist philosophy to the theme of 'selection of the best' and the government of experts over the masses bound to servitude. The Nietz schean critique of civilization is situated at the exact intersection of these two traditions. And by the same token it entertains a complex relation to the Marxist critique of ideologies: it assists it in its effects only at the price of undermining its principles. And the consequences of this can be seen in the argument of the Dialectik der A ufkliirung. What the latter proposes by way of a criticism of Marxist reason is a new version of the original sin of Greek rationality according to Nietzsche. In repudiating tragic wisdom, S ocrates' fault becomes that of Ulysses' resisting the songs of the sirens. The fault, however, is the same and resides in the Apollonian hubris of the knowledge that wants to forget its Dionysiac side, the shadow-side that links it to the mythical world and the 'obscure forces of life'. Adorno and Horkheimer, of course, link their denunciation of that original sin to the critique of social domination: their Ulysses does not simply guard himself against the Dionysiac songs of the Sirens. In plug ging the sailors' ears, in obliging them to serve his own renunciation of enj oyment, he identifies the success of the common rational undertak ing with the capitalist law of domination. He is therefore strictly opposed to Nietzsche's 'plebeian' Socrates. But this gap is made against the back ground of a common presupposition: that of a grand historical destiny of Western reason, construed as the accomplishment of an original sin. As such their critique of capitalist reason or of the culture industry thus appears much closer than it would like to the other great transformation of the Nietschzean primal scene, the one developed by the philosopher that Adorno riddles with his sarcasms; it appears as the leftist rejoinder to the Heideggerian critique of western metaphysics and its accomplish ment in the technological domination of the world. There is, in short, a dialectic of the dialectic of reason. It strives to accomplish the intermin able task of Marxist critique: to cut, at last, the umbilical cord linking the
25

CHRONICLES OF CONSENSUAL TIMES

p romises of revol u t i o n a ry e m a n ci p a t i o n to t h e da ngers of E n lighte n ment rea son . I t e n d e a v o u r s to c o n t r a s t t h e perverted, inst r u m e n t a l a n d med iatizing reason o f d o m i n a t i o n with a n a u t h e ntic rea s o n , with a rela t i o n of i n timacy between rea s o n a n d t h e lived world which ckvelop s i n t o a p o w e r of e m a n cipation . B u t t h i s b r e a k t h ro ugh i mpels i t towa rd s
a not her

cri tique o f the E n l i g h t e n m e n t , a cri t i q u e that casts the h istory of

western rea s o n and o f its p r o m i s e o f e m a n cipation a s the i rreversible d e velopment of a p r i m a ry i l l u s i o n . This ' d i alect i c in the dialectic' fou n d s t h e m e l a n cholic v e r s i o n of M a r x i s t critiq u e . B u t i t also g i v e s i t a n a m b i g u o u s d e stiny. I t s critique of t h e c u lt ur a l i n d u stry w a s t h e n succe e d e d b y t h e Situationist critique o f t h e ' s pe ct a c l e ' - a n o t h e r g ra n d , m e l a n ch ol i c d i s c o u r s e on the u n i form com mod i fication of the wor l d . Both h a v e become commonplaces of that d i s co u r s e o f ' d e m ys t i fi e rs' which a cc o m p a n i e s e a c h m a n i festa t i o n o f t h e c u l t u ra l i n d u stry - or of the ' society of t h e spectacle'
-

to such a n e x t e n t
-

t hat it beco m e s t h e lat ter'S obligatory d o u b l e [ doublure ]

t h e d i scou rs e o f

t he ' c l e v e r ' w h i c h t h i s i n d u st ry's ' s t u p i d i t y ' n e e d s for its perpetuation . This dia lectic enters i n t o t h e s t ra ng e d e s t i n y of what c a n b e ca l l e d post Marx i s m . Decla red dead with the collapse o f the Soviet system, M a r x i s m w a s , by t h e same token, liberated f o r a l l sorts o f posth umous u s e s , O n t h e one h a n d , official M a r x i sm was c a l l e d u p o n t o d o d u t y for n e o - l ib e r a l politics, to w h i c h it l e n t t h e t h e o r y o f e co n o m i c necessity a n d t h a t o f t h e i n e l u ctab l e d i rection o f h i s t o ri c a l t r a n sformations; o n the other, critica l Marxism l e n t its disencha n t e d vision to t h o s e contestations of cultural comm odities which accompa n y t h e i r development- while simultan e o u s l y maintaining reactive disco u r s e s which c o unterpose art's a u thenti city to t h e forms o f its compromise with t h e calculations o f state and t h e merchants of culture. And, sure- enough, t h e Dialectic of Reason denounces in a d va n ce a n y s u ch u s e o f i t s criti q u e . I t shows that a r t o r t h e a ut h e n tic culture that one c laims t o b e upholding against the c u l t u ral i n d ustry stem from the s a m e princip l e , T h e division between noble a r t a n d the cultural i n d u stry i s h e i r t o the first d i v i s i o n symbolized b y t h e g e s t u r e o f Ulyss e s . I n renouncing the e n j oyment promised by the song o f the Sirens, h e reserves for him self t h e privilege of hearing only the song o f promise a n d of pe ril that he h a s prohibited his sailors from e nj oy i n g . C ivilized barbarism depends on this first exclusi o n , And here o n e feels the profound motif that separates Adorno and Horkheimer from the inanity o f those weepers who

26

DIALECTIC I N TH E D IALECTIC

periodically wallow about an's ru ination in cultural commerce and pol itics . This profound motif goes fu rther back than the Marxist critique of fetishism or denunciation of 'bourgeois' Enlightenment thought. Through the intermediary o f Holderl inian poetry, it harks to that which is without a d oubt the veritable founding t ext of the modern thought of emancipation, Friedrich von S chiller's Uber die asthetische Erziehung des

Menschen. 2 To the establish e d s o cial division between the barba rism of the
civilization o f the Great and popula r savagery, S chiller counterposes that chance at common humanity - at reconciliation in the sensory world constituted by beauty. The resistant force of the Dialekrik der Aujklarung, that force which separates its denunciation from all the contemporary commonplaces, lies in its refusal to yield on that fundamental a esthetic promise, on that horizon of a common sensible humanity. It also lies in the very radicalization of the theme of the promis e . The romantic readers of S chiller made of art's b e autiful totality the prefiguration of the free community. For Adorno and H orkheimer, on the contrary, art only per petuates the promise at the price of breaking it, of inscribing in itself the s ustained wound, the unresolved contradiction of every transfiguration of reality into a beautiful aesthetic appearance . This is the radicality which provide s the denunciation of cultural banality with its force of anger. The problem is not that this banality brings art down to the level of the 'masses ' . The problem is that it is a machine for satisfying all the needs, including ' elevated' ones, which deprives art of its force of d e cep tion, and therefore o f its p otential for emancipation . This small difference is e s s ential . W e s e e sim ultaneously what weakens it. The fact is not that A dorno's and Horkheimer's Marxism is too tainted with utopianism. It is in fact missing the same thing that 'realist' forms of Marxism are missing: a political conception of emancipation.

27

CHAPTER EI G HT
Voyage to the Country of the Last Socio l ogists,

No vember 1997

Tristes Tropiq ues ' begins with a chapter titl e d : La fin des voyages. B u t why exactly have t h e s e travels ended a n d why is B razil the privileged place lor t h e verification of that end? Th ese two q ue stions presuppose a nother: what does it mean to travel i f we are to understand by this not simply a displacement of bodies but an adventure of the mind? To understa nd it. let us pause for a moment o n a tale of travel through B razil that i s much older a n d much less polished than Levi - S trauss'. In his Memoires d 'un enfant de la Savoie, 2 published by the author in Paris in 1844, Claude Genoux, former chimney sweep turned print worker, tells us of his years of errancy a n d in p a rticular of his voyage to B razil in 18 3 2 . He set out for it by chance, h e tells us. A letter lying about in the Marseille port informed him that B razilian b a rbers were in need of l eeches. So he bought a big lot of them and transported them to the other side of the Atlantic. With his leeches sold, various circumstances detained him in the country and h e relates to u s the most extraordina ry. The main characters are a caiman that devours his travelling companion, a boa constrictor that threatens to devour him, and a black slave by the name of Papagall - the former king of an African tribe who revolts against the inj u stice of the fazendero, massacres his master's entire family and is hanged. For Genoux this last episode provides the occasion for an intense mediation on the contradiction of a country in which public opinion and a liberal press coexist with the b a rbarism of slavery and corporal punishment.
28

VOYAGE TO COUNTRY OF THE LAST SOCIOLOGISTS

Genoux's tale presents us with the classical figures of the travel story. What we discover, to start with, is that the other country really does resemble its otherness, that the story describes precisely the animal and human menagerie and vegetal props recognizable by those who have never been there and never will. The tropical adventures that Genoux recounts could have been invented even if he'd never left E u rope . And one indeed begins to suspect that p e rhaps he did not actually ever leave. The principle of the e quivalence whereby caimans, boas and parrots lend support to their own figuration is in itself simple : the map of the world only ever presents the traveller with the stages of h umanity's develop ment. The territory o f B ra zil is a map of tim e . The America / Africa encounter arbitrated b y the E u ropean i s one of humanity's past with i t s fut ure . Before the painted canvass o f t h e t ropical forest, the y o ung Savo yard and the old king -become - slave communicate in the language o f the universal spirit . And this language is easily reducible to that strange liter ary language which only exists in s chool texts and the prose of autodi dacts: 'White m a n , you are t h e fi r s t of you r colour who has lowered himself or rather who has shown himself to be big enough to lower him self to help a poor Negro . C an

I treat the colour that heaven gave you

as a crime? - Never, I think, was such a discourse pronounced by a White Man in the presence of a B lack Man . . . ' In identifying himself with the language of the universal mind, this literary language, which n o one has ever spoken, annuls the scepticism that the traveller draws from his experience . He traces the line of a fut ure at the end of which the New World will end up precisely being identi fi ed with the territory of a new humanit y which has accomplis he d its march towards civilization and that will find itself governed by an o rder which will be the recapitulation of its progress. This hope of a comm unity gov erned by the law o f an ordered past was, in Genoux's time, the obj ect of a young science which Auguste C omte formulated and E mile D urkheim taught to the masters of Levi - S trauss . This science, which is m ore than a science, consists in the idea of a society that transforms its s cience into beliefs and common ritu als; it is called sociology. Travelling to B razil means travelling t o the country of s o ciology. This is the voyage that the B razilian j o u rney of Tristes Tropiques brings to its end . The tracing back of the time which goes from Paris to Sao Pa ulo and from S a o Paulo t o the Rondon line is the path by which sociol ogy's meaning is inverted. This is the 'sadness' of the Tropics . In
29

CHRONICLES OF CONSENSUAL T I MES

d isembarking at Santos, Levi - Stra uss would have su rely been aware of the famous phrase of a French president: ' B ra zil will always be a land o f the fu ture ' . And he, too, could also have described, without leaving Paris, the tropical avenues and villas of Rio - simila r i n setting to the seaside sta tions of 1 860s Fra n ce - the herds of cattle grazing in mid - Sa o Paolo, t h e n e w and instantly a g e d buildings, o r t h e decadent a ristocracy o f t h e racetracks and the Automobile C l u b . I t is this tropical decor that t a kes the place of Genou x 's cai m a n a n d boas. The future of civilization i s a l ready n o m o r e than the imitation of i t s past. B u t a serious consequence follows from this: if B razil's future is in the past, the same holds for the f u t u r e of sociology. Th is is shown already in the 'sociological minuet' carried out by the chosen society which surrounded the young French professors of Sao P a u l o University, and in which each sociological species is represented by a u n i q u e speci m e n : the com m u n ist and the catholic, the ra cing dog a m a t e ur and t h e amateur modern painter, the local erudite and t h e surrealist p oe t . What is this miniaturized social world, i f not the caricature of the soci ol ogical principle of a n o rganic society constituted by well- differenti a t ed functions? The great sociological faith from which the theory of p rogress d rew a second wind, na mely that which was t o give a soul to the new reasonable republics, is made to look by the B ra zilian mirror suspiciously as if it is only a game of society. And yet, sociology is not an illusion . But to encounter i t one must move towards the real territories of those Indians who, according to the master of Levi - Strauss, peopled the working class areas of Sao Paolo and, a ccording to his Paulist interlocutors, had long since disappeared from the B razilia n soil. On the shore of the Rio Paraguay or near the Rondon line, the ethnologist at last finds sociology in act. The C aduveo's face painting or the topography of the B ororo village carry out the same intel lectual programme : to invent a cultural order which imposes its norms on nature . For these 'savages' are 'greater sociologists than even D u r kheim or Comte ' . They feel j ust a s much repugnance for that which a ssociates the pleasures of sex with the vulgarity of procreation as taste for that painting which imposes the geometrical regularity of its decors on the 'natural' traits of the face . B u t the solution to this intellectual problem is also the solution to a p olitical one: the complex structure of the B ororo village and the divid ing up of sides in the face painting of the C aduveos integrates into a same
30

VOYAGE TO COUNTRY OF THE LAST SOCIOLOG ISTS

structure the two contradictory elements of their social organization: equality, expressed in symmetry, and the asymmetrical distribution of three hierarchized classes. S ociology was born in nineteenth-century Europe for precisely this end: to collapse into a single structure the hier archy necessary to the life of the social body and the equality claimed by the man of democratic times; to make this structure the principle of a faith and a ritual by which the members of a society manifest, in a half conscious half-unconscious way, the principle of their social cohesion. Far from exoticism, the funerary ritual of the B ororo realizes the ideal of the positivist Republic, namely that which inspired the commemorations of the Third French Republic. So B razil really is the land of sociology. Only, it is among those popula tions in the process of final extermination, repressed to the furthest depths of its territory. The ethnologists complicity with the 'savages' vision of the world, then, is more than a character trait or a principle of method. It is a solidarity with the last authentic servants of sociology. The slow death of the Nambikwara is not only the last episode of 'civiliz ing' conquest. With them will die not so much the last savages as the last true sociologists. And this Nambikwara leader who seizes a simulacrum of writing, conceived uniquely as a means of power, anticipates the death of this last true sociology. He makes of it a simulacra similar to the 'sociological minuet' of the Paulist elite. That is the final lesson of the B razilian voyage, that is of the ethnolo gist's return to the sociological continent. However, the Nambikwara is not the last people to be visited by the author of Tristes Tropiques. Depart ing from scientific method, he seized the occasion to enj oy a stay of eth nological truancy among the Tupi-Kawahih. There, he said, he was really able to play Robinson C rusoe and enter into a relation with the savages, which the absence of an interpreter left in its mute virginity. Return of ethnological science to the good Rousseauist savage? Or discovery that the serious sociological science was no less utopian than the reverie of the good savage?

31

CHAPTER N I NE
J u stice i n the Pa st, April 1998

For 6 m o n t h s, o fficial Fra nce seems to h a v e b e e n occup i e d by a single

even t : the t rial of Ma u rice Pa p o n , former f u n c t i o n a ry o f t h e French state

of M a rs h a l l Pe t a i n , for his com p l i ci t y, between 1 942 and 1 944, i n t h e
a rre s t

o f J ewish m e n , women a n d c h i l d re n g o n e missing i n t h e d e a t h

ca m Jl s . T h i s t rial c o u l d h a v e res u lt e d i n a s i m p l e confrontatio n . O n o n e

s i de, rela t i ves of t h e deported were d e m a n d i n g repa ra tions for t h e cri m e s p e rpetra t e d a ga i n s t t h e i r k i n . O n t h e o t h e r, s t o o d a f u n cti o n a ry who h a d fu l filled h i s rol e a s functiona ry o f t h e collabora t i o ni s t state w i t h o u t i n n e r c o n ce r n s or a n e x cess of zeal . H e s i g n e d t h e a rrest and deporta t i o n war rants t h a t fell u n d e r h i s a u t hority, witho u t worrying personally either a b o u t orga nizing t h e sea rch for J e w s o r about finding o u t the fate of t h e d epo rted . A s e n t e n ce of 1 0 years in prison w a s h a n d e d d o w n t o sanction h i s u nd e n i a b l e a n d clearly demarcated responsibility. However, t h i s is where the s i m p l i ci t y o f things s t a r t s to g e t fuzzy. Wha t i s t h e relation o f comme n s u r a b i l i t y b e t w e e n t h e 10 years in prison i mposed, 55 yea rs after the fa cts, on a man now 8 7 years o f a g e a n d t h e martyrdom of t ho s e who w e r e a s s assinated
en masse

in the d e a t h camps?

And why d i d a trial that co u l d not r e s u l t in any verdict proportional to the wrongdoings of a ll indivi d u a l i n v o l v e d i n a m a s s crime t a k e o n s u ch an importance? This lack of proportion shows, fi rs t of a l l , the singul a r function t h a t the i nsta nce of the j u diciary has t o d a y. E ve r y political matter o f rights or wrong, o f j u stice o r of i nj us tice, t a k e s t h e form o f a trial conducted in a real or imaginary court of l a w. At t h e s a m e time that the French were d a ily informe d of the Pap o n trial's u n f o l ding, they cou l d behold, i n a l l

32

JUST ICE IN THE PAST

bookstore windows, the Livre nair du communisme, I which featured an advertising sleeve announcing : 85 million dead. S ome have questioned the figures: how are we t o count the victims of the C hinese famines and must they be counted a s victims of communism for the same reasons as those who were shot o r who died in the camps? B ut this is not the heart of the problem. The function of figures is more legal than statistical . From Volin2 to S olzhenitsyn there has been no lack of people to disclose the crimes of communist regimes . B ut they did so in another political mode. They testifie d a s victims of communism, denouncing it in the name of another p olitical idea, whether anarchism, the 'veritable' com munism or the restoration of the old monarchic and religious order. Today something else is at stake : the number of deaths is identified with a court of history whose decision has been made, that has delivered a verdict no longer on a regime but on an ideology, that is, ultimately, on a time when one believed in ideologies . The court of history, in sum, has settled the account between the present and another time: that of Volin and of Solzhenitsyn as much as of Lenin or Stalin - in short, the time of politics. It could be said, in the same way, that the Papon trial involves a set tling of accounts between the French people and the French Vichy state and its participation in the Nazi undertaking of extermination. The trial of an individual thereby also becomes the trial of the past. It gets identi fied with a court of history, charged with stating a truth that would simultaneously p e rmit a statement of collective guilt and r elegate this guilt to the past, at last drawing a line between this past and us. The
10 years of prison meted out to a functionary of the French state declares,

once and for all, the guilt of that state as such. This sentence simultane ously marks the distance which for u s makes it a pure obj e ct of j udge ment . B ut this e quivalence is indeed misleading . To transform the trial of a functionary into the trial of his state is a contradictory thing : it is to accuse him at once for what he did as a functionary of this s tate, which is guilty as a whole, and for what he did not do, as an individual - dis obey the state whose functionary he was. A functionary, by definition, serves the state. Maurice Papon served the collaborationist state . After this he served the Republic of General de Gaulle. The state abhors a void and the Gaullist Republic took servants of state from wherever it could find them: from among the servants of the 'French state' that had simply served the state in general, without an
33

C H RONICLES OF CONSENSUAL TIM ES

e xcess of milita n t /ea l . Th e reupon, M a u rice Papon beca me a n exemplary serva n t of the French Republic, notably directing the repression of an A lgnian demonstra tion in O ctobe r 1 9 6 1 d u ring which nea rly two hun d red d emonstra t o rs were beatcn to death and thrown into the Seine. This latter stat e cri me was n o t implicated i n t h e tria l . II i t was nonethc I ns referred t o d u ring pro cecdings, it was in the fra m ework of this sig n i fica n t syllogism : since he com mitted t h i s crime of our Republican state, wh ich n obody d reams of prosecuting, h e may well have committed the other crime of t h e collaborationist sta t e . The fact that he has always been a good sta t e serva n t proves his general inability not to serve the state, h ence his implication in the crime of the state h e served i n 1 942. Ought we to believe that the trial brought against Papon is the tria l of I he sta te in general and of those who ca n n ot bring them selves to d i sobey it '? And has the court of history, in imposing 1 0 yea rs of prison, decided i n favo u r of Ihe 'right t o d i sobedience' whose legitimacy is the cross of political philosophers? This wou ld have been quite strange, if we bea r i n mind what happened a t a Pa risian airport on the very same day as the verdict: some passengers on flight from Pa ris t o Bamako refused to take it together with cla ndestine work e rs that the French Interior Ministry was forcibly sending back to their country. The Minister announced i m mediately his intention to prosecute these recalcitran t passengers for ' obstruction to the circulation of aircra ft ' . I t i s therefore quite unlikely that the cou rt's v e rd ict aimed at enshrin i ng the right to disobey. The conviction of the overly faithful state ser v ant refers instead to the obligation to disobey in the past: not only in the repressive context of the Vichy state, but i n a time when there was sense t o obeying o r disobeying. It says to us that back in those times, to obey o r t o disobey was a decision for individuals. It sets us, in sum, back in the a mbiance of the existentialist epoch . In those times, Sartre could state t he ,enlence that once elicited so m u ch scandal and scorn : 'Never have we been freer than under the German occupation' . I t was a time of com m itment and responsibility: one in which each would choose 'for all' a n d wa, 'responsible for everything in front of everyon e ' . The conj unction b etween the court's conviction (in the past) and the Interi or Ministry's threats (in the present) relegates this time to its place in the past. Today, to obey or disobey the state is n o longer a problem. Not only because the state is legitimate, but more profoundly because it claims no longer to want anything, to be no more than the humble executor of an impersonal
34

JUSTICE IN THE PAST

necessity. What sense would there be in disobeying a state that does not command anything and only obeys the circulation of flows? In Plato's times, the sophist Antiphon contrasted the j u stice of nature t o that of the law according to the following simple principle : one who infringes upon the law shall b e punished only if seen. However, one who goes against nature will h e subj ected to punishment every tim e . This is the logic that our states have readopted fo r themselve s : they tell us that their regula tions simply conform to the natural laws of the equilibrated circulation of wealth and p o p ulations . The travellers on that day who did not want to go to Bamako were made guilty, in relation to the French state, of a rebellion that is neither more nor less than an 'ohstruction to the circula tion of aircraft' . This i s how the settling o f accounts with the past proceeds . D i s o bedi ence has had its day: namely the time when individuals stood in opposi tion to the wills o f other individuals o r o f states, the time of politics and of ideologie s . The j ustice system salutes this time and lets us know that it is past. In some ways, the verdict o f the Pap on trial is a farew e ll tribute to existentialis m .

35

CHAPTER TEN
The C risis of A rt o r a C risis of Th oug ht? July 1998

t h e debates of opi n i on in wh ich 'th i n k i ng F ra nce' is obliged to i n t e res t e d , t h e crisis of a rt fi g u res p ro m i n e n t ly. The i n tellect u a l m aga z i n e s whose vocation i t is t o raise t h e t o n e o f debates about the g re a t p rob l e m s of socie t y ra rely m i s s a c h a nce to ta ke sto ck of the crisis i n q u e s t ion . S o m e yea rs ago, Esprit, an org a n of C h rist i a n o - s o c i a l hermen e u t ic l ibera l i s m , l a u n ched a polem i c aga inst the 'a nyth i n g g o e s ' a t t i t u d e t h at t o d a y, w i t h t h e comp l i c i t y of t h e fu nctiona ries o f c u lt ure, is i n va d i n g museu m s a nd g a l leries . Le Debat, a n orga n of h a r d l i ne l ib era l i s m , recently presented a three -way m a t c h up: Jea n C l a re, a detractor of the ava nt-garde in h i s La Responsibilite de [ 'artiste, went head to head with P h i l ippe Dagen, whose book titled La Haine de [ 'a rt, a t t acks the detractors of contempora ry a r t . Yves Michaud, author of La Crise de [ 'art contempora ine, a s for him, refu s e d to get i nvolved i n this d ebate between two people by translat i ng the 'crisis' in terms of a soci ological evol u t i o n in which mass democracy and multic u l t u ra l i s m l iq u i d ate not exactly art b u t t h e utop i a s o f a r t . W h i l e from t h e left wing daily newspaper Liberation to the f a r right-wi n g j o u r n a l Krisis, J e a n B a u d ri l l a rd repeats interm i n ably the refra i n of a r t 's fat a l nu l l ity i n a world where a l l i s image. I t cannot be assumed that this show of polemics enlightens the reader much about the following questions: i n what does the crisis of art con sist? And above all, what exactly is the name of art being used to refer to? Significant in this respect are the names of the stigmatized artists. Around the star couple Joseph Beuys/ Andy Warhol, these attacks aim at
A mong be 36

THE CRISIS OF ART OR A CRISIS OF THOUGHT?

the set of currents which, from Pop Art to conceptual art and d<.>monstra tions by FluxU5 at the Dokumenta exhibition in Kassel, have lik<.>ned their practice with a specific contestation or repudiation of the tradi tional forms of art. The crisis of art is, in a word, the new name of what, 3 0 years ago, was called contestatory art - or the contestation of art. But, then, if they were completely logical, the denigrators of the crisis should rather rejoice to observe the withdrawal or the banalization of such forms which - what's more - involve only a very limited sector of the vast domain of arts, at the border separating the plastic arts and the per forming arts. B ut perhaps the rhetoric of denunciation is more important than what it denounces. And more than to any considerations of the present forms of music or cinema, dance or photography, the current critique of 'art in crisis' adheres to a pre-constituted ideological logic. Its argumentation, in fact, is only a way of cashing in - a propos of art - on the same arguments that fuelled the denunciation of the 'master thinkers' in the 1 97 0 5 and that, since the 1 9 8 0s, have interminably fed the denunciation of 1(1 pensee 68 and calls to restore healthy philosophy, Kantian morality and repub lican politics. Nothing is more significant from this viewpoint than a read of La Responsibilite de [ 'artist. Its author, Jean Clair, has attained renown for some brilliant essays, memorable exhibitions, and his role as the director of the Musee Picasso in Paris. Of his incontestable knowledge of painting, however, there is nothing to be found in this writing which, in the footsteps of the Glucksmanns, Finkielkrauts, Ferrys and other oracles of the intellectual French right-wing, accuses the inevitable scapegoat. This, of course, is German Romanticism, blamed as much for art's con temporary decadence as for all the crimes of Nazism and Stalinism. German Romanticism is held responsible for diverting art's modernity via the frenzied avant-garde search for the new and its forced anticipa tion of the future. It absolutized the notion of art and subjected it to the irrational fantasies of the 'originary'. Art's hankruptcy, therefore, has accompanied the crimes of utopia, both being born in the same soil. Yesterday, Jean Clair tells us, German expressionists - the heirs of Romanticism via Symbolism - even paved the way for Nazism ( which would condemn them ) by blurring the boundary between meanings and the meaning. Today this will to art, henceforth devoid of all content, only continues to proclaim itself by means of the 'anything goes' attitude to which it gives itself.
37

CHRONICLES OF CONSENSUAL TIMES

Here, o n ce m o re, t h e concl u si o n t o b e d ra w n i s not obvi o u s . I t cou l d i n fact be s a i d t h a t today t h i s u topia h a s come to t e r m . The 'anything goes' a t t i t u d e so decried would spell t h e e n d o f t h e dictatorship o f t h e avant gardes a n d open onto t h e peaceful c o e x i s te n ce speci fi c to t h e f o r m s of a p o s t lTl o d e rn a rt a n d a m u lticu l t u r a l society. T h i s i s , ro ughly speaking, the

il rgU lTl e n t developed i n Yv e s M i ch a u d 's book . B u t t h i s multicultural

h a p p y e n d i n g h a rd l y a p p e a l s t o t h e big n a m e s o f the new French ideo l ogy. For t h e m , it i s not t h e s i m p l e m u lt i c u l t u ra l consensus t h a t m u s t be

coun tcrposed t o t h e b a n k ruptcy o f u to p i a s , but t h e renewed m e a n i n g of

repuhlican a n d national v a l u e s . So, i n a t i m e l y fa s h i o n , t h e fi n a l comba t hetween t h e e n lightened K a n t i a n cosmopolitans against t h e d a rk H e rd i a n ages o f t h e soil a n d t h e origin co m e s to b e relayed t h rough a nother comba t : t h a t opposing t h e n a t a l charms o f t h e French repu b l i c a n cou n t ry to the A m e rica n m u l t i cu l t u ra l d e s e r t . The b a n k ru ptcy o f con tempor

il ry F rench a rt cOllsists, t h e n , i n its s u b m i s s i o n to the a e s t h e t i c d i k t a t s of

post -war A m e rica . As s ti ch, J e a n C l a i r tra ces the tri u m p h o f the ' a l l -over' abstractiolls o f A m e rica n e x p re s s i o n i s m to i t s s e l f - e v i d e n t ca u s e : the i n finite s i m i l i t u d e o [ t h e fl a t A m e rica n l a n d scape, a giga ntic s u b u rb u n i for m l y c u t t h ro ugh by straight h i g h w a y s . In opposition to this h ighway d e se rt sta n d s t h e cha rm i n g bocages and sunken lanes of t h e French countryside of wh ich those writers from Normand country, M a upassant a n d Fla ubert, a re t h e painters. I f t h e truth i s to be told, t h e re actually a r e a few mountains i n t h e U n it e d States (a colloq u i u m w a s even organized by a Mont a n a Univer sity a few years back hoping to m a k e J e a n B a u d rillard notice t h i s detail ) . N o r d o French highways m e a n d e r t h r o u g h w h e a t fi el d s a n y more t h a n t heir A m e r i c a n cousin s . A n d F l a ubert, f o r his p a rt , hated t h a t F ra n ce of t h e bocages, p referring above a l l else t h e emptiness of t h e deserts o f t h e E a st . B u t t h e i d e ology o f resentment h a s i t s r e asons, a n d cares a s little abuu t the reality of facts a s t h e coherence of i t s a rgumentation . There i s , however, a logic to t h e operation t h a t transforms the writer in t h e 'ivory tower' into the loving p a i nt e r o f his village. There is, in e ffect, a singular [a ct t h a t c h a ra cterizes a l l t h e discourses a b o u t t h e crisis or end of art. All together, t h e y only s p e ak, u n d e r t h e name of art, of p ainting o r of t h a t which h a s taken i t s place . J e a n C l a i r, who dramatizes the a rtist's responsibility, would h a v e no doubt found more convincing a rguments for so doing i n the works of writers, musicians a n d directors than i n p ainting, whose powers of mass mobilization a r e far from

38

THE C RISIS OF ART OR A CRISIS OF THOUG HT?

obvious . Neithe r does Yve s Michaud, who de- dramatizes the crisis of art, seem to thi n k that a r t extends beyond museums and galleri e s . Yet, cin ema and dance gladly boast of their good health. C ontemporary music is tending to leave its ghetto and encounter other forms of music. And even when they engender ennui, rare are those who accuse contempor ary composers o f neglecting their work. Nobody speaks of a ' crisis of lit erature' even if few living writers provoke wild enthusiasm. Why, then, consider that art in general is i n crisis, if upon entering the g allery to see paintings, one instead finds piles of old clothes, stacks of television sets or pigs cut in half? And even if it were p ossible to tax the totality of con temporary painting with b eing null and void, why would the moment ary eclipse of one art among others spell the final catastrophe of art? The reason is, Jean C lair tells us, the painted image has a power that cannot be achieved by any other ae sthetic genre . Why exactly? B ecause 'painting' in these dis courses designates everything other than an a rt : it is a sort of ontological revelation o r primary mystique. Painting here is conceived as an o riginary sacrament of the visihle in which divinity or B eing appears in its glory. 'r do not look at the canvass as a thing' , said Merleau-Ponty, 'my gaze wanders in it as in the aureole of B eing ' . The painter's all- consuming vision, according to him, opens onto a 'texture of B eing' that the 'eye inhabits a s man does his h ouse ' . We understand easily enough that the eye does not discover this house of man which is also the dwelling of god in D amien Hirst's dissected animal s . There is a whole swath e of the mystique o f the 'visible' that is fuelled by this phe nomenological version of the C hristian transubstantiation . And, at the end of the road, the post - S ituationist critique of the ' spectacular' comes, in Baudrillard, t o communion in that nostalgia of lost presence and con cealed incarnation. The accusation levelled against the 'Roma ntic divini zation' of art itself requires this religion o f the visible to which it gives the name of painting. Art goes a s it can. B u t the thinking of the soothsayers, as for it, is not g o ing very well.

39

CHAPTER ELEVEN
Is Ci n e m a to B l a me? March 1 999

T1H' r e l c J s c o f Robcrt o B e n i n g i 's fi l m La vita e bella ' re - i g n i t c d t h e con f l i ct

o v e r whil t ci n e m a - a n d m o re g e n e ra l l y a rt - ca n a n d ca n n ot s h o w of t h e
N a !.i e x t e rm i n a t i o n . The f i l m 's f i c t i o n a l g i v e n - a Jewish fa t h e r who Ill ill1 <l g e s t ( ) h J v e h i s son b e l i e v e that their forced s t a y i n a ca mp i s a

g a m e - cl e a r l y mi m i cs, in t ro u b l i n g fa s h i o n , t h e negationist a rg u m e n t
a ccord i n g t o w h i ch fa ct s ca n a l w a y s b e i n t e rpreted d iffe rently. It a l s o

r e k i n d led t h e p o l e m i c of t h o s e w h o m a i n t a i n t h a t t h e horror of t h e e xtermination ca n n ot b e repre s e n t e d . A n d t h a t assertion a b o u t u n repre s enta b i l i t y in t u rn p r o v o k e d t h e r e a c t i o n o f t h o s e who r e f u s e t h e ce n s o r s h i p t h e reby placed on t h e i m a g e . A m o n g t h e l a t t e r, Jean - L u c G o d a rd pmcl a i m e d rece n t l y t h a t no o n e h a s t h e rig h t ' t o prevent peop l e from fi lming', at the risk of d r a w i n g s u spicion t o himself. I n an a rticle in t h e Parisian d a i l y a work with the telling title

Le Monde, Gerard Waj cma n , a psychoanalyst a n d a u thor of Objet du Siecle, i n q uired into t h e cult of t h e

i mage u n d e rl y i n g t h a t c l a i m a n d reasserted t h e position illustrated b y t h e works and statements o f C l a u d e Lan zm a n n : n o i m a g e c a n b e a dequate to t h e horror of the extermination 2 For t h e image always t rivi a l i / e s the extreme a n d gives a human face t o crime . B eneath i t s apparent clarity, the d e b a t e 's formu lation raises m a n y q u e stions a n d leaves m a n y unclarit i e s . An expression b y A dorno, u t t e r e d t o o q u i c k l y a n d glossed for too long, declared a r t impossible after Auschwitz. We see toda y how this culpabilizing of art i n relation t o hor ror can be i n t e rpreted i n two differ e n t ways. A ccording t o Lanzmann, cinema is gUilty when i t tries t o provide i m a ge s o f the S h o a h a n d t h u s pa rticipates i n trivializing it. According t o G o d a rd, i t i s gUilty of not

40

IS C I N E M A TO BLA M E ?
having fi l m e d these images, of having ign ored the camps, n eglecting to seek out its images, and of failing t o recognize that, in its own fictions, it had announced the work of death. According to the former, cinema fails in the consideration o f horror because of the image; according to the lat ter, it fails for not having had images of it. Clearly, these two contradict ory versions o f gUilt involve two different ideas of the relation between art and the image, two ideas of art which are based, i n the last resort, on two theologie s of t h e image. We can surely grant Gerard Waj cman that Godard's p o sition stems from something entirely d ifferent than a defence of the right to the free dom o f imag e s . I t stems from a conception o f cinema that is properly speaking iconic, which Godard illustrates a t length in

Histoire(s) du cinema.

In the latter, Godard says that cinema is neither an art nor a technique; it is a mystery. This 'mystery' is nothing other than the incarn ation. Cinema is not a n art of fiction, the cinematographic image i s not a copy, not a simulacrum . It is the imprint o f the tru e, similar to the image of C h rist on Veronica's Vei l . T h e image i s an attestation of truth beca u s e it is the very mark of a presence . B e cause there were camps, there were image s of it. C inema was guilty for lacking them . And those who want to proscribe the images o f the horror simultaneously refuse testimony of it . This argument can be read the other way around: there mus t be images of the camps so that the truth of the image can be attested and the art of cinematography devoted to its worship . All the same, is the condemnation of this cult of the image entirely clear? It asserts the unity of an aesthetic viewpoint: whoever wants to make images of the unrepresentable horror will b e punished for it by the aesthetic mediocrity of the product . But what exactly does it mean to 'make image s ' ? B oth Lanzmann and B enigni, in

Shoah and La vita e bella,

respectively. make m oving images. What differs is the functio n of these images, the end that they pursue and the way in which the filmmaker arranges them to ordain them t o that end. Lanzmann intends to attest the reality of a process on the basis of the very programmed disappearance of its traces . The image, then, cannot reproduce what has disappeared. It must do something else, indeed two things simultaneou sly: both show the effacing of the traces and give the floor to witnesses and historia n s t o reconstitute with words the logic of the disappearance accomplished on the ground - show the logic of the extermination and of its concealment. To this end, in subordinating images to the words which make them

41

C H RON ICLES OF CONSE NSUAL TI M ES

speak, Lanzmann rediscovers the para d o x sta ted b y B urke more t h a n two ce n tu ries ago when h e contrasted the powers o f poetry to those of paint i n g : words are always m o re appropriate than images for t ranslating a l l

grandeu r - sublimity o r horro r - w h i ch e x c e e d s the m e a s u re . M o r e appro

p riate, precisely, beca use they spare u s f r o m having to

see w h a t they

describe. To 'show' t h e h o rror of the fi nal j o u rney towards death, t h e ana

l y sis of t h e m a rc h i n g ord e rs a n d the cold e x p l a n a tion of th e workings of the 'group disco u n ts ' gra nted by the

Reichsbahn will always be superior to

a rc -cnactm e n t of t h e ' h u m a n h e rd ' b e i n g led to the abattoir, for two

reaSOllS that are only contra d i ctory i n appe a r a n c e : beca u s e they give LI S a
m ore exact representation of the

machine of d e a t h , by leaving LIS with less

to see and p i ctu re of t h e s u ffering o f i t s victi m s .

I n short, La n zm a n n 's i n t e n t i o n d e m a n d s a cert a i n type o f a rt, a certa in

t ype of ' fi cti o n ' , that is to say o f organization o f words a n d images. Of

COllrsc, H C ll i g n i 's intention is totally d i ffe rent. With rega rd to the e x t e rm

i n a t i o n , h e i s n o t con cern e d to testify to or to n eg a te a n ythi ng. H e takes i t as a sit ll ation su itable fo r bringing t h e consti t u ti v e l o g i c of h i s ch a ra cte r t o i t s point of paroxys m . T h e w h o l e film i s i n fact co nstructed a ro u n d a s o l e given : t h e ability of o n e cha racter to p e rform a permanent m iracle a n d to tra nsfi g u re every reality. He i s j u st a s i ncapable of denying the reality of the cam p s a s he is o f s a y i n g a n y t h i n g a bo u t them . The fi l m 's m e d i ocrity ste m s not from the s u p p o s e d e t h i c a l i n d i g n i ty involved in fictio nalizing N a z i h orror and having u s l a u g h a t i t . It stems from t h e fact that B en i g n i h a s not fictionalized anything a t a l l . A n a u th o r- a ctor like B e n igni, C h a p l i n , i n h i s

The Great Dictator, took the risk a n d won the

gamble of making us l a u gh at Hitler. B ut in order t o make a fiction abou t H itler's person, h e p a i d t h e highest price: h e c o n se nted t o break t h e u ni t y o f t h e Tra mp form, to p l a y t h e inverse roles o f t h e d i c t a t o r a n d of h i s v i ctim a n d to cast them a s i d e t o s p e a k i n h i s o w n n a m e . H e thereby stages the

displacement o f h i s character o n t o t h e Fuhre r 's p o d iu m . The

d i rector B en i g n i , a s for him, i s u nable t o i n v e n t the displacement o f B enigni the a ctor. U n a b l e t o m a k e a fict i o n o f anything, a b l e o n l y t o repeat

ad infinitum the gesticulation o f the illus i o n i st . H i s camp scenes are

n o t bad because they give images o f something that cannot o r must not b e p u t i n i m a g e s . T h e y a r e b a d b e ca u s e t h e y h a v e n e i t h e r m o r e n o r less r e ason t o be than the preced i n g o n e s . The question therefore b e a r s o n the fict i o n a l capacity of the mise en-scene a n d not on the dignity or i n dignity of t h e image . Nor does it bear

42

IS C I NEMA TO BLA M E ?

on what t h e i m a g e in itself c a n or cannot do. If posed in terms of effective ness. the argument of 'trivializa tion' by the image is indeed ambigu o u s . Since t h e attestation of t h e exceptional event r u n s a twofold risk. To sub tract it. in the name of its exceptionality. from the ordinary conditions of representation of events is as dangerous as making it commonplace by representing it according to the same rules as all others. We must then think that the enemies and devote e s of the image alike have some other stake in the matter. In criticizing the salvational value that Godard. qua disciple of Saint Paul. accords to the image. Gerard Waj cman maintains that he does not intend to put into play another theology of the image. namely the Mosaic prohibition of representation . But if it is hardly the sacredness of the law that is at stake here. the sacredness of something else - art - may well b e . The argument of the unrepresentablc aims to shore up an equivalence between arts modern destiny and an historical mission. According to this logic. Malevitch's White Square on a White Back

ground. in ruining the principle of figuration. allegedly gives to modern

art its true subj e ct: absence . To prove the image's truth. Godard had to see in the camp of the Great Dictator. or in the rabbit hunt or dance of the dead in La RegIe du jeu/ the prophecies of the extermination to com e . To attest to art's mission. its critique must put the same logic to work. that is to see in the anti-representative manifestos of the 1 9 1 0s modern art's prophetic anticipation of its vocation: to account for the 'obj ect of the century' - the extermination. In this way. a theology of artistic modernity contrasts with a theology of the salvational imag e . It is not sure that this combat serves j u stice to what films - good or bad - really do.

43

CHAPTER TWELVE
The N a m e l ess Wa r, May 1 999

'Thl' G u l f Wa r will not have taken place', was the pred i ction, in early 1 99 1 , of
a

French i n t e l l ectu a l . [ According t o h i m , t h e m ilitary mach i n e

o f deter rcl1ce h e n ceforth obeyed the g e n e ral l a w of a world i n which

rea l i t y cedes place t o simulati o n . I n the matter o f war, as i n every other, t h e logic of power was to simul ate e v e n t s to prevent them from happe n i n g . A ' rea l ' war could n o t h a p p e n b e cause i t w o u l d contra d i ct t h e deter rent e x e rcise o f m ilitary power. The e m p i rical events seemed to contra d i ct t h a t beautifu l deduction . The reasoner haste n e d to s h o w that t h i s was not at all so: the G u l f war, he ma d e clear, could not take pl ace. And, in tact. it has not taken place. In effect, its operations were only decided upon b y c o m p u t e r calculations a n d its e ffects transmitted t o us by television s creens. Between a computer scre e n and a television screen, the only space in which events i n g e neral and war in particular can take up room i s a scre en-like space, the space of virtual reality. That which could not take place did not take place except on the screens of simulation .
To assert that non -being cannot be has always b e e n the fa vourite pas

time of sophists. However, we must not be so hasty as to impute this kind of reasoning to the irrepressible propensity of intellectuals to deny reality for the love of words . Intelle ctua l s are m ore observant and more realistic than is cla i m e d . T h e y k n o w l h a l word s are not the opposite of reality. Words are, on the contrary, what give reality its consistency. If the sophists have so many facilitie s today by which to declare the non being of no matter what reality, this i s in fact b e cause the artisans of that ' re ality', unable to give a name to what it i s that they do, have aban doned it to them. It i s not the fault of computers and the virtual. Today
44

THE NAMELESS WAR no one courts the risk of saying that the Kosovo war will not, is not, or has not taken place . And yet, who can give
a

name to the military opera

tions undertaken by NATO? Intervention in a war? But what sort of war? Hardly a foreign war: the allied powers do not recognize Kosovo as an actual nation under attack from another. So, is it a civil war? But then who could have given the allied nations a mandate to intervene in the internal affairs, a s violent as they may have been, o f another nation? We are left with a third typ e of war in which the opposed terms are not two nations or two parts of a nation, but humanity and anti- humanity. That exact schema was the one retained: the intervention pressed forth to save humani ty, in the figure of the Albanian Kosovars, victims of a genocidal und ertaking, against the p e rpetrators of this genocid e : the anti- humanity embodied in a bloodthirsty dictator. Between humanity and anti-humanity there are no territorial borders, scarcely
a

limit to the

right to interfe rence . B ut the contradiction is evicted from the prin ciple of war only to b e radicalized in its condu ct. The war conducted in the name of a humanity to save is a total war by definition,
a

war entirely

determined by its obj ectives of making the rights of a humanity respected, and which does not recognize any limitation as regards the means of ensuring that respect. How then to conceive of a restrained h u manitar ian war? A war in which selective b ombings are designed to bring the anti-humanitarian criminal to the n egotiating table, while l e aving the terrain free for his troops ' operation of massive liquidation of the p e ople representative of humanity wh ose rights had been impinged upon? It all happened as if the humanitarian war divided itself into two sets of oper ations, situated upstream and downstream of the territory that was abandon e d to the undertaking of ethnic purifi cation : on the one hand, military operations that aim at once to deter and to punish the doer o f t h e crime; on the other, h u manitarian operations to welcome hundreds o f tho u sands of victims of this crim e . These appa rent cont radictions have led s ome to suspect the existence of obscure goals or secret activiti e s , hidden b ehind the humanitarian parade . B ut it could b e that there i s no contradiction, that there is a convergence, more profound a n d more troubling than a ny concea l e d deal ings, between t h e l o g i c of e t h n i c purifi cation and that o f h u m a n i t a r i a n wa r. The principle behind both of them is one and the same : the negation of politics . E t h n icism revokes the very space of politics i n ide ntifying the p e ople with the race and the territory of e xercise of 45

C H RONICLES OF CONSENSUAL TI M ES

c i t i z e n s h i p with t h e a n c e s t r a l s oi l . E t h n ic p u r i fi c a t i o n d o e s not s i mply c o n s i s t i n d r i v i n g a n u n d e s i rable e t h n i c it y f r o m a territory. It con si s t s i n con stitut i n g i t a s a n u n d i ffere n t i a t e d herd, s i multa n e ously denyi n g t h e collective rea l i t y o f a p e ople e n dowed w i t h a publ i c l i fe a nd t h e s i n g u l a rity o f t h e i n d i v i d u a l s compri s i n g i t . Hu m a n it a r i a n wa r cla i m s t o oppose t h e re spect of h u m a n r i g h t s t o t h i s pro c e s s o f t wofo l d e l i m i n a t i o n . B u t t h e 'h u m a n ' t h a t i t d e fe n d s h a s very s p e c i fi c c h a rac t e r i s ti c s . The fi gure that i t takes i s p r e c i s e l y t h e product of t h e enterprise of clea n s i ng, t h e fi g u re of t h e v ic t i m . Here l i e s the core of t h i s stra n g e con fi g u ration - the hu m a n it a r i a n : w h i c h e n d lessly pro l i ferates i n t h o<;e no m a n 's lands t h at spread o u t b e t w e e n t h e p o l itics t h a t i s no more and the wa r that i s n o w a r . P r e v i ously it was sa id that wa r i s t h e conti n u a t i o n of p o l i t ics by o t h e r mea n s , T h e h u m a n ita ri a n wa r i s t h e cont i n uation of t h e e l i m i n a t i o n of p o l i t i c s . There are t w o forms of e l i m i n a t i o n of politics . T h e r e is t h e i d e n ti fi ca t i on o f t h e government of t h e people with t h e s e l f - reg u l a t i o n o f popula t i ons t h rough t h e automatisms of t h e distribu tion of wealt h , That is the painless elimination of p o l itics; i t i s ca lled consensus, and is practiced wherever wea l t h permits it. And there i s the type of elimination within reach of the poor, the violent e l i m i n a t i o n that identifies the govern ment of the people with the l a w of blood, soil a n d a n cestors . The ' h u m a nitar i a n ' is, then, the twofol d system, military and a s sistential. by which the consensus of the rich contains the excess o f the war of the poor. The defeated peoples, the individuals denied - all are trea t e d by t h e humanit a rian regime a s though they were constituted b y ethnicism - a s victims, as masse s . The Kosovars o r the B o snians - and the S e rbs, too - are also individuals a s singular and a s different from one another a s we claim to be, are the participants of an intellectual and a rtistic life capable of just as much sophistication as ours, and are the a ctors of a public life marked by a s many antagonisms, but the humanitarian regime is not bothered about this one bit. E thnic purification, the dissuasive war and humanit a rian assistance all share a common logic of massification, This logic was i l l u strated by the 'blunde r s ' l e a d i n g to t h e d e a t h s o f S e rb travellers and A lb a n i a n refugees, b o t h confused w i t h m i l i t a r y t a r get s , Seen from planes a nd computers, indeed, the ones and the others a re distinguishable with d i f fi c u lty. B ut the problem does not concern the relations of the real a n d t h e v i r t u a l . It conce r n s t h e relation between t wo hu m a n ities, between two ways of perceiving and counting - by 46

THE NAME LESS WAR

individuals or by m a ss e s . The aerial- strike war is a war that states it will not risk the lives of those waging it . That n o American soldier's life is put in danger is the implicit contract which supposedly makes the American war i n the B a l k a n s acceptable for the American p eople . The respect of this contract from the side o n which the bombs are launched can provoke d i s appointment on the side on which they are received . B ut t h e point i s that t h e count i s n o t t h e s a m e : t h e life of an American military memb e r a n d those of 20 civilians, S e rbs or Albani a n s , do not compare. The humanitarian war that the 'democracies' - as our states are called - a r e conducting i n the B alkans i s a war at the frontier of two hu manitie s : a humanity of individuals and a human ity of mas s e s . To fight for the humanity of the Albanians of Kosovo aga ins t the i n hu manity of the S erbia n cleansers i s t a ntamount to separating these two hu manitie s . And, from this point of view, the sometimes b l i nd logic of the b ombings a i m s true : from the sky of western individuals, the masses of Milosevic's soldiers and the streams of refugees can be confus e d . Attackers a n d the attacked are o n the same (bad) s i d e of the border: i n t h e terrestrial world of a rchaic m o h s to which is opposed the celestial world - modern, rich a n d democratic - of p opulations of individua l s . If NATO 's aerial war is not one, the reason i s that it does not refra i n from denying what every war supp o s e s : the existence of a terrain shared by both partie s . This i s why t h e blunders committed in relation to ill-identi fied targets scarcely prevent people's adhesion to this non- war war. In effect, they confirm the imaginary geography that sustains it. According t o this logic, the redoubtable bombs are by n o means the ones that American aviators drop . They are the ones that explode, so to speak, in their ba cks, on the territory from which they themselves com e . One day, the images of the Kosovo victims disappeared from the scre ens of CNN. Their place was taken by other torn- apart bodies, other teary - eyed women and children, victims of the home-made arsenal perfected hy two Colorado school boys . Two ordinary young Americans shot into the pool of American lives, constitu ted them as a same herd of victims, in the name o r an apo litical ' Hitlerism', likened to a certain sensibility, a specific way of dress ing, of affirming one's individual difference and the identity of one's small group . And that sufficed to hlow up the imaginary ge ography of war proper, to annihilate the border traced by the other bombs betwee n a world of individuals and a world o f moh s . The murderous madness of 47

C H RONICLES OF CONSENSUAL T I M E S

E ric Ha rris a n d Dylan K l e b o l d bruta l l y reca l l ed t h e fol lowing fa ct: that b e tween the tastes which s i n g u l a rize the i n d ividuals o f adva n ced societ i e s Jnd the pa ssions and s u ffe ring of mobs a t t ributed to a rchaic ethnici t i e s, no proper wa r, n or a n y level o f G D P, t ra ce s a n y border. Th i s is o n l y d o n e p e r h a p s by that t h i n g w h ich h a s beco m e e n i g m a t i c and w h i c h i s c a l l e d p o l i t ics.

48

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
One I m a ge Right Ca n Sweep Away Anothe r,

October 1 999

The polemics, which recently erupted in France, between the Ministry of Justice and the corporation of photographers over 'image rights', docs not only concern relations between the rights of journalists to inform through images and the rights of in dividuals to have their own images and private lives respected. It is the strangeness of the actual state of the relations between images, the law, politics and even art which has here found itself placed under a revealing light. The conflict arises from two dispositions of the bill relative to the p re sumption of innocence and the rights of victims. The first prohibits the publishing of victims wearing handcuffs, the second the publishing of photos of crime victims in situations that undermine their dignity. B oth are part of the same overall perspective of developing the rights of per sons: protection of private life, of the image and of the dignity of persons, the presumption of innocence of all persons so long as they have not been recognized as guilty. Even the 'accused' has had a name change. Henceforth is he 'indicted'. A step further was taken with the proscrip tion of every material image of the indicted's incarceration. B u t this extra step has troubling consequences. The point was not simply to c uphemize the name of a factual state. At stake was to make its materiality invisible. The protection of the private person tends to become a suspension of the very visibility of the event. What cannot be judged is not to be shown, must not have any visibility. This implicit rule conceals another behind it: that the only judgement is henceforth that delivered by the courts. Previously, the image of the guilty party functioned as an appeal to a
49

CHRONIC LES OF CONSENSUAL TIMES

j udgem e n t o f p u b l i c o pi n io n , i n d ep e n d e n t o f that o f t h e j u dges, e v e n a s a cha llenge t o t h e l a t t e r. T h e i mage is p a rt of the classic political combat that puts into q u e s t i o n t h e legitima cy o f e x i s t i n g l a w s . I n F ra n ce, o n ce a g a i n , o n e of the l e a d e rs of a ct i o n s u n d ertaken by fa rmers a g a i n st t h e McDon a l d s cha i n rece n t l y w a v e d h i s h a n d c u ffs a b o u t i n fron t o f t h e eyes
o f j o u rn a l i s t s a s an emblem of the j u s t ice o f h i s strugg l e . With the n e w

l ogic of the p re s u mption o f i n n oce n ce that is a r i g h t o f e v e ry private

p e rs o n , wha t is a n n u l l e d i s t h e political disp u te over this gap betwee n

t w(} forms o f j u stice a n d two forms o f j u dg e m e n t emblematized b y the

fi gu res o f t h e i n nocent c u l p rit and i m pri s o n e d righter of w ro n g s .

The protection of t h e p e r s o n a n d h i s / h e r i m a g e t h u s produ ces a n

o pe r a t i o n that is i n d i s s o l u b l y p o l i t i c a l a n d o n t o l ogica l . It t e n d s to s u b t ra c t a l o n g wi th a cert a i n t y p e o f j u d g e m e n t a n d of p o l i t i ca l j u dgeme n t ,
,

pa rt o f t h e visibl e . This part i s not t h a t o f t h e con t a g i o u s e x a m p l e o r t h e

u n bea rable h o rror t h a t were o n ce p roscribe d . O n t h e s u bj ect of viol e n ce ,

i ndecency or h orro r, h a r d l y a t h i n g is c e n s o red f r o m o u r scre e n s . The

p a rt p roscribed i s the u n de c i d e d , liti g i o u s pa rt, t h e o n e that fu e l l e d poli t

i ca l con fl ict, b y p u tting i n to q u estio n , a l o n g wit h the ' g u i l t ' o f t h e a g e n t ,

the nat u r e of the a ct itsel f . The q u e s t i o n i s t h u s to k n o w where this s u b

t raction stops, if it d o e s n o t s p r e a d , a l o n g w i t h t h e visibility o f facts, t o

the very attestation of t h e i r existence .

This question is the o n e r a i s e d by t h e s e c o n d prohibition, that of s h o w i ng t h e victims o f cri m e s i n s i t u ations that a re h a r m f u l to their d i g nity. Hence, the widow of a p refect a s s a ssinated b y Corsican terrorists was e nra ged by a photo s h o wing her h u sb a n d with his head lying on the g round. A similar sca n d a l e m e rged s u rr o u n ding the image of a woman bared by the blast o f a terrorist explosion i n the P a risian metro. But these s i ngular cases i n which a p e rs o n 's c a l l to have their dignity respected bring forth with them t h e i m m e n s e c h a i n of p h o t o s w h i c h h a v e m a d e
li S

see and contin u e to m a k e u s s e e the horrors that have s t a m p e d o u r cen t ury. Confronted with l e g i s l ators, j ou rnalists a n d p hotographers have brandished these past testimonies o f history, i n cl uding photos from Nazi camp survivors o r of the small, naked Vietna m e s e girl b u rnt b y n a p a l m as w e l l a s those that still t o d a y register the daily h a rvests of m a s s crime in Bosnia or Rwanda, i n Timor or i n Kosovo . To be sure, the appearance of victims does not conform to the i d e a l of h uman dignity. Simple good s ense responds that it is t h e situation t h a t i s essentially undign i fi e d and t h is is precisely what t h e image aims to testify to.

50

O N E I MAGE RIGHT CAN SWEE P AWAY ANOTH E R

But the affair - which is both p olitical and ontological - g o e s further than the simple opposition between the respect for victims and the duty to inform us about their situation . The reason being that at stake i s n ot simply to know if we will or will not be able to disclose , to the doctors and righters of wrongs, the suffering and inj ustices of the world. Photog raphy attests to two things simultaneously: it attests not merely to the fact of the crime, but also to its nature, in marking the weight o f the pres ence and common humanity o f those who the exterminators treat as subhuman vermin. What genocides and ethnic cleansings deny is in fact a primary ' right to the image ' , prior to any in dividuals' ownership of his / her image : t h e right to b e included in t h e image of common humanity. E thnic cleansing o r extermination is always the demonstration-in-act of its own presupposition: that the exterminated do not belong to that from which they are excluded, do not really belong to humanity, not, in any case, to that which has the right to exist in that position and in that place . This is why ethnic cleansing or extermination tinds its logical accom plishment in the getting rid of traces and in negationist discourse . Does evoking, against the s e photographs, the harmed dignity of victims not replace the first denied right - the right to bear an image of common humanity - with a right that these victims don't need: the right of owner ship of one's image that is e x ercised only by those who have the means to exploit it? It might b e said that this is only a question of the s chool. It is hardly hoped that Kosovar victims will front up for indemnities for the publishing of their pictures in the French press. The ministe r then responded to the dismayed by affirming that the bill does not c oncern the facts of war. This 'reassuring' response is baffling. For it refers the image to a division of domains and of genres that is indeed in question. From his point o f view, Hitler was n ot waging war against the Jewish p eople, he was eliminating unhealthy parasites . Similarly. the Serbian militia were not waging war against the Kosovar p e ople . They were elimina ting those who were not in 'their' place . And the 'humanitarian' operations that respond to ethnic cleansing are not claiming to be intervening in a war. If the fact of the extermination and negationist discourse have taken on their well-known importance in contemporary discourse, it is because they themselves also testify to the present - day uncertainty su rrounding the lines of division between these sphere s : the puhlic and the private, the political, the police and war. The right of the proprietor and the right of the victim illustrate in a nutshell the tendenda! blackout of the political

51

C H RONICLES OF CONSENSUAL TI M ES

world, to t h e advantage of a twofo l d scene: o n the one side, the private g l ob a l sce ne o f priva t e i n t erests; on the o t h e r, t h e scene of e t h n i c clashes a n d h u manitarian i n terve n t ion . B u t it is not o n l y t h e i m a g e in g e n e r a l - a n d t h e p h otogra p h i c image in particu l a r - t h a t i s ca u g h t in t h i s t o rm e n t . A speci fi c idea of artistic Illod e rn i t y i s i m p l i ca t ed in it a s wel l . T h e double s u ccess - p o l i t i c a l and

a rt i s t i c - o f t h e p h o t ogra p h e r in our cen t u ry consists i n h i s / h e r e x e m p l i

f y i ng the pri v i l eged l i n k t h a t Ill o d e rn a rt h a d t o t h e i m a ge of t h e a ll o n y m
Oti S
-

t h ose

anonymous

people

who,

in

the

nineteenth

centu ry,

a pp ropria t e d t h i s i m a g e , w h i ch h a d a l wa y s b e e n reserved for t h e p ri v i l eged, to t h o s e w h o h a d a n a m e a n d m a d e h i s t ory. T h e obj e ctive of t h e g rea t reporters w h o b o re t e s t i m o n y to t h e c e n t u ry's h orrors was related to t h a t of t h e Doisnea u s and the C a rt i e r B re s s o n 's i n their surprising of s t reet kids o r of anon y m o u s l overs. B o t h e x pressed a time w h e n a n yo n e a t a l l w a s l i k e l y to b e a s u bj ect of h i story a n d an obj e ct o f a rt . I t is t h i s ' a n onym ' , t h e common s u b j ect o f d e m ocra t i c p o l itics and m o d e rn a rt, which will a lso sec its image effa c e d , split i n t o t w o . A s t h e l a w e x t e n d s i t s ambiguous pro t e c t i o n to t h e p re s u m e d i n n o c e n t a n d t o t h e d i g n i t y o f

vict i m s , t h e a n o n y m o u s o f t h e p h ot o g ra p h i c l e g e n d fro n t u p t o a s k a g e n c i e s f o r t h e com m e rcia l p ri c e o f t h e i r i m a g e . I n a world d i v i d e d i n t o own e rs of images a n d owners of d i g n it y, n o t o n l y p o l i t i cs b u t a l s o a r t is h a v i n g

i t s images compro m i s e d .

52

CHAPTE R FOU RTEEN

Th e Syl l o g i s m of C o r r u pt i o n , October 2000

'Al l corrupt ' used to be the shout when news would emerge of the fraudulent dealing s of such and such a politicia n . B u t in our d ay, every thing tends to get sophisticated and treated in the second or third degre e . When the president of the United States of A merica has to explain, with a red square on the screen, the details of his relationsh ip with his secretary, or when the former treasurer of the Fren ch presid ent's party censures the bribery and corruption that preva iled at the Paris Town Hall a s the same president was its m ayor, no longer are demonstrators to b e seen i n the streets of the corresponding capitals, gathering together to inveigh against their rotten leaders. Instead, we hear consternation coming from solemn -sounding men, thems elves often current or former politici a n s . What do these revelation s serve to do, they say, i f not to give the enemies of republ ican govern ments the chance to shout 'all rotten ! ' ? It i s politics, they say again, that these p e ople are assa ssinating. Who w i l l still want to govern in the face of the relentlessness of j u dges and the media? The 'republ ic of judg e s ' and its ' media lynching' discourage the good will of those who take up the bu rden of public life. And they discredit politics itself. It i s really high time to throw a veil over all these t u rpitudes and restore politics to its nobility. These

pro domo

pleas clea rly lend to suspicion . B ut, besides the politi

cians, who have a few too many interests in the affair, there are the philosophers, disinterested by definition, with their smatterings of Aris totle and the common good, of Lock and civil government, of Kant and the Enlightenment, and of Hannah Arendt and the glory of puhlic life .

53

C H RONICLES OF CONSE NSUAL TI M ES

F ra n ce p ro d u ce s an i n c re d i b l e q u a n ti t y of them, a n d a good m a n y c i rc u l a te between the govern m e n t s p h e re s a n d t h e m e d i a worl d . Now, t h ese phi losoph ers ra ise t h e i r voices a n d c o n t ri v e to g e t to t h e root of the evil . There is, they s a y to us, a time of politics which req u i res t h a t we l ook fa r ahead and a ct for t h e future. How can this be preserved from s u hj ection to t h e temporal r h y t h m of t h e m e d i a , which lives solely from

t he prese n t a n d f ro m the obl i g a t i o n to s e l l s o m e t h i n g new every d a y ?

P u h l i c l i fe m u st be h e l d a p a rt f r o m t h e turpitudes o f p r i v a t e l i fe a n d pri
V ,l t l'

l i fc shielded from t h e p u b l i c e y e . T h e i n s t i t u t i o n s o f c o m m o n l ife

rcst o n a symbolism that must not b e interfered with . Poli t i cs is fou n d e d o n d i s t a n c e . W h e n we try t o s u bj e ct it to t h e m e d i a re ign o f visibility a n d t o t a l p u b l i city, i t i s m e n a ce d b y d e a t h . T h e con cern f o r transparency i s

t h e g rea t e n e m y o f politics.
As o u r p h i l osophers a re i m p a rt i a l , they d o not hesita t e to call i n to q u cs t i o n a m e mber of t h e i r corpora t i o n . J e a n -Jacq u e s R o u s s e a u was the
o IlL', m O il

t h e y cla i m , w h o h a d this fa t a l idea o f having t ra n sp a re n cy i n com l i fe . I t w a s h e who cre a t e d t h e utop i a s a n d cri m e s o f revol u t i o n a ry

virtue a n d fed t h e Te rror co n d u cted by t h e I n co rruptible Robespi erre . I n t h e era of glasshouses a n d of s m a l l Soviet h e roes d e n o u n c i n g t h e cou n t e r-revo l u t i o n a ry activities o f their parents, t h i s s a m e i d e a of transpar e ncy came to engender totalitarian h o rror. Tod a y, it takes t h e m o r e a n o d yne form o f t h e crowd s of dem ocratic society a n d their appetite for t h e secrets of princes and o f the private lives of the stars . But t h e tota l i t aria n worm is i n the democratic fru i t . It i s to satisfy the appetites of the i n divid u a l s of mass society t h a t j ournalists deliver to them the fate o f t h o s e i n charge of our l i f e in common and make t h c bed f o r t h e soft t otalitarianisms of tom orrow. B e forc it is too late, then, let us restore the s e crecy and d i stance that b e fi t s good Republican government. This di scourse, all the same, leaves u s dreamy-eyed. What dictatorship was ever founded on transparency? The S talinist regime may have erect e d statues of the young Pavel Morozov, killed by his family for hav i n g denounced h i s father. I t was nonetheless founded on the systematic usage of se crecy, to the p oint of t h e existence o f a C onstitution which those whom it concerne d had no way o f finding out about . Some reli giou s -type communities can b e governed by the principle of transpar ency. N () state is and totalitarian states l e s s than all the others. B ehind the fallacious equation Rouss eauism
=

glasshouse

totalitarianism, this

line of reasoning aims in fact t o e stablish the i dea a ccording to which

54

THE SYLLOGISM OF CORRUPTION

democracy is equal to the triumph of mass individualism, oblivious to the symbolic forms of public life but avid for publicity as for commodit ies. It is then easy to see in t his democracy the principle of a contempt for politics that opens the path to totalitarianism. And it is easy to set in contrast to it some Republican virtue, which gazes high and far towards the great goals of common life, embodied in the service of the state. At this point the governments take over again from the philosophers . After alL they remark, to what do we owe the corruption which reigns in the public marketplace? Are politicians using their municipal p owers to extort money from companies in order to finance their party's expenses? But what, then, is the reason for these expenses if not the ruinous electoral campaigns during which we must stage publicity parades to satisfy the depraved taste of individuals of the democratic mass? Ought we do away with parties and elections? This is h ypocritical, you see! The people of democratic individuals should have the honesty to accept this evil that it itself makes necessary. And even if some public monies inadvertently fall into the p ockets of a few elected officials, it should recognize in these individual excesses the exaggerated image of its ordinary appetites. B ecause of it, elected republicans must sometimes divert their attention away from the great ends of common life on which they are normally affixed and engage in a bit of fishy business. Our vir tue, in being compromised in this way, pays the price of the people's vice. The people should, in return, have the honesty to pay the p rice for the sacrifices we make. And it should not be allowed, with its hypocritical condemnations of a corruption whose cause it is, to exacerbate further the dangers with which it burdens the political cause and pave the way for totalitarianis m ! So, everything transpires a s i f p r o o f by corruption now functions the other way round. Formerly, this proof censured governments in the name of the people for betraying common affairs to serve their own pri vate interests. Today, corruption serves to prove that governments are unpleasantly impeded in the running of common affairs due to the bad tendencies of the democratic p eople. The details of the argumentatioll count for less, then, than for what it must prove, namely that it is n eces sary to let those, whose affair it is, govern in peace. No doubt men of p ower only expose themselves so often to the desires of the petty demo crats, greedy for the scandalous secrets of power, so as to bring this logic to completion. The media, in effect, only ever spreads the s ecrets that
55

CH RONICLES OF CONSENSUAL TIMES

t h ey a re g i v e n . T h e people w h o a s k e d the American pres i d e n t for t h e il n J t o m i c a l d e t a i l s conce r n i n g t h e e x a ct n a t u re o f h i s rela t i o n s h i p w i t h M o n i k a Lewi nsky were n o t j o u rn a l i sts in the s e rvice o f t h e pcoplc press. T h e y were good C h ri st i a n s, and honest j u dges and represe n t a t i ve s , d e fcnders of peace f o r fa m i l i e s a n d o f t h e s e c r e c y of p r i v a t e l i fe . A n d t h e Cilsset te t h a t con t a i n e d t h e d eta i l s a b o u t t h e secret fi n a n c i n g o f t h e f r e n c h p re s i d en t 's p a r t y wa s p a s s e d t h ro u g h t h e h a n d s o f a soci a l i s t m i n i s t e r before sprea d i n g t o p u b l i c spa c e . Those w h o d i sclose t h e secre t s a re a l so t h o s e who e x ploit t h e m fo r t h e p u rpose of m u d d l i n g the a ffa i rs o f t h e co l l ective with t h e i r o w n o r t h e i r pa rty's . They t h e refore make a l t e rn a t e il ppea l s t o t h e a dv a n t a g e s o f t h e state secret a n d to t ho s e o f t h e m e d i a t ra nspa re ncy wh i ch d e n o u n ce s i t . S i n ce it i s n ecessa ry t o co n d e m n , a s t h e grave d iggers o f p o l i t i c a l v i r t u e , the j ou rn a l i sts to w h o m t h e y c o n v e y t h e i r i n forma t i o n a n d t h e rea d e rs w h o read i t , a n d b e a b l e t o appeal to t h ei r col l ea g u e s ' s ol i d a r i t y i n t h e fa c e o f ' m e d i a lynch i n g ' a n d m i suses o f

d e m ocracy. S o , a d d e d t h e a d v a n t a g e s o f t h e secret a n d t h o s e of i t s d e n u n
ciation a re t h ost' of t h e d e n u n c i a t i o n o f d e n u n cia t i o n . Th is closes t h e ci rcle, t h e n , whereby t h e v e ry fact o f corru ption s e rves t o p rove t h a t s tate a ffa i rs m u st not be s u bj ect to t oo much scrutiny s i n ce it risks e n d a n gering t h e Republic. I n t h i s twisted l ogic, t h o s e t h a t it concerns manages

to see them selves clea r without t o o m u c h troubl e . A s for the p h i l o s o p h e rs, tha t's a n ot h e r m a t ter.

56

CHAPTER FI FTEEN
Voici/Voil a : The Destiny of Images,

January 2001

'The modern', Mallarme once said, ' disdains to imagine' . Disdaining images obviously did not entail the adoration of solid realitie s . On the contrary, it meant making a contrast b etween the forms or performances of art and the confections of doubles of persons or of things . 'Nature has taken place; it can't be added to', he also once said. The p o em or the painting must be the tracing of a specific act, the model for which Mallarme found in the mute hieroglyphs contoured by the steps of the ballerina . So u n derstood, the Mallarmean expression can quite usefully sum up an entire idea of artistic modernity. During the tim e s of supre matism, of futurism or of constructivism, this idea was keenly wed to the proj ect of constructing new forms o f life . With the disillusionment of these great hopes, it found its emblem in the purity of non - figurative painting, which counterp o s e d the logic of coloured forms to all produc tions of images that are bound to the consumption of resemblances. S ome time ago already, this identification of artistic modernity and its rej ection of images came under challenge . But this is not to say that landscapes, naked women and still lives began to flourish once more on the walls of galleries and exhibitions . If the ' compositions ' of the abstract age tended to recede, the upshot was not a newly figurative style of painting. Instead, it was a confrontation between images of the world with themselv e s . This principle was neatly encapsulated by three recent Parisian exhibitions . First up, the Musee d 'A rt Moderne de la Ville de Paris presented an e xhibition titled Voila: Le Monde dans la tete. The Centre

Georges-Pompidou then followed suit with an exhibition called Au-dela du

57

C H RONICLES OF CONSENSUAL T I M E S

SI'[','lat'/(', Then at the Centre nation{/I de la photographie an exh ibition opened

cal il'd Bruit de fond. This quasi-sim ultaneousness is significa n t not d u e to a ny nowlties that these e x hibitions may have introduced but, on the cont ra ry. due to their simila rity to many other exhibitions throughout the worl d , t o t h e i r c o m m o n way o f testifying tod a y t o w h a t is common p l a ce in a r t . The t i t l e s a re a l ready signilica n t i n t h emselves. ' Voila ' in French is the d elllonst ra t ive that refers t o the past o r the d ista nt. A n d , i n actual fact. t h e exhibition strove to prov i d e a s o rt of memoir of the centu ry. Of the ccnt u ry a s such a n d not of its a r t . In t h e installations of C h ristia n B olta n k i or of O n Kawara, i n t h e I 920s p h otographs b y August S a n d e r o r the recent ones by Hans-Peter Fddmann, in the films of Jonas Mekas or of C h a n t a l Ackerma n , a nd i n all the other installations. videos, photo g raphic d i splay cab i n ets or com p u t e rs spread throughout t h e e x h ibition, t h e stake con ce rned o u r w a y s o f taking a n d living w i t h images. Neither d i d t h e room dedica ted t o painting d evia t e from this principle . I n i t , the e x h ibiting a rt i s t , B e rtrand Lavier, d i d n o t i n a ctual fa ct pres e n t his own paintings. H e exhibited a series o f all styles of pai ntings whose sole p ri n ciple of u n i t y was t h e i r signa t u re : in fact, all the paintings gathered ca r ried the sa m e family name, the most widespread n a me in France. M a rtin . S o, the a rt e xhibition prese n t e d itself as i d entical to an a rchival work and visiting it to lea fi n g t h rough an encyclopae d ia in which texts and images s ta n d as testimonies o f a t i m e a n d a s ways o f apprehending this t i m e a n d registering its signs . The contemporary a rt museum itself thus tends to oscillate between yesteryear's 'cabinet of curiosities' and a n ethnological m useum of our own civilizations. The titles of two other exhibitions were e x plicitly borrowed from books. A u-dcla du spectacle appealed to Guy D ebord's essay La Societe du spectacle. and Bruit de fond to the homonymous novel by Don Delillo . ' The banner under which both t hu s pl a c ed themselves is t ha t of the critique of the world of media and publicity. illustrated by the theoretician of S ituationism a s by t he novelist o f the stra nge events orchestrated through television in the small town o f B la cksmith . They testify to a type of art which no longer counterposes the p u rity of forms with the commerce of images. Forms can be opposed to images, so long as the latter appear as the superfluous double of things . B ut the concept of spectacle implies that images are no longer doubles o f things, but the things themselves, the reality of a world in which things and images are no longer able to be
58

VO ICI /VO I LA: THE DESTI N Y OF I MAGES

distinguished. Wherever the image no longer stands opposite the thing, form and image become indistinguishable from one another. As such the contrast becomes one between the image and another sort of image . B ut another sort of image is not an image of different content . It i s an image that is differently arranged, presented in anothe r perceptu al arrange ment. Thus, in image s . A n d if

Au-dela du spectacle p aintings were contrasted with media Bruit de fond presented photographs, it was n o t as works o f

photographers; it was as materials that artists integrate i n t o arrang e ments whose function is to instruct us h o w t o read images and to play with them. Play and learn form an opposition that progressist pedagogues have never ceased to want to overcome . If V oill!'s installations evok e d curi o s i t y cabinets, those of

Au-dela du spectacle could be

likened to the d esign of

a playful pedagogy. Indeed, along side a billiard table, a giant baby foot and a fairground merry - g o - round, there were monitors, small cabins and doll houses crowding around, confronting visitors either with publicity icons reworked in a different medium, or with icons reproduced

tel queZ

but outside their ordinary environment. The critical use of images thus tends to a certain minimalism . Photomontages of former times would play on the contradictory relation between two forms of iconography. In the 1 9 30s, for example, John Heartfield x - rayed Hitler-the - orat o r t o make visible t h e circulation of gold that fed the Nazi machin e . And 40 years later Martha Rosier would stick scenes of the war i n Vietnam onto images o f American advertising narcissism. Today, the simple act of re - exhibiting identical images of advertising narcissism is itself attributed a critical valu e . It is as if all that i s required to turn images of commod ities and of power into critical instruments is to present them in a differ ent space, teaching spectators to hold the noises and the collective images that condition their existence at a distance . In practice, the plaques intro ducing each work were made to mani fest this difference, in reasserting in a quasi-incantatory manner the critical virtue of apparatuses of image displacement. Art - archive, art-school: Against these two commonplace figures o f an art comprised of images whose r adicality is supposedly won by their similitude with images of the world, there periodically returns the n o s talgia of a n a r t which institutes a co-presence between humans and things and between humans themselves . At the

Palais des Beaux-A rts de

Bruxelles

an exhibition o f 'one hundred years of contemporary art ' , S9

C H RONICLES OF CONSENSUAL T I M E S

w h o s e t i t l e m a n i fests its p o l e m ical i n t e n t i o n , o p e n ed rece ntly u n d e r t h e a u spices of the c r i t i c a n d t h e o retici a n Th i e rry d e O u v e . Aga i n s t the o f the Pa risian e x h ib i t i o n , t h e B ru s s e l s e x h ibition c() u nterposed a

Voila Voici.

' Voici ' in French is t h e d e m o n strative of t h e presence of t h e prese n t . The e x h ibition t h u s p resents i t s e l f as the m a nifesto of a modern a rt conceived as a n a rt of p rese nce and of t h e gaze, a s a facingness opposed t o the formal

flatl1/,ss

va l orized by the g ra n d t h e oretician of pictoria l m o d e r n i t y, C l e m

e l l t Greenberg . ' I n it one s o u g h t in v a i n , however, f o r a n y o l d - style por t ra i t s , gro u p scenes or still lives. Many o f the works e n l i sted under t h e b a n n e r of t h e

Void co u l d

have e a s i l y fea t u re d u n d e r t h a t of

Voila,

i n cl u d

i n g : portraits o f stars by A n d y Wa r h o l , hyperrealist photogra p h i c co m p mi t ions b y Jeff Wa l l , docu m e n t s o f t h e mythical ',ect ion of eagles' o f t h e ti ct i o n a l m u s e u m b y Ma rcel B ro o d t h a e rs, t h e i n s t a l l a t i o n o f a collec t ion of G O R commodities by J o s e p h B e u y s , p e e l o ff posters by Raymond H a i n s , mi rrors by Pistoletto o r a 'family a l b u m ' by C h rist i a n B o l t a n s k i . . . More, the bodies o f m a n y of t h e works taken from m i n i m a l i s t scu l p t u re or from of the

arte povera were facingness evoke d .

s o m e w h a t too fra il to inca rn a t e the spl e n d o u rs

In s u m , n e i t h e r t h e g a z e n o r i t s obj ect b e a r clear-cut criteria f o r d i ffer entiating between of discourse t o transform t h e

voici and voila. W h a t is req u i red, then, i s a supplement ready-made i n t h e d i splay u n i t o r the s m o o t h

p a ra l l elepiped into mi rrors o f intersect in g gaze s . M i n i m a l i s t sculptu res or h yperrealist photographs thus have to b e s e t under the a uthority of the supposed fa ther o f modern painting, Manet. But this father of modern painting must h imself be s e t under t h e a u thority of the word made flesh . Manet's modernism - a n d that of all painting following it - is defined here o n the basis of a painting from his youth rated as a primitive scene . D uring his ' Spanish' period, a t the start of the 1 8 60s, Manet painted his

Christ mort soutOlll par les anges i n

imitation of Ribalta. But contrary to the

model. the eyes of Manet's C hrist arc open and he i s facing the spectator. Nothing more is required, in our era o f 'the death of God', to confer on pa inting a function of substit u t i o n . The dead C h rist reopens his eyes, he resurrects in the pure immanence of pictorial prese n ce a n d writes down i n a dvance mon ochrome p aintings a s well a s pop imagery, minimalist sc ulptures a s well a s fictional m u s e ums in the tradition of the icon a n d the religious economy of the r e s u rrection. 'The image will come a t t h e time of the Res urrecti o n ' . S aint Paul's e xpression provides the l eitmotiv for Godard's 60

Histoire(s) du cinema.

In it,

VOICI /VOILA: THE DESTINY OF IMAGES

he develops a theory of the image in which the white screen is trans formed into Veronica's veil and Hitchcock's shots into icons of the pure presence of things. On either side of yesterday's formalism, it is two new forms of identification of art with the image that have been e stablished: an art of the re-exhibition of ordinary images of the world and an art that contrasts them to the pure icons of presence. The paradox is that exactly the same works can be used to illustrate these antagonistic theo rizations. This paradox is perhaps harshest for the theoreticians of pres ence. Their dream of immanence may only come about through self-contradiction: that of a discourse which transforms every piece of art into a little host, a marceau detached from the great body of the Word made flesh.

61

CHAPTER S IXTEE N
From Facts t o Interp retations : The New Q u a r rel over the H o l o c a u st, April 2001

A n a t m o s p h e re o f s ca n d a l h u v e r s a ro u n d t h e work of Pe t e r N o v i c k
( Tht' Holoca ust i n A m e rican Lif e) a n d o f N o r m a n F i n ke l s t e i n ( Tht' Holo callst Industry ) . The l a t t e r i n d e e d h a s t r i g g e r e d a v i o l e n t polem ic i n t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s a n d E n g l a n d , a n d n o w i n G e r m a ny a nd F r a n c e . H e r e i s
a

Jew, s o n o f a n A u sc h w i t z s u r v i vor, w h o v i o l e n t l y d e n o u n c e s t h e

p o l i t ica l , i d e olog ica l a n d fi n a n c i a l e x pl o i t a t i o n o f t h e g e n o c i d e b y l a rg e J e w i s h orga n i za t io n s . H i s v i r u le n c e h a s m e t w i t h a v i o l e n t r e a c t ion o f rej e c t i o n i n w h i c h t h e a u t ho r i s a c c u s e d of n e g a t i o n i s m . A s l a n d e ro u s a cc u s a t i o n , h e repl i e s : a n e ga t i o n i s t i s s o m e o n e w h o d e n i e s t h e e x i s tence o f t h e h o l o ca u s t . N o w, f o r h i s p a r t , h e r e s o l u t e l y a f fi r m s t h e e x i s tence o f t h e h o l oc a u s t , i n lower c a s e , a s h i st o r i c a l fac t . W h a t he denounces, o n the other hand, i s t h e Holocaust i n upper c a s e , t h a t i s , t h e i d e ol o g i c a l elab o r a t i o n o f t h e h o l o c a u s t a s a u n i q u e e v e n t , o f i ncompa rable !l a W re t o a n y o t h e r h i s to r i c a l form o f m a s s a c re o r geno c ide, s p e c i fi c a l l y l i n ke d t o t h e G e n t i l e s ' a n c e s t r a l h a t r e d a ga i n st t h e Jews, a n d w h i c h , by t h e s a m e token , j u s t i fi e s a n u nc o n d i t i o n a l s u p p or t for the s t a t e of Israel a n d i t s p o l i c i e s - w h i c h a l s o m e a n s for t h e Federa l A m e r i c a n s t a t e , w h o s e own s up p o r t for I s r a e l wo u l d a b s o l v e i t of a l l w rongd o i n g aga i n s t t h e I n d i a n s a n d t h e B l a c k s o f A m e r i c a , a s wel l a s a g a i n s t t h e V i e t n a m e s e c h il d r e n b u r n t b y napa l m o r t h e s tarved Iraqi ch i l d r e n . I f the cont rad ictors were h a r d l y s a t i s fi e d b y t h i s response, t h i s i s because the negat i o n i s t a ff a i r brough t to light the p roblematic nat u re o f t he simp l e d is t i nction b etween facts a n d i nterpretations of fac t s . A n

62

TH E NEW QUARREL OVER THE HOLOCAUST

h istorical fact is constituted as such by the interpretation that I ill ks a multiplicity of material facts together. One of the pioneers of negation ism, the F renchman Paul Rassinier, himself a survivor of the Buchen wald camp, gave the fi rst demonstration of it in the 1 9 5 0s. He denied neither that regular selections were made in the camps nor the presence of gas chambers. He simply cast doubt on the connection between the two. He was even ready to accept the idea that there effectively were gassings. He simply cast doubt on the question of whether they were part of a overall design. The documents gathered since then have shown the inj ustice of these quibbles. But if negationism still remains, and if today someone who recognizes the reality of the Nazi extermination of Europe's Jews can be accused of negationism, then it is because the tracing of the border sep arating 'facts' and 'interpretations' is more twisted than it first appears. Where do we place the border that enables us to affirm the constituted fact as such, in its self-sufficiency, and to discard every other additional connection as an extrinsic interpretation? If the polemic over the excep tionality of the massacre of Europe's Jews seems interminable, it is owing to a conflict between two contradictory requirements. If the holocau st is to be considered an indisputable fact, it must be isolated in its raw factu ality, outside of every interpretative debate on the reasons for which it was placed on the Nazi agenda. But if its reality is to be considered that of the anti -Jewish holocaust, the interpretation must, conversely, trace it back to a first cause, to a necessary and sufficient reason, and establish that what was at work in the death camps was an original will to exterm inate the Jews. But where is this first cause to be located? The mere delirium of a head of state or of a group of fanatics does not constitute a necessary reason. This reason is identified by theoreticians concerned with proving the holocaust as radical singularity with the Gentiles' age old hatred of Jews. The reality of the holocaust is therefore held to be indissociable from a determinate interpretation. But at this point the argument turns around: why did this ancient and universal hatred take the specific form that it did in this country and at this historical moment, a form which, moreover, we know was also applied to other categories of 'degenerates' ; the mentally ill, homosexuals, gypsies? Thus, the dialectic of the fact and the 'intention' redoubles to infinity and aets to cast suspicion on the exact intentions of anyone who stops the ehain of connections at any given point. Thus, regarding the thesis of
63

CHRONICLES OF CONSENSUAL TIMES

i m m e m o r i a l h a t re d , F i n k e l s t e i n d e n o u n c e s t h e s u b o rd i n a t i o n o f fa cts t o a n i n t e re s t e d i n t e rp ret a t i o n . F o r h i m , l i n k i n g t h e h o l o c a u s t to a n i n e r a d i cable, e x t e r m i n a t o r y w i l l i s t a n t a m o u n t to j u st i fy i n g , i n a l l aspects, t h e I s r a e l i s t a t e 's pol i t ics o f s e l f p re s e rv a tio n a n d the U S p o l i cy o f s u ppor t .
-

l3 u t it is not the ba re n u d i t y o f fa c t s t h a t h e brings to bea r against t h e scc n a r i o t h a t rCJson

JS

h e d e n o u n ces; i t i s a n o t h e r s c h e m e o f i n t e r p re t a t i o n ,

n a m e l y t h e c l a s s i c sce n a r i o o f s u s p i c i o n w h i c h i n q u i res i n t o t h e h i d d e n t o w h y o n e spea k s s o m u ch a bo u t t h i s fa ct o r t h a t s u ffera n ce , Cl n d i n va ri a b l y c o n cl u d e s t h a t i t i s t o h i d e o t h e rs . In F i n k e l s te i n 's d i s co urse, t h e ' H o l oca u s t ' t h u s b e c o m e s t h e c o v e r w h i c h e n a b l e s Isra e l t o c o n t i n u e despoi l i n g t h e Pa l e s t i n i a n s a n d A m e ri ca t o fo rget t h e m a s s a cres Cl n d i n j u s t ices t h a t have s t a m p e d its h i s t o ry. B u t t h e s u s p i c i o n o v e r t h e ' i nt e n t i o n ' i m m e d i a t e l y t u rn s back o n h i m : rel a ti n g t h e h o l oca u s t d e a d ! l ot t o t h e ca u s e o f t h e m a s s a crc b u t t o t h e e x t e r m i n a t ed A m e ri ca n In d i
a ns or

t h e b o m b a rd e d Vie t n a m e s e m e a n s d i ss o l v i n g t h e fa c t s i n t h e l o n g in order to weaken Is ra e l 's m o ra l position a g Cl i n s t the

h i story o f h U ll l il n a t ro ci t i e s i n w h i c h e v e ryt h i n g l e v e l s o u t a n d i s m a d e cquivalent P a l es t i n i a n s . However, t h e p ro b l e m ca n n o t be red u ce d to a n e x ch a n g e o f u nv e r i f i a bl e a rg u m e n t s b e t w e e n t h e p a r t i s a n s o f Is r a e l a n d o f Pal esti n e . T h e i n t e r n a l i za t i o n o f t h e q u a rrel o v e r n e g a t i o n i s m refers t o t w o d e e p e r

i n t e l l ect u a l p h e n o m e n a . First o f a l l , i t concerns t h e s p l i t t i n g o f o u r idea o f rea l i t y. Proving the rea l t o d a y is carried o u t twice over: p h e n o m e n a
a re i n serted i n a c h a i n of ca u se s a n d e ffects, a n d , conversely, a re shown to b e brute i n cha racter, l a cking in reason . I f this d u a lity constitutes the

core of the theoretical con fl i ct over the holoca u st , this i s n o doubt beca u s e the process o f the extermination and o f the programmed d isappea rance
o f i t s traces has obliged the long d e t o u r o f a rg u m entative reconstruction t o confirm the reality of t h e fa cts. B ut i t i s a l s o becau s e the impossibi l i t y of assigning a n ecessary a n d s uffici e n t r e a s o n w o r k s to u n d e r m i n e t h e

rationality of political and scientific phenom e n a .

It is symptom a t ic t h a t t h e p r e s e n t a t t a c k s a g a i n st the 'holoca u s t i n d u s

try' come from a n American Jewish Marxist. This latter presents himself as
a

sort of last of the M o h i ca n s , remaining loyal to t h e tra d i t i o n o f pro

g ressivism to which the Jewish emigres t o the U n i t e d States subscribed . B u t h e does s o n o t only b y laying claim t o a political t ra d i t i o n . I t i s m o r e a tradition of i n terpretation that he d e fe n d s : one that links politica l a n d
i d eologica l phenomena t o social causes, a n d local facts - regardless o f

64

T H E NEW QUARREL OVER THE HOLOCAUST

their singularity or enormity - to the global entanglement of caus e s and interests. The quarrel over the holocaust challenges the val idity of gl o balist e xplanations of a s o cio - economic type, against which some irre ducible irrational element is brought to bear, whether raw facts or a primordial hatred that serves as their cause. B ehind an American Marx ist Jew's rage against his p eers there lies the singular ideological config uration of the present, that in which new radical forms of world domination are escorted b y a p ublicly announced prohibition on the forms of global explanation that pretend to have their measure. It is thus pos sible to u n derstand the singular temporality a ccording to which th e Nazi genocide was transformed apres coup into an historical cut. Novick and Finkelstein recall that after 1 945 the holoca ust was not greatly present in western consciousness. They attribute the reversal in spirit to the Israeli - Arab war and to the Israeli victory of 1 96 7 . However, more than this, it was in the 1 9 9 0 5 that the vision of the holocaust as an event that cut the history of the world into two imposed itself. This ret rospe ctive cut clearly marks the mourning of another cut in the history of the world, the one that was called revolution, and whose last avatars crumbled with the fall o f the S oviet empire and the disappointed expecta tion of not seeing a regenerated democracy emerge from its ru ins. It is in this context that the holocaust's irreducibility has become emblematic of the rej ection of the Marxist conception of history, conceived as the global rationality of historical facts and as a temporality oriented b y a p romise of emancipati o n . Invocations of t h e G e ntiles' 'immemorial' hatred of the Jews and assertions of the impo ssibility, after Auschwitz, of thin king and living as before, amount to much more than the intere sted arguments condemned by Finkelstein. They carry out an emblematic ove rturning of the direction of time , opposing the promises of a hypothetical future to an immemorial past which never passes. If the explanation is so violent that pits the partisans o f the exceptionality of the Jewish genocide against those who want to integrate it into the great historical and worldwide interweaving of cases, it is because it brings together the two avatars of militant certainties and o f yesterday'S historical expectation. One side has inverted the great promise into the weight of an immemorial past, the other wants to uphold its vigour, were it by simple argu m e ntative fury. The quarrel over the holocaust is also a mourning of revolutionary thought. This is why a simple knowledge of the facts cannot come close to resolving the quarrel over intentions.
65

CHAPTER S EVENTEEN
From One To rtu re to A n oth e r, June 2001

W h a t provokes o u r i n d i g n a t i o n today a n d wha t face do we give to the i n tolerable? Some weeks ago, Fra n ce was s h a k e n by t h e retu rn of a n o t v e ry old repressed . G e n e ra l Au ssares, c o m m a n d e r o f the F r e n c h s p e c i a l s e rvices d ur i n g t h e Algeri a n w a r, r e v e a l e d t h e details o f the systematic p ractice o f tortu ring s u spects that was carried out by the i n telligence s e rvice s . Reveal is going a bit t o o far. M ore than 40 years ago, writers a n d t eachers t o o k u p t h e i r p l u m e s t o d e n o u n ce t h e methods that the special s e rvice was employing. Th e i r books were banned o r prosecuted, a n d the governments, socialist and then G a ullist, which con d u cted the war i n Algeria, treated these revela t i o n s a s fabrications designed to d e moralize l h e t roops and the nation i n order t o a i d t h e Algerian insurrecti o n . S o o lle may find comic the h o rri fi e d d e clarations b y J a c q u e s C hirac a n d t h e s o cialist ministers expressing o u t r a g e a t this abominable torturer - him s elf a simple executor o f t h e p olicy d e v i s e d b y the heads o f state o r gov ernment of which they are the inheritors. Those who condemned the t o rture i n Algeria forgot t o mention that the affair was not about the s cheming o f a perverted military official but a p olicy o f a state, a policy of the reason of state that j ustifies everything and o f t h e state secrecy that provides cover for i t . So, this ' revelation' of a broadly k n o w n secret put today's government leaders, who are the sons o f yeste rday's leaders, in a n uncomfortable position. Fortunately, the capacities o f public indignation would soon fix ate on a wholly different obj ect o f contemporary scandal . A private French television station launched a programme called Loft Story, modelled on the D utch 66

Big Brother, which had

already been adapted in several other

FROM ONE TORTURE TO A N OTHER

countries. Eleven young p e ople were confined under the eye of cameras which then continuously broadcast the episodes of their encaged lives : anodyne conversations, grooming rituals and erotic frolics . The ensemble of this ( in ) activity was simultaneously centered around the aim of the game : the progressive elimination of the loft's occupants - by internal pre-selection and the vote of viewers - until only a single couple - the winning couple - was left. Within a few days, all audience records were broken. Also within a few days, j ournalistic and intellectual opinion had scrutinized this new 'phenomenon of society' . The dominant tone was one of indignation. This indignation was sometimes limited to the eco nomic and cultural aspects of the affair: here were people paid a m i nimum wage to provide an image of life as it is - this is simultaneously a new form of work exploitation and a way of reducing the expenses of the cul tural industry to a strict minimum, necessary to bring in advertising rev enues. 'Money has brushed aside culture ' declared a l e ft weekly newspaper. Most often, h owever, the condemnation bore on much more than some infringement of the industrial relations legislation; it decried the accomplishment of the totalitarian system. These guinea pigs, shut up day and night under the eye of the camera, displaying their p rivate lives to the gaze of all, this sham community with no other goal tha n to elimi nate the others, was this not the accomplishment of the great dream of total control over the lives of individuals? In the columns of Le Monde, one philosopher drew the consequence from it:

Loft Story

portrayed the ' ter

rible but tame ideal of the society that totalitarianism had dreamt of with out being able to fulfil it' . I In vain did one draw to the attentio n o f the prophets of final catastrophe that there were some slight differences between the 1 1 competitors of

Loft Story and

the millions of prisoners of

the S talinist or Nazi camp s . These latter had not chosen to be held where they were, and those who had l o cked them up were not preoccupied with making spectacles o f their lives but, on the contrary, with relegating it to the shadows . Lastly, instead of mass extermination, slow extermina tion or psychic destruction, the lucky winners were promised a vill a . S u ch details would not trouble the condemn ers: they responded that this is exactly what perfected totalitarianism is, a 'soft totalitarianism ' that does not perform any torture and does not destroy any bodies, but which is exercised 'only on minds, only in images ' . We recognize the logic o f t h e argument: the more invisible the effect, the more proven is the cause. Ironically, this paranoid logic has always 67

C HRON ICLES OF CONSENSUA L T I M E S

b e c n t h a t of tota l i t a ri a n p o w c r s . T h e p ro c u rer Vich i n s k y w o u l d u s c i t t o

i d entify the most p e rverted s a b o t e u r s o f the S o v i e t h o mel a n d : those who concealed t he fact that t h e y w e r e sabote u rs by not getti n g involved in a n y a cts of sabota g e . S i m i l a rl y, t h e more i m m a t e r i a l it is, or t h e more i n tern a l its e ffects, the m o re perfect tota l i t a ri a n i s m is rep uted t o be. B y
t h e s a m e t ok e n , t h e sto r i e s o f t or t u re, o r s t a te reason a n d secrecy ca n be

m a d e to d isa ppea r wi t h o u t a t ra c e . Tota l i t a ria n i s m , w e a re t a u g h t to d a y, is the i n t e rnal ized l a w of g e n e r a l i z e d t ra n spa ren cy. In t h e age of p la n e t a ry p u b l icity, we a r e a l l con fl n e d , a l l i n camps, victims of t h e p u re, a ccompl ished logic of t h e system t h a t old - style t or t u re rs and h e a d s of e x term i n a t i o n ca mps co u l d o n l y a p p ro a c h in a m a te u ri s h fa s h i o n . Not long ago, Mich el Fo u ca u l t fea re d t h e simplistic con s e q u e n ces that mig h t be d rawn from h i s t h e s e s o n ' co n t ro l society ' . He feared that a l l t h e world 's p o l i t i ca l pers e c u t i o n s w o u l d fi n d t h e mselves d i ssolved i n a
n i g h t of ' co n fi n ement' i n w h i c h a l l cows were grey. He b e m o a n e d a n

u tt e r l y co n v e n i e n t way o f s a yi n g : ' We a l l h a v e o u r G u l a g : i t is t h e re at o u r doors, i n o u r t o wns, in our h os p i t a l s , i n o u r pri s o n s . It i s h e re i n our heads'.l Th is fea r was certa i n l y j u s ti fi e d . S i n ce then, d i s c o u rses d i d not cease t o d evelop, some even making r e fe r e n ce to Fo u ca u l t 's 'biopolitics' as a cover, that s u b s u m e t h e m o s t d i v e rse a trocities o f state rea s o n u n d e r t h e con cept of ' soft' totalita r i a n i s m - w h i c h is everywhere, b u t fi rst of a l l a n d especi a l l y o n television scre e n s a n d i n t h e h e a d s o f television v i e w e rs. To den o u n ce t h e commerce o f i m a g e s h a s become t h e fore m o s t of d uties - a n d the least costly o f ' h e ro i s ms ' .

To be sure, t h e promoters o f t h e s e programmes d i d n o t l a u n c h t h e i r

p ro ducts to h a v e us forget g e n o ci d e s a n d torture s . And n e i t h e r d o the d en u nciatory philosophers m e a n t h e m to b e forgott e n . B u t i n t h e raging p olemic, a strange con s e n s u s is established b e tween t h e image mer chants, the condemners o f th e i m a g e a n d t h e govern m e n t . T h e latter, a lways bothered by the return of repressed episodes o f state reason, i n d ulgently welco m e d t h e s e 'totalitarian ' progra m m e s . The television v iewer of ordinary everyday life, offered up t h e consumption of o r d i n a ry i ndividuals, is a p e rfect m atch for t h e i r current motto : everyday realism in the service o f the daily preocc up a t i o n s o f 'citize n s ' . ' Getting in touch' and ' community politics ' , the p r e s en t - d a y key words of our govern ments, herein fi n d t h e i r m o s t precise illustra t i o n . T h e old representation of the state a n d t h e political condemnation o f i t s 'reason' and s e crecy i s substituted f o r a twofold d e scription o f o u r society. O n t h e o n e h a n d ,

68

FROM ONE TORTURE TO A N OTHER

society is presented a s the seat o f p e aceful and run -of-the -mill pre occu pations, of little problems and small pleasures, whose pacifying virtues are counterposed to the social and democratic tu mult accu s e d of creating the great totalitarian catastrophe s . S o ciety is thus most harmoniously suited to the modest state management of today, liquidator of grand u t o pia s . B ut, on t h e other, this s o ciety of the ' everyday', o f 'listening' a n d o f 'proximity' is presented a s t h e supreme form of a totalitarianism whose seat is none other than the narcissism of the ordinary democratic indi vidual, epitomized by the television viewer. So, on the one han d , t here is the wise and realist management state set in opposition to the 'tutali tarianism' born o f the utopian passions of popular fermen t . Whil e, on the other, the noble Republican state, guarantor of the symbolic order and of universalist values, is summonsed to contain the ' totalitarianism' inherent in the narcissism of democrati c individuals . On both hands, then, the reason of state is discretely lightened of the load of its real crimes and is l egitimated anew against those of an imaginary totalit arianism .

69

CHAPTER E I G HTEEN
The F i l m m a ke r, the People a n d the G ove r n m e nt, A ugust 2001

A m ong t he fea ture fi l m s of t h e Ve nice Fi l m Fes t i v a l is L'A nglaisc et Ie Due, a period piece by E ric Rohmer, i n spire d by t h e m e m oirs of a n a ri s tocratic
E ng l i s h w o m a n living u n d e r t h e Fre n c h Revol u t i o n . ' R u m o u rs have it that

t h e Italian fe s t ival is th u s paying tribu t e t o a film that t h e Fren ch selectors

of th e Fest ival of Cannes a l legedly rej ected for reasons o f politica l correct

n ess. A scent of sca n d a l a n d of repres s i o n never does a n y h a rm to a fil m b u t t h i s t i m e it ca lls for reflectio n . For w h a t reason would i t be comprom i s i n g t oday t o film Revolu t i o n i n g e n e r a l a n d t h e French Revol u t ion in p a rticular from the viewpoint o f a ristocr at s ? For decades, French ch ildren h ave devo u red - witho u t a n y d a m a g e h a ving been d o n e t o Republican and revolu tionary val u e s - the stories of the

Mouron rouge, a h e roic E nglish

a ristocrat who saves gentle nobles from t h e clutches of the ferociou s pop u lar brutes. And since the 1 9 80s the theses of Francois Furet, largely inspired b y the counter- revolu tionary tradition, have dominated revolu t i o n a ry histori ography and intellect u a l opinion i n France. O n e does not therefore see what considerations o f political correctness would prevent the showing of bloodthirsty revolutionaries today. And one s u spects that those who make Rohmer to b e t h e artistic flag-bearer o f a France t h a t i s fi n a l l y confronting its revolutionary phantoms b y simply using the classic trick of presenting the dominant vision o f things as a m i nority viewpoint, a victim of persecution i n a h o rrible 'plot b y i n tellectuals' . B ut if there is a politics in th i s film, perhaps it plays out elsewhere t h a n i n these flag fight s . R o h m e r has n e v e r tried to p a s s himself off a s a man of the left. And he maintains t h a t h e d i d n o t w a n t to m a k e a militant

70

THE FILM MAKER, THE PEOPLE AND THE GOVER N M ENT

film . Indeed, the story o f Grace Elliot's adventures in the revolutionary torment is little concerned to j udge the causes and effects of the Revolu tion. B y way of doctrine , it presents only two commonpla ces of political and historical fi ction . The first contrasts moral and affective fi delity to the tortuous calculations of politics . In this way, the English Lady embod ies the feminine and unthinking virtue of fidelity to the persecuted Royal family, in the face of the masculine vice of calculating self-interest, rep resented by the Duke of Orleans, one of the King's cousins and a man who is prepared t o make any compromise to serve his own dynastic interests, including voting for the death of his cousin. The s e cond com m onplace opposes the good manners of evolved people to the eternal uncouthness of the bestial populace . S ome used to counterpose the cor rectness of German officers t o the sa dism of the SS bru t e s . S imilarly, Grace Elliot is contin u o usly wrenched from the hands of the concupis cent and inebriate d h o r d e s by officers or commissaries, inde e d by repres entatives of the people o f Robespierre, to remind the populace of the sense of the laws and of the civility of worldly decency. So, if there is a political message in the film, it does not concern the legitimacy or the illegitimacy of revolu tio n s . It boils down to t h e rather widespread, t w o fold i d e a that politics is a dirty thing a n d that this dirty thing m u s t remain the preserve of those who have proper clothing and civil manners, that it must be placed out of reach o f the street population . Of course, Rohmer is no ideologu e . He is a filmmaker. B u t this is exactly where things become interesting. In his film, the relation between the proper and the dirty, between respectable people and the street crowd, is turned into a problem of o ccupying the image . This problem is rais e d and solved in a esthetic and technical terms which have an emblematic value . The film in fact has a pictorial backdrop, drawn from aquarelles representing the Paris at the end of the eighteenth century, with its aristocratic 'sweetness o f living', which had j ust been drastically altered by the Revoluti o n . A l l the exterior scenes and in p articular the crowd scenes were filmed in the studio against a neutral background and were then inset into this painted canvass setting. This procedure is not merely an economic alternative t o the costly reconstitu tion of d e cors from the epoch . It is also a manner of staging the people and of putting it back in its place. This s etting, which is made for the passage o f car riages, is best s uited for the two o r three picturesque characters that con ventionally establish the scale of the monuments and inj ect some life 71

C H RONICLES OF CONSENSUAL T I M E S

i n t o i t . O n l y, a t t h i s p o i n t , t h e c a n v a s s i n S OIll e s e n s e opens u p a n d i n s t e a d o f t h e s e g e n t e e l b i t players t h e r e e m e rges a c o m p a c t crowd, w h i c h , v i s i b l y, h a s n o p l J ce b e i n g t h e r e . T h e vi s u a l a rrJ ngell1 e n t of t h e mis-en -scene t h u s presents t h e a l l egory o f t h e ' ba d ' politics: t h a t w h e re t h e streets n O fln d l l y designed [or t ra ff i c b e t w e e n p u h l i c e d i fi ces a n d priva t e res i d
e n n's

becom e t h e t h ea t re i n w h i ch t h e crowd o f a n on y m o u s b i t p l a y e rs

i m properly p rocl a i m s i t s e l f t h e pol i t i c a l peop l e . B u t t h i s arrdngel1l l' n t correct s t h e e x cess t h a t i t I1l d n iies t s . These crowds of com m o n m e n of s i n i s t e r appearance, w h o i n v a d e t h e p a l a ces of k i n gs a n d t h e h o t e l s of nobles, a re a s s e m h l e d i n t h e s t u d i o by t h e fil m m a k e r b e t ween ropes fi xed t o preve n t t h e i r d i g i t a l i zed images from e n t e ring i n opport U l1 e l y i n to the p a i n t e d d e c o r. T h u s, the p a i n t e d image, the st u d i o ,lil t! t h e d i g i t a l ca m e ra combi n e t h e i r p o w e rs t o resolve a e s t h e t i c a l l y
a

pol i t i ca l p robl e m , or ra t h e r t h e v e r y p r o b l e m of pol i t i cs i t s e l f : t h e fa ct

t h a t t h ese s t re e t people, t h o u g h visibly not d estined to d o so, co n ce rn t h e m selves wi t h com Ill on a f fa irs. T h i ngs a re e v i d e n t l y l e s s easy fo r t h o s e we c a l l politicians. A n d p e r h a p s t h e Ven ice fi l m j u r y, i n b e h o l d i n g R o h m e r's f ra m e d a n d d i g i t a l i z e d c rowd s , b o r e
il

compassi o n a t e t h o u g h t for t h e s t a t esmen of t h e G 8 who

had ga t hered at G e n o a only 2 m o n t h s b e foreh a n d . For t h e l a t t e r, who would l i ke to gove r n t h e w o r l d in only h a v i ng to d e a l with r e s p o n s i b l e ' i nterlocutors' - be t h e y d i c t a tors
or

for m e r K G B e r s l i k e P u t i n - s t i l l

h a ve n o ways o f perform i n g a ny s t u d i o c h a n ne l l i n g or d igi t a l d i ss o l v i n g o n t h e crowds of demonstrators w h o p e r s i s t i n t h i n k i n g that t h e y a re a I s o p a r t of t h e world a n d h a ve a v o c a tion to concern them selves w i t h i t s a f fa i rs . N o r d o e s s h o w i n g d e m onstrators i n h o o d s - the modern e q u i va l e n t of the b e s t i a l face o f r i o t e r s o f ye steryear - s u ffice to p u t t h e p e ople i n its p l a ce . S o it i s n e ce s s a r y to e n t r u s t the police w i t h the ' a e s theti c ' t a s k o f clea n i n g u p t h e s t r e e t s , i n t r a ns fo r m i ng h i storica l tow n s i n t o b unkers, i n cha rgi n g d o w n d e m o n s t rators a n d i n i nva d i n g t he i r Headqu a rters, and i n a m u c h l e s s c i v i l m a n ne r t h a n t h e P a r i s i a n S e c t i on a ries in R o h mer's film i nv a d e t h e dwe l l ing of t h e beauti f u l E n g l i s h wom a n . Accord i n g to t h e wel l - k n o w n j oke, b e i ng u n a b l e to b u i l d cities in the cou n t r y, the greats of t h i s world h ave therefore decided to g a t h e r next time i n the C a na d i a n m o u nt a i n s , s o t h a t , f a r from the noises of t h e u nwelcome c rowd, they c a n r e a l i ze t h e i r own d r e a m , the c u rrent d ream of governmen t s : t h e d i re c t i on b e t ween responsible m e n of a world without peop l e . 72

T H E F I L M MAKER, THE PEOPLE AND THE GOVER N M E NT

So, if Rohmer's film provokes embarrassment, it is not because it clashes with the spirit of the times . On the contrary, it is because it is too conformist to this world, because, b e n e ath its visu ally and i d eologically

retra appearance, it images in t o o direct a manner the contemporary

dream of the world government of 'competent' people, delivered of all disturbances from the street. Once again, Rohmer is little concerned to play the flag -bearer for the final burial of revolutions . His politics is first and foremost aesthetic. His own 'counter-revolution' is ci rcums cribe d within the fi e l d of cinema . Though he never played at being a leftist, in the 1 9 5 0s he was one of the first champions of the Ross ellinian revol u tion whose principles ended up p aving the way for the 'New Waves ' : bid farewell to the studios and g o into the streets with the cameras on the s earch contemporary inhabitants of the world, chasing all the unfore seen events that make up their material, sentimental and possibly p oliti cal itineraries . F ollowing the mobile camera of New Wave filmmakers, students of the 1 9 60s set out t o discover the social world of their time and invaded the streets of Paris and a few other m etropolises . Again, this link between an a esthetics of the cinema and a way of practi cing politics is also evoked by Godard's last film, Elage de l 'amaur, in which the camera travels through the streets of Paris, visits the night cleaners of trains as though it were a leftist handing out pamphlets, and places itself medita tively before the b uilding, today des erted, of the erstwhile 'worker fort ress' at the Renault factori e s . As for Rohmer, he turned away from the hazards of the streets very early on to dedicate himself to the ups and downs of sentiment in s ocially protected microcosms, but all the same without renouncing Rossellinian realism. The avowed artificialism which corresponds, in L'Anglaise et Ie Due, to an historic broadening of the set, today works as an a esthetic manifesto symbolically closing an age of cin ema. It is in this, more than in any i deological measure, that he is in agreement with the desire to close, finally, an age which wanted to return to the streets and render p olitics to all.

73

CHAPTER N I N ETEEN
Ti me, Wo rds, Wa r, November 2001

' B e t w e e n good a n d evil, we k n o w t h a t G o d is not neutra l ' . These were t h e words with which G e o rg e B u sh a n n o u n ce d his co n fi d en ce i n t h e

U S - l a u nched a n t i - t errorist wa r. The a r g u m e n t obvi o u s l y rai s e s some p ro b l e m s , the fi rst of which might be s i m p l y e x presse d : God a ctu a l l y d o e s seem stra ngely n e u t r a l i n the a ffa i r. The s a m e God, that of M o s e s / M o u s s a a n d of Abra h a m / Ib ra h im, s u pports t h e opposite conviction : that the Jihad comba ta n ts will t ri u m p h i n t h e i r g o o d ca u s e against t h e evil A m e rican empire. The ca u s e s are e xp r e s s e d b y e a ch side in moral and religi o u s l a n g u a g e . A n d this l a nguage i s a l s o often u s e d by the opp o n ents to t h e crusade announced b y the president of the United States. The terms 'God ', 'Love ', 'Peace ', 'No more hate ', were to be read pra ctica lly everywhere o n the inscripti on - covered posters carrie d by those gath e red, in Union Square or in Wa shington S quare, to bring t h e solicitu de o f the God of love to bear against the fury of t h e God of vengeance : 'Let u s nol become the evil that we d e p l o re ' . As if it were admitted that only i n such religious a n d moral terms can a distance be taken with respect to the great consensus of the nation united around its victims and their vengeance. B u t it i s not simply a q u e s t i o n of respect and of solidarity t owards the victims. More radica lly, everything transpires as i f t h e words that were tra d e d 3 0 years ago - free world, imperi a l i s m , oppression, resistance . . . - have no more currency, as i f n o other language, n o other framework s ituatioll . That this is so at the b e g i n n i n g of the t h i r d m i llenni u m , i n the c o r e of t he 'adva n c e d world ', calls for refl e c t i o n . A while ago a l ready, t h e
74

of thought were available t o articulate

and j u dge the

TI ME, WORDS, WAR

soothsayers proclaimed the end of politics and history. Thi s end, how ever, bears meagre resemblance to the one that they proclai me d . The 'end of history' proclaimed by Francis Fukuyama, and soon confirmed by the fall of the S oviet Empire, b e sp oke the end of a world that had b een divided into opposing blocs by the socialist alternative. The end of utopias - another grand theme of the 1 9 8 0 s - b e spoke the end itself 01 the gap between the ideals of j ustice and the empirical administration of necessitie s . D emocracy h a d imposed itself as the ultimate form 01 gov ernment, the rationa l government able to make the demands of justice coincide with economic necessity. Where utopia had create d division, the return to a shared set of givens about a restrictive reality app e a re d to promise, i n the more or less distant long term, agreement within nations and among nation s . Sure enough some expressed their discordance, their voices breaking through the consensual mu sic of official political s cientists . Thes e voice s set against this all-too- simple realism, the advent of a virtual, media world, where every reality vanishes into images and every image i nto numb e r s . The ones welcomed the reign of commu nica tion for its ability to destroy economic and state fortresses and establish, within this situation o f generalized intermixing, the great pla netary democracy of networking. The others denounced the limitless extension of the society of control, the collap s e of the reaL the soft totalitarianism of the total screen, or the fatal triumph of the narcissistic individual in mass democracy. But these apparent dissidences rested on one and the same e ssential b elief. The naive and the clever, the opti m i s t s and the pessimists, at bottom shared the s a me idea - the cha rge so often levelled at the now defunct communism: that of a unique sense of history in which technology, e conomics and p ol itics progres s hand- i n-hand, in which the worldwide circulation of humans and commodities dooms particularisms to vanish, i n which the development of new te chnologies spells the ruin of old ideologie s . The ethnic conflicts i n the E u ropean East, the rise o f fundamentalism in the Muslim world and the rise of an extreme racist and x enophobic right in several western countri e s were apparently not enoug h t o shake the belief in this temporal concordance . Would the collapse of the Twin Towers be enough to shake it today? For a start, S eptember 1 1 reminded thos e who thought we now lived in the pure virtual universe o f the net work, and even those who said that the horror endured that day had been anticipated one hundred time s over by catastrophe films, that we
75

C H RONICLES OF CONSENSUAL T I M E S c o n t i n u e t o live a n d w o r k i n b u i l d i ngs m a d e of i ro n , gl a s s o r stone w h ose r e sistance

or

weaknesses have n o t h i n g t o d o e i t h e r w i t h scre e n s o r w i t h

s pecia l effects a n d t h a t w h e n t h e y c o l l a p s e t h e y rea lly d o . Above a l l , it s h owed above a l l that t h e s u p r e m e w e a p o n o f ca rrying o u t real destruc tion wa s t h e very ' i deology' t h a t t h e rea l i t y of t h e present - d a y w o r l d a n d t h e e m pi re o f technologica l co m m u n i ca t i o n were s u pposed to h a v e rel egated to t h e realm of m e m o ry. B e h i n d t h e f a l s e l y nai"ve q u e s t i o n ' W h y d o t h ey h a te u s ? ' , l i es a d i s m a y t h a t is m o re s i n cere: ' W h y a re t h e y not reasonable like u s ? Why d o n ' t things obey that simple rea s o n a ccord i n g t o w h i c h , w h e n g o o d s m u lt i p l y, p e o p l e l i v e b e t t e r a n d , i f t h e y l i v e b e t t e r, t h ey become more peacefu l ? ' We w o u l d l i k e to believe t h a t such a t t acks a re perp t' t ra t e d by those a s yet u na b l e t o e n j o y g o o d s a n d w e l l - b e i n g . S u t how a re we to understa n d t h a t s o m e o n e ca n bot h be t h e h e a d of an i n t e r n a t i o n a l fi nancial n e t w o r k a n d a warrior o f God, a s u i ci d a l fa n a t i c a n d a m e t i cu l o u s o rga nizer a n d e x ecuter? H o w c a n s o m e o n e w h o i s not m i serable and does not have n o t h i n g l e f t to lose, a m a n w h o i s ra t h e r n o r m a l . h a s an e d u ca t i o n a n d i s a b l e to p u r s u e a gre a t c a r e e r a s a n engi n eer, rush headlong toward a cert a i n d e a t h ? So t h e present-day ru i n i n g of politics to the a dvantage of morality and religion cannot be put down to the 'end o f h istory' scenario that h a s d ragged
Oil

more or less everywhere for the last 2 0 years. It can not be identified

with the planetary reign of reasonable management setting itself up on the ruins of utopi a . O n the contra ry. it m a rks not only t h e refutation of this ' reasonable' scenario, but also of the linear conception of h istorical evolu tion which u nderpins it. Politics is n o t over. It is simply absent. It i s excl u d e d in principle by authoritari a n state forms, which claim bluntly not to n e e d i t b eca use the word of God o r some other principle of identity constitutes the t rue foundation of the life of communities. It is hollowed out from the inside by liberal states, which tend increasingly to reduce d emocratic forms t o the reputedly u nivocal management of common economic interest s . More than ever today, i t appears that politics is not a perman e n t given a ssimilable to the organization of state communities. It is instead a singular way of conducting conflicts and of making them the very centre o f life i n common. This way i s n o t always activ e . B ut, i n addition, every state, whether good or bad, tends t o effect a reduction of politics, whether by violent or mild means, in the name of a n u n ambiguous, n o n - conflictual principle of community: that is, in the n a m e of an identity of faith or origin, o r of the law, the common i nterest o r the force of circumstance . 76

TIME, WORDS, WAR

Further, as politics tends to vanish, then it starts above all to appear a s a way of providing events with a name a n d a framework, of understand ing the difference of temporalities in one and the same present, of situat ing the same and the oth e r in a common space . S ome have n o need of it. finding in the Holy S criptures or the law of blood or soil something that caters for all necessities . O thers, educated by political perceptions m ore than they might think, find they have been disarmed of it. This i s what can be observed i n the present- day United States and among its all i e s . Their recourse t o the sure b earings of morality and religion translates the impossibility of giving a name t o the conflict. of situating the enemy i n a common space, of conceiving the common time of an cestral convictions that animates it and of n e w technologies that it wields to translate them into acts . The inability is shared by American leaders who d o n o t know how to name their war and by opponents to the war, who do not know how t o argue their opposition. Some might say that this is m erely a que s t i o n of words, which in n o way hinders the game of power. Bul this simple opposition between words and acts also comes into question . The difficulties that American power has to contend with do not result sim ply from the in adaptability of its military means to Afghan g eography but from the very nature of that power. American hegemony consists first of all in the hegemony it exercises over its allies in the name of the consensual logic o f common interests and limitative realities . The same logic by which alli e d states are subordinated is the one by which they consolidate their own p ow e r. For those who accept the rules of the game, this logic is irrefutable. For those who rej ect it wholesale, it spins around in the void. In the heart of the superpower arises an impotence vastly different from the traditionally invoked difficulty of attuning domestic democratic life to the fight to death against an enemy that bars no hol e s . T h e same reasons which disann p rotest in western states and give free reign to their government could well make it difficult for them not only to name their enemy and their war hut also to bring it to an e n d .

77

CHAPTER TWENTY P h i l osophy i n the Bath room , January 2002

La Philosophic (omme maniere de vivre, Petite Philosophie du matin, 1 0 1 Experi

ences

de ph ilosophie quotidienne, A n tima n uel de ph ilosophie, The Consolations

of Philosophy ' . . . The p h i l o s o p h e r p e r u s i n g the titles fea t u ri n g on t h e s h e l v e s of Parisia n bookstores i n this festive p e r i o d wo u l d be agreea b l y s a tisfied b y the f a c t that h i s i d o l c o m p a res f a vo u ra b l y w i t h B i n La d e n a s t h e sta r o f ed itoria l fa s h i o n . P h i l o s o p h y i s c ertai n l y m o s t fas h i o n a bl e . A few years ago, t h i s fas h i o n w a s m a d e by t h e s u ccess of p hilosoph y - cafes w h e re, with t h e h e l p of a moderator, anyone a t all cou l d t u rn up on S unday to debate t h e great q uestions of human existence. Then came the consultations of philosophy, philosophy in the service of company p roble ms, a n d the s u ccessful day- or w e e k - long p h ilosophy semina rs organized b y various l arge a n d small towns, called to come a n d live the hour of philosophy. At a second glance, of course, the philosoph e r a sks himself a question: what exactly i s this triumphant phil o s o p h y ? And, being in the trade, h e c a nnot fail to notice the dominant tone of this philosophical bookstore display. From philo- cafes to philosophy b e s t - s e llers, one and the same a ssertion i s repeated over a n d over again. This a s s ertion contrasts living p h ilosophy, t h e o n e w i t h w h i ch e a ch of us can confront the problems of our concrete existence, to university philosophy, that which one teaches a s a professor or studies to become a professor in turn . Some of the a uthors alluded to above are themselves p a rt of the university corpora tion. And yet they speak with t h e same voice a s the others, in l a ying claim a style of philosophy t h a t has d e s cended from the university chair and into the world of life . 78

PHILOSOPHY I N TH E BATH ROOM

It remains only t o find out what exactly this 'life' is to which phil o sophy h a s return e d . T h e despondent never fail to note that this restora tion of philosophy to all and sundry is also a way of confining all and sundry within their existential problems . 'University' philos ophers such as Kant or Fichte confronted the all -powerful Theology Faculty, under the gaze of students dreaming of the French Revolution and o f monarchs who might cancel their courses at any moment . The philosopher slumbering inside e a ch o f us, as for him, is asked to devote himself to other problems than those o f founding the legitimacy of the s tate : that is, the 'true' problems that each of us encounters in daily life once we've left the concerns of j u stice and freedom to the specialists. The rea der of Alain de B otton's The Consolations of Philosophy will first discover, with the example of S ocrates, how not to suffer from one 's 'lack of popularity ' . After which the r e a d e r w i l l have the liberty to fi n d in Epicurus t h e means to resist money worries, in Montaigne those to endure sexual problems and in S chopenhauer the weapon with which to brave love disappoint ments . Philosophy is thereby returned to its function: to change the life of those who dedicate themselves to it. Forget the contradiction involved in contrasting living philo s ophy with its university history only ultimately to propose a few s u mmaries or chosen texts from great philosophers. B ecause the privile g e d philosophers themselves - Socrates , Epicurus, S eneca, Montaigne, S chopenhauer - actually provide a demonstration of a philosophy for non-professionals, identical to the experiment of chan ging one's lif e . T h e problem is o n l y t o k n o w what life it is that is to be changed and what the extent of the change is. Nietzsche, who often appli e d Plato and was a passionate reader o f S chopenha uer, had his own view o f this. For him, the school of S o crates taught not the pleasures of a life preserved from popularity, but a new sort of comhat sport by which to s hine in the eyes of the world. It was o f course a sport addressed to privileged ama teurs: those young rich p e ople who had nothing to do with their exist ence other than to turn it into a work of art. And the work of art par

excellence by which they were fascinated, the new goal that philosophy
assigned to their life, was the dying S ocrates . To transform one 's life and to make it philosophical by making philosophy become life m e ant learn ing to flee as quickly a s p o s sible, as far as possible. To ask philos ophy t o b e a n a r t of living that remedies t h e little worries of existence, does this not, i f t a ken seriously, always force it towards 79

C H RON ICLES OF CONSENSUAL T I M ES

t h i s goa l : to t a ke t h e s e r i o u s n e s s a w a y fro m t h e s e wor r i e s , a n d to t a ke a way o n e 's bel i e f i n t h e i m p e ra t i v e s of l i fe to w h i c h t h ey a re l i n ke d ? We c a n read S c hope n h a u e r to l e a r n h o w to rel a t i v i z e o u r h e a r t a c h e s . B u t S c ho p e n h a u e r h i m sel f a s k s s o m e t h i n g e l s e, w h ich i s t h a t w e e s c a p e f ro m t h e v i s i o n o f t h e w o r l d i n w h i c h t h e s e hea r t a c h e s ma k e s t h e m s e lves fel t , t h a t w e lea rn n o t t o wa n t a n d t o b e c o m e s p e c t a t o r s . T h i ngs ca n d o u b t l e s s b e s t a t e d m o re o r less d ra m a t i ca l l y. T h e re i s not h i n g a t a l l
u

npleJ s a n t , for e x a ll1ple, in t h e 1 0 I Experiments in the Philosophy of Every

day Lif e proposed by Roger-Pol D ro i t : ' Wa i t w it h o u t d o i n g a n y t h i n g ', ' Fo l l ow t h e movement s of a nt s ', ' S h ower w i t h you r eyes c l o s e d ', ' E x i t t h e c i n e m a i n b ro a d d a y l ig h t ', ' Wa ke up w i t h o u t k n ow i n g w h e r e ', a n d ' Ta ke t h e m e t ro w i t h o u t goi n g a ny wh e r e ' . B u t we ca n s u rely s e e w h e r e J I I t hese e xe r c i s e s of sense d i s o r i e n t a t i o n l e a d . The ph i l osoph icJ I e x p e r i e n ce o f t h e s t ra ngeness of t h e wor l d c o m e s t o t e r m i n t h e conv i c t i o n t h at ' t rue l i fe ' i s ' n ot h i ng but a fi c t i o n a m o n g ot h e r s ' w h i c h ' w i l l com e t o <I n e n d i n a n y case'. Is this way o f changing l i fe rea l l y what i s req u i red a t a time w h e n each of
li S

is e n couraged to ca st o f f all pessi m i s m a n d make o u r e n t h u s i a s t i c

contrib u t i o n t o t h e new l i fe of t h e cyber- m a rk e t , t h e e u m a n d t h e gra n d i ose m e rgers of t h e gia n t s of p l a n e t a ry com m u n i ca t i o n ? S ocra t e s a n d S chopen h a u e r a re asked to l o w e r t h e i r d e m a n ds , to t r a n s form their ways o f l e a rn i n g t o l e a v e this world i n t o a way of ' li v i n g t h e everyd a y ' . For t h is, a l l t h a t is required is a little c h a n g e i n t h e m e a n i n g o f the e x e rci s e . The j o u rn<llist -philosophe r encou ra g e s u s t o ' s h o w e r w i t h y o u r eyes closed', so that, u n a ware of w h e re t h e gushing water i s coming from, w e a re left only with t h e p u r e sensation of wet s k i n . The philosophe r-j our nalist, author of the Petite Philosophie du matin, removes t h e s u spect Scho p e n h a u e rian sophistication from these ablutions: 'Among the tonic acts o f the morning, finishing y o u r w a s h w i t h a j e t o f c o l d w a t e r o v e r t h e whole b o d y is among the m o s t stimula t i n g ' , C hristi n e Rambert assures
us

in the 1 2 7th of her ' 3 6 5 thoughts t o b e happy every d a y ' .

This philosophy is certa i n l y l e s s p e r il o u s . It agrees perfectly with tbe multitude of recommendations that w e a r e fed b y doctors, psychologists, hygienists, n u tritionists a n d others in h u n d re d s of mag<lzines and special p rogrammes, teaching us how to take g o o d care of our self and how to l i ve life harmoniously i n the e v e r y d a y. The q u estion that thus r e - emerges i s the following: i s t h e r e r e a l l y a n y n e e d o f p hilosophy i f all i t does i s r e p e a t the media refrain of the e v e r y d a y c a r e of t h e s e l f ? T h i s i s t h e h e a r t 80

P H I LOSOPHY IN TH E BATHROOM

of the problem: the a dvocates of 'philosophy in life' want simultan eously to enj oy the thrill of travelling in the Platonic chariot across the radiant heaven of Ideas and to have the half-hearted comfort of tho ught and body in the smallest things of life . S o crates renouncing the life of opinion and a water mixer. In philosophical imagery, there is always one who gazes at th e sky and one who gazes at the earth . To have the sky and the earth at once, we are no doubt obliged to turn towards other fictions . Alongside the philo sophical consolations o n offer on bookstore tables, another consoler began a new stage of h e r fabulous career through DVD. This consoler, the little Amelie Poulain, spearhead of the French cinematographic industry, solves the problematic marriage of the sky to which one flees and the earth in which one takes root. Le Fabu leux Destin d 'Ame/ie Poulain presents an exemplary reconciliation of two opposite theses : first, you have to escape the greyness of reality into the ideal; second, y o u have to return from the ideal sky back into reality. On the one hand, Amelie is the little fairy who changes the lives of those a round with her simple decision, assuaging their inconsolable hearts, unifying solitary souls, p uni shing the wicked, rewarding the good and moving the s e d e ntary. But it would b e all mere illusion if the one who proj e cted her ideal sky into the lives of others did not also take care of herself and know how to cash in on her dreams for an occasion that has offered itself in prosaic reality and is certain never to b e represented again, in the figure of young man who it seems is not very bright . Fiction is more b e autiful than reality. Reality is more bea utiful than any fiction. Amelie has spectators participate in the enj oyme n t of tha t irrefutable philosophy by placing the S chopenhauerian experience of disorientation from the familiar world on the side of the villainous, racist greengrocer - whose slippers she swaps or whose toothpaste sh e replaces with foot-cream. She contrasts the e quivocal experiences of p hilosophy to the happy union of the sky and the earth . No douht quarrelsome minds will say that the union of the sky and the earth bea rs strong resemblance to the wedding of a dvertising and commodities and that this cheerful philosophy of the everyday recalls all too much the th e o logy of the s ensible / suprasensible commodity that, in another time, was analyzed by Marx.

81

CHAPTER TWE NTY- O N E

P r i s o n e rs o f t h e Infi n ite, March 2002

' I n fi n i t e J u stice ' : t h i s w a s t h e i n i t i a l n a m e g i v e n to t h e Penta gon 's o ffe n s

ive aga i n st t h a t fuzzy - co n to u red e n em y d e noted b y t h e n a m e 'te rror i s m ' . As we know, the name was q u i c k l y correct e d . It had been, we were l e d to u n d e rsta nd, an excess o f l a n g u a g e on the p a rt of a president still

i n e xperi e n ced i n t h e a rt o f n u a nc e . I f h e wa nted bin Laden ' d e a d h i s you th .

or

a l ive', it was obvi o u s l y beca u s e he h a d w a t c h e d too many Westerns in This explanation is h a r d l y convin c i n g . F o r t h e ' d e a d or a live' principle is by no means that of Westerns. I t is i n a c t u a l fact commonplace i n Weste rns to see sheriffs riski n g t h e i r s k i n t o wrench assassins from t h e l ynch m o b a n d h a n d them o v e r t o t h e s y s t e m of justice. I n contrast to t h e lessons o f any We stern, infinite j ustice is a j ustice without limits: a j u stice that ignores a ll the categories by which the e xercise of j ustice is t r a ditiona l l y circumscrib e d : those which distinguish l e g a l punishment from the vengeance of indivi d u a l s , which separate th e l a w from the political, the ethical or the religious; and which separate t h e police forms of tracking down crimes from t h e m i l i t a ry forms of battles between a rmi e s . From this viewpoint, there was n o excess of language . 'Nuances' wou l d indeed be quite inappropri a t e . F o r i t i s e x a ctly these features that characterize t h e retal i atory operations u n dertaken by the United States. These operations involve eliminating the differences that separate war a n d the police from a l l the legal forms b y means of which we've sought to spe cify a n d limit the action of e a ch o f the m . One no longer says ' d e a d or alive' except to say t h a t n o b o d y k n o w s whether t h e individual con cerned is, precisely, dead o r alive . Yet n o o n e knows exactly o n what
82

PRISONERS OF THE I N F I N ITE

grounds the American military is detaining and aiming to try prisoners who benefit n either from prisoner of war status nor from the ordinary guarantees grante d to defendants in the framework of a criminal ca se. The term 'infinite j ustice ' says precisely what is at stake: the assertion of a right identical with the omnipotence hitherto reserved for the aven ging God. The traditional distinctions, in fact, all wind up being abolishe d at t h e s a m e time a s t h e forms of international l a w a r e effaced. Of course, this e ffacing is already the principle of terrorist action, which is e qually indifferent to p olitical forms and to the norms of law. B u t 'infinite j ustic e ' is not only the response to t h e adversary's provo cation, a constraint to situate oneself o n the same terrain as him. It also expresses that strange status that the effacing of the political today confers on law. both within and between nations. Considerations of the c urrent state of law reveal a singular i nversion of things . In the 1 9 9 0 5, the S oviet empire's collapse and the weakening of social movements in maj o r Western countries were generally cel ebrated as the liquidation of the utopia s of real democracy and social democracy in favour of the rules of the State of R ight . Outbursts of eth n ic conflict and religious fundamentalism j ust as soon gainsaid this simple philo sophy of history. But the identification of Western triumph with the tri umph of the State of R ight has likewise proven problematic. Within the Western powers and in their modes of foreign intervention, the relation between right and fact has actually evolved in such a way as to tend increasingly towards blurring the boundaries of law. In these countries we've seen two phenomena b e come more pronounced: on the one hand , an interpretation of law in terms of the rights granted to a multipl icity of groups as such; on the other, legislative practices aimed at putting the letter of the law everywhere i n harmony with new lifestyles, new forms of work, of tech nology, of family or of social relationships . In correspond ence with this shrinking of p olitical sphere, which is constituted i n the interval between the law's abstract literalness and the polemics over its i nterpretations . The law thus celebrated increasingly tends to he the reg istering of a community'S lifestyl e s . A political symholization of power, its limits and the a mbiguities of law has been replaced by an ethical sym bolization of the latter: a relation of consensual inter- expression between the fact of the state of a s o c iety and the norm of the law. The American response affirms this immediate adequation of right and fact within the life of a community. B ut the dominant representation of
83

C H RON ICLES OF CONSE NSUAL T I M E S

t h e A m e rica n C o n s ti t u t i o n a l s o s y m b o l i z e s i t : i t is t h e ethical i d e n t i t y between a particu l a r l i f e s t y l e a n d a u niversa l s y s t e m of v a l u e s . ' Ethos' m e a n s dwell ing a n d l i festyle before i t d o e s a s y s t e m of m o r a l va l u e s . T h e recent m a n i fe s t o i s s u e d by A m e ri ca n i nt e l l e c t u a l s i n su pport of George W. B u s h 's policies highligh t e d this point we l l : m o re than a j u ri d i co - polit ieal comlll u n i t y, the U n ited Slates < He fi rst and fore most a com m u n i t y u n ited b y com mo l1 m o ra l a n d religi o u s va l u e s - a n ethical com m u n i t y.
Till' Good that fo u n d s the c o m m u n i t y is t h e refore t h e i d e n t ity betwe e n r i g h t a n d fa ct . And t h e crime pe rpet ra t e d a g a i n s t t h o u s a n d s of A m eriCilI1

li ves can be i m m ediately posited as a crime perpet rated a g a i n s t t h e E m p ire of G o o d a s s u c h . But a wh i l e ago t h i s r i s e of e t h i c s to t h e d e t r i m e n t of j u s t i ce wa s
a

I rc a d y t a k i n g s h a p e in t h e fo r m s of fore i g n i n te rven t i o n s u nd e r ta k e n

by t h e great powers . I n t h e m , t h e blu r r i n g of the l i m i t s b e t w e e n fact a n d law has ta ken a n other fi g u re, o p p o s i t e a n d comple m e n t a r y t o t h a t o f COI1 Sell S u a I ha r m ollY - t h e fi g u r e o f t h e h u m a II i t a ria n a l i d of ' h u m a n i t a rian i n t e rference'. The ' r i g h t o f h u m a n i t a ria n i n t e r fere n c e ' has e n abled the p rotec t i o n of s p e c i fi c popu l a t i o n s of ex-Yugo s l a v i a [ ro m a n u n derta k i n g of eth n i c l i q u i d a t i o n . B u t i t wa s d o n e at the price of bl u r r i ng the borders of the s y m b o l i c a s wel l a s of the s t a t e . Not o n l y d i d i t s ea l the d e fi n i t ive a b a n d o n o f a s t r u c t u ra l p r i n c iple of i nt e r n a t i on a l l a w, n a mely t h e principle of n on - i n ference - a principle of a d m itted l y a mbiguous v i rt u e s ; above a ll , i t i nt r o d u c e d a p r i n c iple of l i m i t l e s s n e s s t h a t r u i n s t h e v e r y i d e a of t h e g a p b e t we e n r i g h t a n d fa ct, w h i c h g r a n t s t he l a w i t s s t a t u s . A t the time of the Vietn a m Wa r o r o f t h e coups d 'etat more or l e s s directly i n ci t e d b y A m e r i c a n power i n v a ri o u s regions t h r o u g h o u t t h e worl d , t h e r e existed a n opposition, more o r l e s s expli cit, between the great principles a sserted b y We stern powers a n d the practices subordi n ating those principles to t h e i r v i t a l intere s t s . T h e anti - i mperialist m ob i lizati ons of the 1 9 605- 1 9 7 0 5 h a d c o n d e m n e d t h i s g a p between founding principles a n d real practice s . Tod a y t h e p o l e m i c over means a n d e n d s s e e m s to have vanish e d . The principl e o f I h i s disappear a n ce is t h e repre s entation of the absolute victim, the v i c t i m o f a n i n fi n i t e evil, obliging infinite reparation . This ' ab s ol u t e ' righ t of t h e victim h a s developed i n
t h e framework of ' h u m a n i t a r i a n ' w a r. And i t h a s been seconded by t h e

maj or intellectual m o v e m e n t o f theorizing i n fi n i t e crime, which has been elaborated over the last q u a rt e r o f a century.
84

PRISO N E RS OF THE INFINITE

The specificity of what might be called the second denunciation of S oviet crimes and the Nazi genocide has without doubt received too little attention. The first denunciation had aim e d t o establish the r eality of the facts, while also reinforcing the determinati on of Western democracies to struggle against an ever-pres ent and still -threatening totalitarianism . The second, develope d d u ring the 1 9705 as a ledger of communis m or in the
1 980s by way of a return to the extermination of the E urop ean Jewry,

has acquired a wholly new meaning . These crimes have not only been construe d as the monstrous effects of regimes that have to be fought against. but as the forms of manifestation of an infinite crim e , unthink able and irreparable, as the work of an E vil power exceeding all legal and political measure . E thics has become the way of thinking abollt this infinite evil, creating an irremediable cut in history. The ultimate consequ ence of the excess of ethics over law and politics is the paradoxical constitution of an absolute right for those whose rights have been absolutely denied . This figure in effect appears as the victim of an infi nite Evil against which the fight is itself infinite . S o the defender of the victim's right gets to inherit this absolute right . The limitlessness of t b e irreparable wrong p erpetrated against the victim then j u stifies the unlimited right o f his defender. American reparation for the absolute crime committed against American lives brought the process t o its point of culmination. The obligation of attending to the victims of absolute Evil is identified with the limitless fi ght against this evil. And this is identified with the deployment of exorbitant military might. functioning like a police force in charge of restoring order to every part of the world where E vil can find shelter. But this military power is also a j u ridical power, carrying out against all the supposed accomplices of infinite Evil the mythical power of Vengeance tracking down the C rime. As the adage has it, unlimited right is identical with non-righ t . Vi ctims and culprits alike fall into the circle of ' infinite j ustice ' which today results in the total legal indeterminacy affecting the status of prisoners of the US Army and the qualifi cation of the facts held against them. Long ago Hegel mocked the night of the Absolute in which ' all cows are grey ' . T h e indistinctness of ethics, in which politics and the law are smothered today, has turne d the prisoners of Guantanamo B ay into captives of an Infinite of like genre, which has simply traded grey for orange . The ethico- police symbolization of the lives of s o - called democratic communities and of their relations with another world - which is likened
85

C HRONICLES OF CONSENSUAL T I M E S to the sole r e i g n of eth n i c a n d f u n d a m e nt a l i s t p o w e r s - h a s s l owly c o m e t o replace j u ri d i co -political forms o f symbo l i za tion . O n o n e s i d e , the world of g o o d : t h a t of co n s e n s u s eliminating political litiga t i o n i n the felicitous h a rm o n ization o f r i g h t a n d fa ct, o f w a y s of b e i n g a n d v a l u es; on the other, t h e world of' e v i l , in w h i c h wrong is, o n t h e contra ry, i n fi n i t i zed a n d w h e re it ca n o n l y be p l a yed o u t a s a wa r u n to d e a t h .

86

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO From O n e M o nth of May to Another, June 2002

B etween the e n d of April and the start of May, the streets of Paris and of many other towns in France were filled with corteges of demonstrators and notably o f crowd s of youths in a way not seen since the month of May 1 96 8 . However, one difference separated these two Springs : in
1 9 68, the demonstrators had noisily contrasted the reality of political

and social power that they represented to the electoral gam e s of the par ties . Their disinterest for the elections then organized by the General de Gaulle found expression in the slogan: 'Elections, idiot trap ' . In 2 0 0 2 , t h e slogan born by those who had not entered the street since 1 9 6 8 and the youths who were marching i n them for t h e first t i m e w a s , con versely: 'Abstention, i diot trap ' . It was as if this street movement's fore most task was to atone for a good 30 years of sin. This was perhaps the most profound sense of the events surrounding the French presidential election. Regardless of what was said about it, the most important aspect was not the result obtained by the extreme right. This result w a s p erhaps slightly above its average o f the last 1 5 years, but was by no means tsunami-lik e . Moreover, it expressed a force that was closer to a diffus e movement of opinion than to a fascist party on the verge of taking power. This slight increase became a traumatic e vent, however, becaus e the mechanism of the maj ority- rules system, designed
(0 s e cure the two governmental parties a monopoly in the s truggle for

power, for once resulted in the contrary. The S ociali st Party had broadly benefited from the electoral strength of the extreme-right a n d the fact that it took vote s away from the official right . This time the m echanism turned against it.

87

C H RONICLES OF CONSE NSUAL TIMES But i f the socia l i s t repre s e n t a t i v e c ou l d be e l i m i n a t e d from t h e second round by the extrem e - right, t h i s i s obv i o u s l y for a n o t h e r rea s o n . It i s b e ca u se t h e 'left ' votes that i t u s u a l l y d e p e n d s o n were l a cking. H e r e , a ga i n , t h e maj o ri t y - rules m e c h a n i sm bega n
10

function in revers e . F o r

2 0 yea rs t h e offi c i a l l e ft h a d b e e n a b l e t o obta i n , reta i n o r rega i n power t h 'lIl k s 10 the votes o f the o t h e r l d t . namely the l e ft t h a t l a ys cla im to t h e h l' r i t a g e o f t h e 6 8 yea rs, t h a t f o u g h t i n t h e s o ci a l m o ve m e n t o f 1 9 9 5 , a n d t h el l , i n subseq u e n t yea rs, h el s m o b i l i z e d a g a i nst racist l a ws, a g a i n s t c a p i t a l i s t g l oba l i za t i oJl o r f o r t h e reg u l a r i z a t i o n of w o r k e r s w i t h o u t pape r s . T h l' offi c i a l l e ft h a s gcnera l l y b e n e fi t ed from t h e v o t e s o f this m i l i t a n t l e ft . w h ich is m o re interested in t h e d e v e l op m e n t of p o l i t i c a l m o ve m e n t s 0 1 <;l ruggle t h a n i n e l ecto ra l proces s e s . A s i t h a s reckoned t h a t it i s a t a n y ra t e g u a ra n t e e d t h ese votes, t h e offi c i a l l e ft h a s n e v e r been b o t h e re d t o
C el rn

t h cIll . I n pa rticu l a r, it h a s d o n e n o t h i n g t o p rovide a pol i t i c a l sol u

t i o n t o t h e p robl e m o f i n t e g ra t i n g w o r k e rs o f foreign origin a n d t h e i r c h i l d re n . For 2 0 y e a rs, i t h a s d o n e n o t h i n g b u t contin u e t o d e l a y m a k i n g g ood O I l i t s p ro m i se, a l beit a ra t h e r m o d es t o n e : t h e part icipati o n o f for e i g n ers i n l o ca l e l e ct i o n s . The F r e n c h , they have said, a re not yet rea d y t o t a k e this s t e p . A s i f t h e a v e rage v o t e r w a s really too ba ckwa rds to a ccept the absol u te l y incredible i d e a accord i n g to which it is right that t h os e who live a n d work i n a place are also able to participate i n the d i scllssions and d e ci sions t h a t affect the l i fe o f this pla ce . These ' n o t - y e t r c a d y ' Fre n c h m e n and w o m e n are simply t h e voters of the oppos i n g p a rty, whom t h e socialist governors a i m t o s e d u ce by manifesting t h e i r s pirit of responsi b i l ity. S u ch , i n fact, i s t h e l o g i c of the maj ority - ru l e s syste m : t h e p a r t i e s of p o w e r concern t h e m s e l v e s n o t with a ddressing t h e commitments to their v o t e r s , w h o they think w i l l be comp e l l e d to vote for them i n any case, but with trying t o p i ck up - from among the voters of the opposing party - the l i t t l e b i t extra t h a t s e cures victory. The real event o f the p r e s i d e n t i a l e l e c t i o n is that this l o g i c fai l e d . For the fi rst time since 1 9 6 8 , the m i l i t a n t l e ft refu s e d , i n l a rge numbers, to vote for t h e official left. O f course, this s a m e m i l i tant l e ft was the first to b e shocked b y the result of this breakdown and to fill t h e s t r e e t s , a l o n g s i de t h e high s c h o o l students, and express i t s a b s o l u t e rej ection of t h e i d eas and v a l u e s of the racist and xenop h o b i c e xtrem e - right that. thanks t o the failure of the official Jeft, had q u a l i fi e d for second round of the e lection. But next there came about a s t range reversal of things . The oificial lelt, its press and i t s intellectuals b e l a b o ured the demonstrators i n 88

FROM O N E M O NTH OF MAY TO ANOTH ER

the following terms : why are you in the streets today, if not because of a situation for which you are largely responsible? If you had voted like responsible voters for the socialist candidate, nothing like this would have happened. B ut you preferred to take refuge in abstentio n or to scat ter your votes among protest candidat e s . This notion of 'protest' merits our attention . All t h e authorized a n a lysts explained t o u s at length that there were t w o types o f candidates for this election: government candidates and protest candidates . But what distinguishes a government candidate from a protest candidate? It is, quite simply, the fact that one is already used to governing and the other is not. The argument says, in a nutshell, that the existing authorities must be return e d to power, which is to say that power is the preserve of the two large consensual parties that share in it by means of alternation. That fine logic is disrupted by the fa ct of 'protestors ' . What i s a protestor? It eould be advanced that protestors are very simply those who remain unsatisfied with the reduction of p olitics to the art of seizing and main taining power and that even the success of the extreme -right lies in the fact that it calls for clear-cut coll e ctive decisions to b e made on the maj or national and international question s . This explanation, w e know, does n o t at a l l appeal to the ' government candidates ' , nor t o any o f the j o u rnalists, political scientists, sociologists or other intellectuals assigned to e xplain the former's lack of succe s s . For them, 'to protest' - that is, not to give credence to the consensual parties is an illness. And for those who represent the adult science of g overnm ent, there are two m aj or forms of illn e s s : old age and youth. They distinguish the protestors as follows : on the one hand, there are the 'victims of modernity', those that have failed t o adapt to the new economic and technological conditions or lifestyles, and that therefore vote for the old fashioned value s of the extreme - right; on the other, there are the eternal children who dream of radical political and social change, and who refuse to support modern, liberal and responsible socialism. Illnesses are the business of doctors . For those who suffer senility, measures are prop o s e d t o help them live better with their situations, in hoping that the march of modernity will push them gently into the grave . For thos e who suffer j uv enility, by contrast, shock treatment is required . They must be made to understand once and for all what p olitics is. For they imagine that p olitics consists in fighting for a certain idea of the community, in putting their confidence in the power of intelligence 89

CH RONICLES OF CONSENSUAL T I M E S a n d action of t h e l a rgest n u m b e r. T h e y m u s t h e cu red o [ t h i s folly, t a u g h t to doubt r a d i c a l l y this collective capacity a n d t h e i r own ability to j u dge and a ct a ccording to t h e i r j u dg e m e n t . They m u st be t a ught not only t h a t p o l it ics for them m u s t consist solely i n v o t i n g , h u t also i n voting against their ch o i c e . H e w h o v o t e s , i n effect. a l w a ys t e n d s t o d o s o a ccording t o t h e i d e a s t h a t h e recko n s a re j u st a n d l o r t h e ca ndidates that h e t h i n k s a r e cl osest to t h e s e i d e a s . That, a ga i n , is t a n t a m o u n t to i rresp o n s i b i l i t y. The i rrespon s i b l e m u s t be t a u g h t to u n d e rsta n d that t h e principle of the v o t e i s n o t about choice but s u b m i s s i o n , n o t about con fi d e n ce b u t fea r. T h i s is by a n d l a rge what Hobbes said w h e n h e m a d e fea r t h e principle of t h e ('om m u n i t y fou n d e d o n u ncond i t i o n a l s u b m i s s i o n to t h e sovereign p o wer. The big names of the offici a l l eft have t ra nsform ed H obbesian t h eory i n t o a practical e x e rc i s e of m o rtifi ca t i o n : you d i d n o t wa n t t o v o t e l o r t h e ca n d i d a t e of t h e o ffi c i a l a n d r e s p o n s i b l e left. Yo u s h o u l d a t o n e . A n d h o w t o a t o n e , i f n o t b y v o t i n g o v e rw h e l m i ngly a t t h e seco n d ro u n d fo r the man w h o repres e n t s t h e cu rre nt s y s t e m of govern m e n t i n i t s most m e d i ocre a n d most corru pt a s p e cts, b y voti ng, t h a t i s p u rely a n d s i mply for s u bm i s s i o n to t h e s o v e reign - a s u h m i s s i o n w h o s e e x e m p l a r i t y i n creases in acco r d a n ce w i t h t h e contemptibility of t h e person w h o embod i e s t h i s sovereign? How does t h e mech a ni s m o f submission work? B y playing on t h e d o u b l e source of guilt a n d fea r. B y prod u cing fea r b y m e a n s of guilt a n d gUilt by means of fear. The task was not a n e a s y o n e , a s the p o l l s con d u cted the evening before the first r o u n d predicted C h i ra c's overwhelming vic tory in the second. In the d a y s following it, t h e n , we s a w develop, in th e p ress a n d the a rtistic a n d intellect u a l l e ftist m i l i e u s , a n intense a l a rmist campaign, talking u p the p s e u d o - polls of the secrets services that revealed i n credible levels of support for Le Pen . Preaching campaigns then sprang up, often r u n by figures more or l e s s emblem a t i c of the 6 8 years, trying t o convince us all that, if w e abstained from putting a vote in the ballot box for C hirac, we w o u l d b e come t h e witting a ccomplices o f the i m m i n e n t opening of concentration camps i n F r a n ce . We then beheld h undreds of tho u s a n d s of demonstrators turn their own power against themselves. They had filled the streets to express their dismay a n d their refusal against t h e e x t ra o rdinary p u b licity that the o ffi cial left 's failure had served up to the candidate of a racist France . They were obliged to defile u n d e r the banners of contrition a n d fear, sporting their placards which s a i d : 'Vo t e t h e crook, not the fascist ' . O r 90

FROM ONE MONTH OF MAY TO ANOTH E R

again : ' B etter a B anana Republic than a Hitlerite France ' . A s n o o n e could seriously believe in the threat of a Hitlerite France, t h e directive i n fact meant: b e t t e r a banana republic than the Republic that all of us gath ered here could imagine b uilding with our own forces . Better a banana republic, that is to say, in general, submission. We know that this campaign was an overnight success. It assured the electoral success of the politician who epitomized submission by fear. B y t h e s a m e token, it provided an irrefutable verification of the argument which s eals the success of the extreme-right, namely that it is the only force oppose d to the consensus, the only force, that is, to b e actually engaged in doing p olitics . As for the long -term effects of this twofold demonstration, it does not appear that the campaign's promoters have paid much heed to them .

91

CHAPTER TWENTV-THREE V i ctor Hugo: The A m b i g u i t i e s of a B i c e nte na ry, A ugust 2002

So, Vict or H u go was born 200 yea rs ago. A n n iversaries do not depend o n
I l H.' I l 's

wil ls. I t i s otherwise for celebration s . l\vo years ago, t here was no

decisive reason t o t u rn the twentieth a n niversa ry of J ea n - Pa u l S a rt re 's death into an eve n t . B u t there was a will to signify, through his ' rehabilita tion ' , that a ce rtain page h a d been t u rn e d . As M arxism a n d the revolution to which h e had associa ted his speech a n d a ction, to the sca n d a l of honest people a n d m a n y of his colleagues, was no longer to be feared, h e could be d i ssociated from it a n d , on the contrary, his independence as a rtist a n d his e xigencies as a moralist could be highlighted - featu res that had always d istinguished him from the forces of evil even when he h a d seemed closest to them. He could thus b e integrated into a national tradition of t h e h onest writer, a man, a lover of art a n d a l s o someone who was mindful of com mon j u stice a n d goods, in contrast to the blindness of scholars seduced by the sirens of theory and totalitarian practice . For Victor Hugo the proced u r e i s app a rently s i mpler. The celebration of the author of Les Miserables seems n a t u ra l ly consistent with a political situ ation i n which the new French gove rn ment has a dopted as its watchwor d concern for the lowly F r a n c e : a wording e l a stic enough to u n ite the i nhabit a n t of the suburbs caught in delinquency, the artisan

bou langer, the old - s t yle b a ke r of b r e a d , the s m a l l businessman and t h e

local not able. Jean Va lj e a n w a s a b r e a d thief rather t h a n a b a ker, but a l so, once out of prison, a b u s i n e s s m a n and t h e mayor of a n indust r i a l tow n . B u t a b ove a l l t h i s celebration of Victor Hugo i s part of the great under t a k i n g to oppo s e t h e bad t r a d ition of yesterday's intelle c t u a l , the 92

VICTOR HUGO: AMBIGU ITIES OF A BICENTENARY

i m moral idoli s e r of the necessities of the dialectic and t h e r u s e s of history, with the good tradition of the day before yesterday's i ntellectua L the moralist, l over of j u s t ice, s o c i a l j ustice and public instruction. For a long time these nineteenth- century republicans, lovers of human fraternity and progress of the people through instruction, were the obj ect of an ambiguous tribute, which was readily mixed with suspicion and mockery. Marxists mocked the s entimental republicans and socialists, who dissimulated the naked realities of class struggle behind grand words and believed they could cure s o cial evils with generous sentiments and public instructi o n . B ut the anti - Marxists bore j ust as much of a grudge against them: did not the bombast with which they denounced misery create a sentimental atmosphere of compassion for the humble opening of the door to murderous egalitarian illusions and encoura g e the com placency of intellectuals towards totalitarianisms? Did not their calls to universal fraternity contrihute to disarming the will of dem ocracies in confronting their adversaries? S o long as there was fear of th e spectre of communism, the phantoms of the great fraternal and human itarian faith were themselves s u spect. The morality of idealists was thought of as an accomplice to the brutality of realist revolutionaries. This point already found ironical expression in Gavroche's song from Les MiserabLes: I have fallen to eart h T i s t h e fault of Voltaire With my nose i n the gutter, Tis the fault of Rousseau t l Now that the fear of comm u n ism i s distanced, history can b e rewritten and re- evalu a t e d . Morality, for a long time associated with the facile flight from realities and a dubious complacency towards revolutionary illusions, today i s the principle that governors, warlords and id eologues claim informs all their action. So, now, Voltaire and Rousseau, Hugo, Michelet or Zola are able to furnish the example of good intellectuals, those who denounced the real abuses of their times and defended the essential values of civilization and the community. In this vein, part of the French intellectual clas s sings the praises of these national heroes of universal thought. a s opp o s e d to the miserable petty intellect uals of the twentieth century: receivers of salaries or s ubsidies from democratic governments, who fi e rcely deny the liberty they thus enj oy, and sing the praises of totalitarianism.
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On top of these post mortem t ri u m p h s is a d d e d , i t i s true, a h a l f - m ock h a lt-seri o u s worry. T h o s e who, 1 0 y e a rs ago, celebrated the fi n a l victory o f liberal d e m ocra cy, h u m a n rights and the indivi d u a l over t h e con st raints or the h o rrors of coll ectivism, n o w c h a n g e their t o n e . Tod a y, t h e y say, there a re too m a n y ri ghts a n d too few duties, too much free i n d ivi d u a l choice a n d t oo l i t t l e coll ective d i sc i p l i n e a n d socia l bon d . D e mocra t i c i n d i v i d u a l i s m n o w s u ppose d l y i m p e ri l s de mocracy itself. A g a i n s t this, the reported rem e d y i s to rev i t a l ize the great tra d i t ion o f e d ucative rep ublica n i s m , t e a ching a l l a n d s u n dry to how t o p u t t h e i r own private d e m a n d s seco n d t o t h e gre a t u n iversalist values and the sense of the common bond . The m o m e n t is one o f return t o the fou n d i n g fa t hers of civic life, wh e t h e r their name is Thomas Jefferson or Victor H u go. Nosta lgics for social movements, n a t u r a l l y, h a ve a more ca ustic i n t erpreta t io n o f t h i s ret u r n to the great figures o f republ ican i d ea l i s m . I f
Ll's Miserables i s i n t h e news a ga i n , i t i s beca u s e m i sery i s a l s o i n t h e n e ws,

b eca use the n e o - l iberal d estruction o f the form s of protection and socia l s olida rity have a g a i n t u r n e d it i n t o a n i n d ivid u a l m a t t e r, an obj e ct of t h e solici t u d e of soci a l s u rveyors, of p h i l a nthropic a ssoci a t i o n s a n d of b i g h earted men of letters . To both these g roups, h owever, i t i s p o s sible t o show t h a t t h i s big h e a r t has its a mbiguities a n d t h i s is precisely w h a t for m s the a c t u a l it y o f t h e poet . Victor Hugo pre s e n t e d Les Miserables a s a great cry d i rected a ga i n s t the ' d e g r a d a t i o n of m a n b y t h e prol e t a r i a t ' . B u t t h i s c r y i s fa r from b e i n g u n ivoca l . Not o n l y b e c a u s e he d i v i d e s misery i nt o two: into a problem to resolve by the gover n m e n t s of men a n d a mystery con fi d e d t o divine providence. B ut a bove a l l , b e c a u s e comp a s s ion for the victi m s o f t h e s o c i a l order i s m i x e d w i t h a s i n g u l a r f a s cination of t h e obscure d regs of this order. A s lyrical a s the description of heroic death of repub l i cans on the b a rrica d e s i s , we sense that the poet is more i n terested b y the episode t h at follows w h e r e Jean Va lj e a n c a ves i n a s he c a rries t h e b ody of the wou n d e d M a rius i n t o the 'intestine o f Leviath a n ', t h a t i s t o s ay into t h e great Parisian sewer. The o b s c u re u nderneath of the b r i l l i a nt city i s , f o r pol itici a n s , a world that b l a m e s t h e socia l o r d e r f o r i t s misery or a realm of subversion that u n d e r m i n e s t h i s order's b a s e s . F o r t he novel ist, t h e 'des cent into the u nderworl d ' of society i s someth i n g e l s e : a dive into t h i s u nderground worl d w h i c h i s t h e secret truth of the other, i nto the u n iverse of the great e q u a l it y which supports the s u rface of social d i s t inctions and t a ke s i n its old rag s . T h e sewer i s , h e s a y s , t h e
94

VICTOR HUGO: AMBIGU ITIES OF A BICENTENARY

'city 's consciousness', the 'great cynic' who says all: the j udge 's hat wal lowing beside a rotten part that was once the servant's skirt, the louis

d 'or m i ngling with the nail of the suicide victim, or this fin de marquise
b e d linen which i s now the shroud of a revolutionary. This great pell - mell is something other than an aesthete's curiosity. It is the emblem of another equality than that for which the insurgents fight. It is also the emblem of a new idea of art. For a long time art had deco rated palaces and served to fete the great of this world. D uring Hugo's time, art began t o dedicate itself to a new beauty: not that of the exploits of the people, but that of the unprecedented splendour which arises out of the very fall of former grandeurs. From now on, not only i t is that, as Flaubert put it, there is n o longer any distinction between noble subj e cts and vile subj ects and that a small Normand provincial town is equal to C onstantinople . Rather it is that, at the very moment when some announce the death of art anaesthetized by the grey rationality of the bourgeois order, art discovers a new, endlessly renewable territory: the territory of all the finery of grandeur or opulence of commo dities fallen from their social usage and thereby endowed with an unprecedented beauty formed b y contradictory elements : they are at onCl:: written signs ciphering a history, emblems of the m elancholy of disaffected things a n d testimonies of t h e n a k e d splendour of what is there without a why, like the rose of the mystic. C ertainly, Hugo only lets himself go halfway towards the charm of this beauty. The chapters of Les Miserables about these dregs verge on schizo phrenia . The poet sumptuously describes the fantastic landscapes of the sewers; the reformer interrupts him to demand that the fields be fertil ized with these excrements thrown unprofitably into the river waters. The former lets himself be fascinated by the monstrous creations of this

langue crapaude that is slang. The latter stops him to call the governors to
spread in torrents the wisdom of instruction which dissipate s the dark nesses of crime a n d of its language . Posterity. as for it, has followed the path of this descent into society's unconscious, with greater frankn ess, in order to exploit the seam of this new beauty of disused things . Surrealist poetics was nourished o n it: the promenades by Aragon's Paysan de Paris in those old - fashioned Parisian arcades, which are like the opening of the underworld in the heart of the great modem city; photography by Brassai of the new rock paintings that are wall graffiti or of involuntary sculptures made, for example , o f a rolled up bus ticket; shots b y E l i Lotar 95

C H RONICLES OF CONSENSUAL TI M ES

of t h e Abattoi rs; Wa lter B e nj a m i n 's t h e o rization on t h e 'work of t h e d i a l e ctic' with i n the o l d - fa s h i o n e d a rchitecture of d i s u s e d , n i neteenth centu ry commodity t e m p l e s . In h i s recent book titled NinJa moderna, G c orges Didi - H uberm a n a t t empts to trace t h e passage from the fa l l e n d rapery o f t h e a n t i q u e s c u l p t u r e t o t h e d i s p l a y s o f cl o t h i n g by C h ristian B ol t J l l s k i
or

to St eve M cQ u e e n 's p h otogra p h s o f rol l s of ca rpet in t h e

P a r i s i a n g u t t e r s . H e s e e s H u go's s e w e rs a n d h i s ra gs re n d e red to t h e m u d
as a

key m o m e n t of this e v o l u t i o n , betwee n the a ncient beauty of p u re

l i n es a n d noble a ttit u d e s a n d t h i s c o n t e m p o ra ry b e a u t y, l i a b l e to m a n i f e s t i t s e l f in a p i l e of disa ffected r a g s . H i s a rg u m e n t is open to discussion, hut it ca n b e rea s o n a b l y c o n s i d e red that t h i s h e ritage o j t h e a u t h o r o f Les Miserables is m o r e a ct u a l a n d m o re profo u n d t h a n t h e oth e r.

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CHAPTER TWENTY- FOUR

The M a c h i ne and t h e Foetu s, January 2003

When intellectuals no longer really know where they are at, often it happens that artists indicate it to the m . This is not because a rtists have a superior gift of divination. It is simply because it is easier t o mark I h e' hour of time' when one is not responsible for pred icting it or drawing lessons from it. In these times, Parisian intelle ctuals are lost in an obscure quarrel in which th ey accuse each other, on the front pages of the main daily newspapers, of having wed the reactionary cause by betra ying the ideals of liberty or of equality or both at the same time, without us hav ing any clear idea of what these belligerents are talking about I C onve rsely, the visitor who steps through the door of the Musie d 'Art moderne de la

Ville de Paris, where there is a retrospective of Picabia's works and a

presentation of Matthew B a rney's Cremaster cycle, has the rather mind blowing feeling of completely understanding in 2 hours both the ideals of a century and their transformations. The Picabia e xhibition, for starters, takes the figure of the encyclopae dia . The first painting that it presents is a Pissarro truer than nature, while the last ones, painted in the 1 9 5 0s-1 960s, are' part of the inform a l painting movement. In between tim e , t h e painter will have painted the most resolutely cubist p aintings, works emblematic of dadaism and th e most convincing testimonies of the return to a most academic sort of realism. Owing to his date of birth, he will only have avoided the oldest of the schools that stamped the thr e e - quarters of a century that he tra versed. S ymbolism alone is missing from the collection of styles from which he borrowed . Now, this is the missing link that is presented, in its most radical form, in the Cremaster cycl e . Through the analogies that it composes between musical films, plastic sculptures and Cib a chrome, it
97

CH RONICLES OF CON

jE NSUAL T I M E S

replays t h e Wa gnerian d re a m o f t h e tota l w o r k o f a rt. I t a l s o s h o w s o f f a l l t il l' ima gery a n d t h e favo u r i t c proced u r e s of a n e ra : scenery of g l a c i e r s o r o f Rococo colo n n a d e s , s m o oth f o r m s a n d u n d u la t i ng l i n e s , a rt - deco a e s t h e t i cs t u rn i n g a ca r shell
or

a t a b l e s e rvice i n to a b s o l u t e p o e m s , v a r i
-

a t i o n s o f p o s t - ro m a n t i c o p e ra s e t a g a i n s t fin de siecle g i l t . a q u a t i c divin ities, n y m p h s , sat yrs and b a l l e t s w i t h y o u n g girls or evoca t i o n s o f C e l t i c l e gcn d s . T h e re lation between t h e s e t w o floors o f t h e M usee d 'A rt Moderne t h u s c o m poses a s i n g u l a r d r a m a t u rgy of m o d e rn a rt . I n Matthew B a rney's work can be seen t h e last episode o f t h e legend of a centu ry, s i m p l y l e a p i n g t h e p o p a n d concept u a l a g e s a n d s u b l i m a t i n g the n e o - Gothic b ri c - a brae of con t e m p o ra ry fo rms o f m u s i c o r fi l m s to return one cycle of a rt to its point of depa rt u re . C onve rsely, i t can be s a i d t h a t t h e Cremaster cycle reca p i t u l a t e s t h e whole symbol i s t . spiri t u a l i st. Wa gnerian a n d a e s t lll' l izing h otchpotch a ga i n s t w h i c h , i n the 1 9 1 0s, the f u t u r i st or dadaist p rovocations were m o u n t e d by y o u n g people s u ch a s Picabia, in con s i d e r i n g t h a t , i f t h a t wa s a rt , t h e n it w o u l d be b e t t e r to p u t it t o d e a t h a n d celebrate t h e j oy o u s r e i g n o f the m a chi n e . To b e reta ined, t h e n , m o r e t h a n t h e travers i n g of t h e forms o f a cen t u ry, is the opposition of two c h a ra c t e ri s t i c m o m en t s : t h e 1 9 1 Osl 1 9 2 0 s a gainst t h e 1 9 9 0 s / 2 0 0 0 s . This opposi t i o n , however, c a n n o t be reduced to some opposition between a m odernist a g e o f radical ruptures and a post modern age o f recuperatio n a n d general i z e d recycl i n g . More complex i s t h e way that t h e i r aesthetic p a ra digms c o n t r a s t with one a n o t h e r, para d igms which a re m o re b r o a d l y a b o u t the relation of men with materi a l ity, harbouring antagonistic visions o f history a n d t h e common worl d , With t h e radical a rtist o f the 1 9 2 0 s a n d t h e feted artist of t h e year 2 000, two i d e a s of a n ti - nature go h e a d - t o - he a d : machine or arti fi c e , I n t h e years from 1 9 1 5 to the 1 9 2 0s , Picabia p a i n t e d his 'mecanom o rphic' p aintings . R ej e cting tra d i t i o n a l pictori a l resemb l a nce, he w a s very faith fully inspired b y drawings o f m a ch i n e s in scientific j ou rnals, if only to give them names of fantas y : Le Saint des saints or Portrait d 'une jeune fiUe

ambicaine dans Utat de n udite. Later on, he decided to choose the Ripol i n
b rand enamel u s e d b y industrial painters for h i s p a intings . He contrasted, then, the natura l order commanded b y the tradition o f painting to the hardness of metal and the g e o metry of the machine. This aesthetic choice a g rees with a time when great hopes were p l a c e d in the machine that would destroy Old Man and promote a new worl d , Picabia was not m u ch 98

THE MAC H I N E AND THE FOETUS

concerned with politics, and even less with revolution. B ut the link between the inventions o f a rtists and the struggles and hopes of a time passes less through their pers onal involvements tha n through a common attitude with regard to the potentials of sensory matter. Matthew B arney's anti - nature goes by the name of artifice. Its matter is not the metal of dadaist dream machines or of the Soviet epic, but the soft matter of oil derivatives . Nylon, plastic, vinyl and resin are, along with tapioca, the essential primary matter of the more or less monum e ntal s culptures which sometimes serve as replica s, sometimes as ped estals for the images of his films . His cars have neither piston rods nor cylinders, only shells set in moulded plastic. The inventors of the 1 92 0 s contrasted the hardness of the machine's gears to the old-world feeblen ess and th e embellishments of the Modern Styl e . As for Barney, he chos e a residual and malleable matter, a matter that is obedient to dreams and to hands alike, preferred by an age which thinks less of changing life than of abol ishing the borders separating the living from the non-living. A 'matter' is always a certain idea of what it is that matter can do for man and of what man can d o upon matter. The irony contained in Pica bia's mecanomorphic paintings is pretty far removed from futurist euphoria and constructivist dreams, Even so, it is thereby only better able to express what is foremost at stake in them, Let us look again at the titles of these paintings o f gears, pistons and pulleys: Parade d 'amoul; Ie

oila la fille nee sans mere. Fiance and above all that, reprised several times, V
The machine's dream i s exactly that : the dream of abolished maternal affiliation . This is why it agre e s so well with the d ream of workers' seJf emancipation , The dream of autonomy is that of a male humanity spawning itself. C e libate machines of mischievous artists and the tem pered steel of S oviet constructors both cling to the dream of an absolute power of self - engendering, There are, to be sure, many different ways of converting it. With Picabia this capacity is ultimately realized, far from any collective constructivist programme, in the simple virtuosity of the technician who is equally able to make whatever is possible , like can vasses or anti - canvasses, figurations or anti- figurations. It is common to contrast the individualism of a rtistic invention to the rigour of the collect ive enterprise . Yet both draw from the same common source . An indi vid ualism is always the other face of a collectivism . There are different ways to liquidate this promethean dream of the man who wants to be his own progenitor. There is the old tragic wisdom
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w h ich s a y s t h a t the grea test g o o d f o r m a n k i n d w o u l d be n e v e r to h a ve h e e n born, a n d t h a t t h e second greatest w o u l d b e t o d i e t h e e a rliest pos s i b l e . This w i s d o m t ra n s forme d , d u ri n g t l1e R o m a n t i c era, into a n o s t a l gia o f t h e t i m e before b i rt h . Nietzsche s u m m e d u p t h e tragic Wa gnerian wisdom i n Isold e 's d y i n g w i s h , t h a t o f losing oneself a g a i n i n the great original sea of t h e I n d i ffere n t i a t e d . Psychoa nal ysis, for i t s pa rt, rea d i l y co n t rasted t h e co m m u n i s t u t o p i a o f t h e s e l f - c re a t i ng m a n t o t h e irre d u c i b l e m isery of t h e h u m a n a n i m a l a s i n complete a n imal, ma rked b y t h e p r e m a t u ra tion of its b i rth . U n d e r its a p p e a ra n ce s of a ret u rn to simple re a son, contempora ry cap i t a l i s m perhaps n o u ri s h e s its own utopi a : the u t o pia of a life esca p i n g from this ' m i s e ry ' , a painless l i fe of consumption, w hol l y spent i n t h e tra n q u i ll i t y o f the m a t e r n a l womb . The Cremaster cycle proposes to retrace, in a n a l ogy, t h e h i story of t h e foet ll s between i n d i He re n t i a t i o n and sexual d i ffere n t i a t i o n . But t h i s i s not merely a mat t e r o f a n a l ogy or o f symbol s . Th e ca r i n t e ri ors w h i ch M a t t h ew B a rn e y
e ll closes

in p l a s t i c b l o c k s , evoking a t once the protective fa t a n d t h e

p ur i l y of gla ciers, a re cl e a r l y i l l u s t ra tive o f t h e o v e rt u r n i n g of a n ideology of meta l l i cs and mech a n i c s . The s o ft matter of a rt i fice i s that matter that is a l wa ys rea dy to melt into a primitive ocean o r i n to a n a m niotic l i q u i d
to cel ebrate a f o e t a l l i fe e l e v a t e d to the d i m e n si o n of eternity.

Here aga i n the i n divid u a l and t h e collective a re no more separate than a rt a n d politics. S o m e serious t h i n k e rs a r e reg u l a rly perturbed by the d a n gers that the e x a cerbated na rci s s i sm of ' d e m ocra t i c i n d i v i d u a l i s m ' p rese n t s to the a d ministering of coll e ctive i n t e r e s t s . B u t these feigned oppositions may well be no more than two sides of the same coi n . The d ream of u n i n te rrupted maternal protection e x p ressed b y the liquid u n i verse of t h e fa shionable a rt i s t i s synchronous w i t h t h i s promise of secur i t y i n which the rich states today symbolize politics a s such .

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CHAPTER TWENTY- FIVE

Th e Death of the A u t h o r or the Life of the A rti st?

April 2003

This time, the author was s upposedly really dea d . Already 30 years ago, the philosophers reportedly proclaimed his theoretical death s entence by undermining the foundations of his pretension - the subj ect as master and possessor of his thoughts . This was the epoch when pop artists, with their portraits of stars or their s e ries of soup tins, would destroy the privil ege of the unique oeuvre . Following afterward were such things as: an art of installations in which the artist often remained content t o rearrange obj ects of use and already existing images; the practice of DJs mixing sonorolls elements h orrowed from e xisting compositions to the point of rendering them unrecognisable; and, lastly, the information revolution, instituting the uncontrolled reproducibility of texts, songs and images . What thus appeared t o come undone was the very content which con stituted the notion of the work : the expression of the creative will of an author in a specific material that h e had worked over, singularized in the figure of the work, posited as an o riginal distinct from all its reprod uc tion s . The idea of the work b e came radically independent of any work done on a particular material. B e rtrand Lavier's

Salle des Martin exhibited

50 p aintings painte d by authors b e a ring the name of Martin . None of these paintings any longer played the role of the original work. The work's originality here passes over into the idea, in itself immaterial, of their gathering. Any old heap of materials can then stand in for the work, such a s this pile o f old papers here, the element of a D a mien Hirst installation that an employee of a Londonian Museum, in the concerns of cleanliness, ill - advisedly threw in the bin.

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I t i s t e m pting to liken this i n d isti n ct i v e n e s s wh ich ren d e rs a l l ma terial i n d iffere n t to that which tran sforms d i scou rses, i mages o r m u s i c into b i t s o f i n form a t i o n . With t h e i n fo r m a t i o n revol u t i o n , a l l ma teriality, i t i s s a i d , i s t ra n sfo rm e d i n t o an i d e a l ity. I d e a s , i mages a n d m usic, l i k e w i s e d i g i t a l ized, ru n freely f ro m screen to scre e n , m o c k i n g those w h o wa n t to c b i lll p rope rt y ri g h t s over t h e m . S o t h e very p ri ncip l e o f t h e a u t h o r's p rivi l ege w o u l d seem to h a v e va n i s h e d : t h e d i ffere n ce between t h e lJ I ea n s of crea t i o n a n d t h e m a c h i n e s of repro d u ctio n . S o m e sec i n t h i s t h e p o w e r o f the bra i n - world o r of t h e m a ch i n e - world t h a t ca u s e s own e rs h i p a n d d o m i n ation to s h a t t e r. T h e proleta ria n s of a l l cou n t ries a re n o t u n i te d to b u ry bourgeois d o m i n J t i o n , b u t t h e tcchn i ca l revol u t i o n h a s su pposedly co n fi rm c d , t o t h e d e t r i m e n t of i n tellect u a l a n d a rtistic p ro p e r t y, t h e other great p ro p h e cy of t h e

Communist Mal1l!esto:

'All that i s

s o l i d Ill e l t s i n t o a i r ' . Ta k i n g over w h e re t h e fa l t e r i n g produ cers left o ff, t h e m a c h i n e s of reprod u ct i o n work t o w a rd s a n e w com m u n i s m , rc n d e r i ll g a l l rea l i t y i m m a teri a l , J n d t h e refore i n a p p rop riabl e , This fa i t h i ll t h e com m u n ist v i r t u e s o f t e c h n o logy i s n o t wi thout p ro b l e ms . Nei t h e r t h e engi n e e rs n o r t h e j u ri s t s a re s h o rt on w a y s to refor m u l a t e property rights a n d i n v e n t s o ftware progra m mes to m a k e s u re t h a t t h ey a re respect e d . B u t above all, tech n i ca l reproducibility h a s n o obvi
O tl 'i

conse q u e n ce on t h e concept u a l sta t u s o f t h e a u t h or. I n t h e 1 9 3 0 s

Wa lter B e nj a m i n h a d seen i n t h e i n d u strial conditions o f repro d u ction a n d ci n e m atographic d i s s e mi n a t i o n t h e p r i n ciple of a n a r t liberated from t he

aura

of the u n i q u e w o r k . The prophecy w a s n o t born out: a t t h e very

Ill o ment when B roodthaers, B e u ys and t h e F l u x u s a rtists made a mock e ry o f m u s e u m a r t , t h e y o u ng Turks o f t h e o f installations, Jean - L u c Godard's

Cahiers d u cinema

enshrined

the 'politics of the author', And j u st a s museums converted t o the prose

Histoire(s) du Cinema

a dopted the

s a credness of Mal r a u x 's imaginary Museum. D e spite the multitude o f constraints t h a t a fi l m p l a ce s o n production a n d on artistic a n d technical collaborations, the cinematic ' director' h a s b ecome the exemplary embod i m e n t of the a u t h o r who p u t s his s tamp o n his cre a t i o n . But no doubt the excessive confidence placed i n the effect o f the tech nological revolution followed from a somewhat simplistic view o f the a uthor. A received opinion h a s it that a rtistic and literary modernity s i nce r o m a n ticism has been linked with t h e development o f the cult of the author, born at the same time a s the rights o f the same name and as t he individualism of the ' b o u rgeois revolu t i o n ' , In consequence, a nything 102

D EATH O F THE AUTHOR O R THE LIFE OF THE ARTIST

that contradicts this privilege - from series of images of stars or of com mercial products o f the pop age to the piracies of the digital age - is attributed to a postmodern revolution, which is reported to have destroyed, if not the legal property rights, at least the modernist illusions of artistic originality associated with the myth of the owner- author. But the relations between the author, the owner and the person are infinitely more complex . The enshrining of the literary genius did not arise at the end of the eighteenth century with Beaumarchais ' acts in favour of authorial rights nor with the offensives of bourgeois individu alism. It arose, on the contrary, with the fury of the epoch's philologists wanting to dispossess Homer o f the paternity of his work, and 10 make it into the anonymous expression of a people and an age. The modern idea of the author was born a t the same time as that of the impersonality of art. This equivalence hetween the a uthor and the anonymou s force pass ing through it was given expression in the concept of the geniu s during the Romantic era. And the supposed representatives of art for art's sake and of the cult of artists has never ceased, with Flauhert, to voice the radical impersonality of art or, with Mallarme, to affirm that the poet was necessarily 'dead as s o - and-so ' . This idea has never prevented any artist from claiming his a u thorial rights. B ut it defined a splitting o f the idea of property,
a

singular link

between propriety and impropriety. Nearly two centuries before Sherry Levine made a work in photographing the photographs of Walker E vans, the S chlegel B rothers re - poetized classical poems hy updating them to the times of romantic poets. Meanwhile, the surrealists showed that the most personal expressions of the absolute of desire and of dream could coincide with the re cycling of out-of-use commodities or of old-fashioned illustrations of magazines and catalogue s. The absolute and impersonal author is the one that has a patrimony of art at his disposition, which can be extended to any obj ect whats oever. Thereby is a solidarity affirmed h etween the impersonality of the art istic process and the indifference of its subj ects, which is borrowed from the impersonality of ordinary life . Walter B enj amin showed how pho tography had become an art by renouncing the compo sition of th e can vass to appropriate the image of the anonymous. The photography of the small fisheress of New Haven, he said, had done more for the glory of D avid O ctavius Hill than his great pictorial compositions. Photography thus set itself up in the wake o f the literary revolution which had 103

C H RONICLES OF CONSENSUAL T I M E S
a s s i m i l a t e d , w i t h Fla u b e r t , t h e a b s o l u t e o f a book held solely b y i t s s t y l e w i t h t he ha rnessed i m p e rs o n a l i t y of l a n g u a g e , of d reams, and of t h e lives o f n o n descript indivi d u a l s . T h e c u l t o f a rt i s born with t h e a ffi rmation o f t h e sp l e n d o u r of t h e a n o n y m o u s . I n one s e n s e , we ca n s a y t h a t t h e perfo r m a n c e s a n d i n s t a l l a t i o n s o f
co n t e m po r a r y a rt carry t o i t s u l t i m a t e c o n s e q u e n ce t h e im perso n a l i t y o r

c r e a t i o n a n d t h e i n d i fference o f i t s m a t e ria l . S o p h i e C a l l e 's ' stolen ' i ma g e s

i n hot e l d ' ulli'

roOJl1 S

w o u l d t h u s be t h e c o n t e mpora ry version o r t h e

Journal

fl'I1lIll C de chambre

a n d , m o re b ro a d l y, o f t h e ro m a n t i c d ream of

e n t e r i n g i n to the l i fe o r a b s o l u t e l y a n y o n e . B u t p e r h a p s t h i a p p a r e n t con seq u e n ce concea l s a logical reversal w h i ch overtu r n s t h e n o t i o n of

t h e a u t h o r o t h e rwise than t h i s i s h a b i t u a l l y describe d : not i n m a k i n g it

d i s a p p ea r in the b a n a l i t y o f t h i n g s and the i n fi n i ty of repro d u ct i o n s b u t . o n t he con t ra ry, i n liken i n g i t t o t h e p e r so n a l o w n e r s h i p o f t h e i d e a . T h e

F l a ubcrt i cl n i d ea o f t h e a b so l u t e w o r k com p e l l e d t h e novelist to i d e n t i fy t h e sp il'n d o u rs of h i s p h ra s e with t h e repro d u ct i o n of t h e b a n a l i t y or t h e

world . T h e I d e a of t h e c o n t e m p o ra ry a rtist. on the c o n t ra ry, is wit h d ra w n , h o v e r i n g i n su rvey o v e r t h e work of its rea lization . C h ri s t i a n B o/ t a n s k i h i m s e l f had n o n e e d to a ffi x o n t h e wa ll the a n on y m o u s p h o tographs w h i c h I i n l' t h e h a l l s o f e x h ib i t i o n s . A n d Lawrence Wei n e r h a d n o n e e d to t a k e h i s r i f l e t o p ierce a miniscule h o l e in the m u s e u m wall which co n s t i t u t e s his quasi -immaterial contribution to a rece n t exhibi t ion . W h a t gets lost. then, is n e i t h e r the a u t h o r 's personality n o r t h e work's ma teriality. It i s the work b y which this persona lity i s supposedly altered in this materiality. The work's retreat into t h e i d e a does not a n n u l the ma terial reality o f the work. But i t tends t o transform the paradoxical p rope rty o f t h e impers o n a l w o r k i n t o the l o g i c a l p roperty of a n invcn t o r's p atent. The contemporary a ut h o r i s , in this s e n s e , m o r e strictly a p rop e rty holder t h a n a n y a u t h o r h a s e v e r b e e n . T h e p a ct is t h u s broken b e tween the impersonality o f art and that o f i t s material . While the for mer is closer to the property o f the idea, t h e l a t t e r tends to b e displaced t owards the property of the i m a g e . Generations of photographers h a v e m a d e a r t in capturing, in the streets of great metropolises, fetes o f the suburbs o r popular b e a ches, everyday o ccupations or the extraordinary p l e a sures o f the anonym o u s . To day t hese a nonymou s indivi d u a l s a r e call e d u p o n t o make themselves recog nized, to recl a i m , i n s t e a d o f t h e imm o rtalization of art, more tangib l e

104

DEAT H OF T H E AUTHOR OR THE LIFE OF T H E A RTIST

rights over the property of the image that has been stolen from them. Property does not dissolve itself i n t h e immateriality of the n etwork. O n t h e contrary, it t e n d s to s t a m p with i t s s e a l a l l that is apt to enter the sphere of art, to make art into a negotiation between owners o f i d e a s and owners of imag e s . This is doubtless t h e r e a s o n that autobiography, which makes b oth properties coincide, takes up so much place in the art of our tim e . We think of those writers who publish only the interminable jou rnal of their life and their thoughts; of those photographers who privilege their own image, such as C indy S h e rman, or the scenes of i ntimacy between close relations, such as Nan Goldin; of those directors who, like Nanni Moretti, compress their work on the epoch around the chronicle of their lives; of those artists-installers who, like Mike Kelley or Annette Messa ger, p opu late their works with the soft toys of their fantasies rather than with hij acked obj e cts or images o f the world. Today the author par excellence is suppose dly the one who exploits what already belongs to him, his own imag e . The author is then no longer the 'spiritual histrion' of which Mallarme spoke, but the come dian o f his image. The art of the comedian always tends towards a limit which is the transformation of the simulacrum into reality. Working on the physical remod elling of her face, Orlan is thus, in this sense, the typical artist of our time. At the hour of universal digitalization, the ' death ' of which Mallarme spoke still seems rather aliv e . A little too alive, indeed .

lOS

CHAPTER TWENTY- S I X
T h e Log i c o f A m n e s i a , June 2003

' My memory 's giving out'

of

thus begins the song that serves a s t h e e m b l e m

F ran cois Tr u ffa u t 's .lu les et Jim . 1 W h a t t h e h e ro i n e cou l d not reca l l very
.

w e ll was the beloved 's n a m e a n d e y e col o u r : ' We re they blue? Were they g rey? . . . His name was, we c a l l e d h i m . . What wa s his n a m e ? ' Forge t ting t h e sen sory q u alities o f a being e x t e rnal t o o n e s e l f genera l l y p a sses as a benign form o f m e m ory tro ub l e . And the e m otion of love is commonly a ssociated with thc impossibility of bcing a b l c to represent a d equately its ca u s e . C l e a r l y more s e r i o u s is the fa ct of not remembering a t the end of a sentence what one wanted to say in beginning it, or of forgetting at the p o rt of arrivaL the reasons for which one l e lt on voyage . S ti l l more seri o u s is the fact of forgetting in s uccession what one h a s said and done . This amnesia is at the h e a rt of o u r a c t u ality. Throughout the year, d a y a fter day, 24 hours a day, George B us h a n d h i s a d visors, republica ns a n d d e mocrats a n d a cohort of j o u rn a lists, e xperts and councillors in a l l t hings, have gone untrammelled , o n e a fter the other, o n the s creens o f
C NN, F o x a n d so on to c x p r e s s the t e r r o r t h a t they f e l t a n d that we

s h o u l d all feel because of t h e weapo n s o f mass d e struction that are in the p ossession of the Ira qi l e a d e r. However, t h e closcr t h a t t h e armies, sent to incapa citate the possessor of these weapons, wcre to reaching their g oal, the more this goal s e e m e d t o fa d e from memory, A s the troops passed through, no weapons of mass d e s tr u ction were encountere d : there was therefore no time to speak - o n the sa m e channels, which were busy with narrating h o u r by hour what was happening - about the non- information constitut e d b y t h i s non - encounter.
106

THE LOGIC OF A M N ESIA

Such i s precisely that i n which continuous information consists : it only speaks about what it i s t h a t m a ke s up information : t h e felt threat, expressed 2 4 hours a day; the intervention that responds to the threat . Where can we find the time to recall the cause of the threat and t o a s k whether the intervention has veri fi e d it? Where is the time left for sur prise about the fact that he who p o s s e s s e s the weapons of m a s s destruc tion forgets to use them or gets b u s y hiding them when he i s attacked? S ome people could respond that the hypothetical possession of weapons of mass destru ction was a s econdary issue as compa red to an absolutely certai n realit y : that I r a q was governed b y a d i ctator. The intervention found its ultimate legitimacy less in the neutralization of the dictator's weapons than i n t h e g i f t given t o h i s people of t h e c o n t r a r y of dictatorship, ca l l e d democracy or liberty. There is not much difficultly i n having the idea acknowledge d that free dom is preferable to dictatorship. The difficulty lies in knowing what this freedom consists i n and to whom it falls to prefer it to servitude. One wh o takes the trouble to bring freedom to others must suppose that it is a p o s itive g o o d whose power alone dissipates t h e darknesses of the 'axis of evil'. However, when interrogated over what he thought about the piJ lages in B aghdad, the American minister of defence, who was the brains behind operation Iraqi Freedom, responded singularly as follows: freedom is indi visible, it is therefore also the freedom to commit faults and crime s . The problem i s that the Iraqis never lacked this latter freedom, nor did others, and that on this count the dictator, too, was as free to commit crimes or possess weapons of mass destruction as the pillagers were to strip his palaces bare . This gift of freedom must b e understood other than as the free will to choose between good and evil . It must be understood as the positive good that constitutes, for a people, the possibility of self-government. It is this good that the American armies allegedly brought to the Iraqi people in ridding them of their dictator. Of course, to do this it was necessary to cast definitively aside the rule of international law that prohibits one state from m eddling in the domestic affairs of another. This barrier was at first only timidly pulled down in the form of the 'right to humanitarian interference ' . This right. initially claimed b y humanitarian organizations to save popula tions in danger of extermination, was taken up from them, at the charge, by the great powers . A superior right was thus set over against the tradi tional rules of international law, namely the absolute right of the victim of absolute wrong. The victim of absolute wrong is the one who has no way
107

C H RONICLES OF CONSENSUAL TI M ES

a t all of asserting his rig h t s . It follows q u ite obviously that this right which p revails over every rule of law can only be e xercised by another, in simple t e rms by a foreign army of i n tervention. How ca n this right o f e x ception become t h e rule? F o r t h i s to occur, the p ri va t i on o f political lib e rty must itself b e i d en t i fi ed with the situation of .:l hsol ute d i stress which j u s t i fi e s t h e i n t e rvention of t h e rig h t e r o f wrongs. N o w, the su ffe r.:l nce o f b e i n g d e p rived o f polit ical liberty i s more d i ffi cult t o verify than t h a t of being t h ro w n i n to t h e streets after having seen o n e 's h O ll se b u rn t down a n d fa m i l y e x t ermi n a t e d . U n l e s s one makes an a rgument of the very a b s e n ce o f s u ffe rin g to identify both situations a n d l e g i t i m a t e the interventi o n . S o w h a t i s , i t will b e a s k e d , t h e well - k n own COllsequence of dictatorsh i p ? It is to t a k e away from t h e s u bj u gated t h e t a ste o f freedom, t h u s the s u ffering o f i t s privation . The impossibi lity t h a t t hey h a v e t o demand t h e i r fre e d o m i s t h erefore the absol ute s u ffering which m a k e s it incumbent upon oth e rs t o hand it to them, were i t by the l orcl' of arms. The arg u m e n t h e re becomes somewhat s u btle a n d , ra ther than t h e orators o f

Fox News,

it i s t h e p h i l osophers w h o ta k e o n t h e o n u s of h a n d in w h i ch he got right into t h o s e impenitent paci

l i n g it. O n the eve of t h e confl i ct, a F r e n c h philosopher published a c h ronicle in

Le Monde

fists who raised the q u e s t i o n o f whether p e oples could, despite them s elves, really be given the gift of fre e d o m . 2 Let us not a s k peoples what they want, h e repli e d . The response i s pretty well known . E v e n s i n ce t h e y e a r 1 5 7 6 when E t i e n n e d e La B oetie published his Traitt de La servitude

volontaire, we

have knowll t h a t w h a t p e ople want i s to be alienated. Little

matter by what: consumption, religions, symbols . They have always want e d it and always wil l . S o . . . So, what? That i s the prob l e m . F r o m this affirma t i o n , i t i s possible t o conclude everything - a n d i t s contrary. First concl u s i o n : since t h e y want t o be alienated, they m u s t b e allowed their masters. Second concl u sion: t hey must be liberated despite themselves, though they may u s e this l iberty to alienate themselves a n e w. Third conclusio n : since, i n a n y case, t hey will be alienated, they must b e alienated b y b e t t e r masters, by free masters . I t rema i n s of c o u r s e to know why the people thus b u rd e n e d with imposing its fre e d o m on o t h e r s i t s e l f e s capes the u niversal prefer ence of peoples for s e rvit u d e . T n philosophy, this i s calle d a n undetermin e d argument: an argument s uch that, the premises being posited, a n y conclusion can b e deduce d from 108

THE LOG IC OF A M N ESIA them. An undetermined finite argument completes the spiral specific to the p olitics of amnesia . The conqueror forgets what it is that he went to look for. The j ournalist forgets to ask him if he found it. The politician who exults the freedom brought to the oppressed

manu militari forgets

that he

has, over the course of decades, designated the specificity of totalitarian ism as a desire to want to give p e ople happiness despite themselves . The philosopher forgets, in the m iddle of his argument, that nothing can be deduced from it other than the equivalence of all the conclusions . Our present is readily described a s the age of amnesi a . Ord inarily, the fault for this i s laid on the new technologies of memory and of commun ication. They say that the television, the Internet and the reign of com munication has made u s forgetful by imposing on us their limitless present and their reality itself indis sociable from simulation. B u t this amounts to charging technology with more crimes than it can commit . The information machines communicate what their masters make them communicate . The explanation must rath er be sought on the side of the masters . It is the absorption of politics in the pure exercise of limitless power which imposes this continuous amnesia and this loss o f reason in the indefinite. The logic of global government is that of an indistinction wherein all differences are abolis h e d . For this govern ment's only affair i s with an evil posited as infinite and a terror which is withou t before o r afterwards. Not long ago 'infinite j u stice' was the name working to enshrine the vanishing of all the distincti ons that had hitherto served to delimit j us t ice: private vengeance and public sanction, war and police operation, politics, law, morality and religion, all likewise engulfed in the infinite war of good against evil . The indistinctness of power now extends i t s reign to t h e abolition of temporal differences, to t h e reign of this uninter rupted present where the before and the afterward are no more distin guishable than the cause and the effect o r the means and the end. Formerly it was said that power would always find the facts and the arguments it needed to legitimate itself. Today, it is instead the forgetting of facts and the impossibility of s eeing to the end of one's reasoning which accompanies the deployment of superpower. Not simply is it that these things s e rve its desires better. More radically, it is perhaps because the specific element of limitless power is to remember no longer what it was that it wanted, to destroy the very time in which it might be able to remember. 109

CHAPTER TWENTY- S EVEN

The Insec u rity P r i n c i p l e, Sep tember 2003

I n t h i s s u m m e r of 2 0 0 3 , in w h i c h t h e American govern m e n t h a s h a d to

con front the u n foreseen c o n s e q u ences o f i t s victori o u s ca m p a i g n i n Iraq, the French govern m e n t w a s called t o t a s k hy another u n foreseen e n t' m y,
t h e heatwave, which k i l l e d more t h a n ten t h o u s a n d people in a mon t h .

What i s t h e rel a t i o n between t h e I r a q i politico- military f u r n a ce a n d t h e

1I Il u s u a l

severity of t h e Fre n c h s u m m er? T h a t of h i g h l i g h t i n g t h e i n crea s

i ngly massive rol e t h a t the obsession w i t h securitization p l a y s in s o - ca l l e d a dvan c e d states. The stated goal of Iraq campaign w a s t o r e s p o n d to t h e t hreat pre sented by a rogue state, possessor o f weapons o f m a s s destruction able to reach western states i n less t h a n a n h o u r. There is little p l a u s i b i l i t y to t h e notion t h a t American a n d B ri t i s h lea ders really believed t h e tall-tale told about this threat, brandished t o muster t h e s u pport of their fell ow citizens for t h e war. I t remains t o fi n d o u t w h y t h e y needed a war against a danger that t h e y knew n o t to exist. I f t h e traditional economist expla n a t i on that sees some oil - related a ffair b e h i nd every conflict of o u r time leaves u s unsatisfied, then i s i t perhaps necessary to invert the terms of the problem . I f the war w a s necessary, i t w a s not to respond t o a s i t u ation, re a l or imagin a ry, of i n s e c u ri ty. I t was to m a i n t a i n t h i s sentiment o f insecurity, necessary t o the good functioning of states.
In view of the most common a nalyses of the relation between our

societ i e s a n d their governments t e l l u s , t h i s might seem absurd. These a n alyses are apt to describe contemporary capitalist states a s e xercisin g a power that is i ncrea singly diluted a n d i n v i s ible, synchronous with the fl ows of commo d i t i e s and of communication. The advanced capita l i s t
110

THE I NSECURITY P R I N C I PLE

state is said to b e one of automatic consensus, of painless adj u stment between the collective negotiation o f power and the i ndivid ual negoti ation of pleasures within mass democratic society. It functions to take the heat out of conflicts and to divest values. The present uproar over weapons, the renewed hymns to God a nd the flag, and the revival of some of the grossest state propaganda lies would seem to undermine this dominant view. In those places where the com modity reigns limitlessly, in post-Reagan America and post-Thatcherite England, the form of optimal consensus is not that of the management state; it is that cemented b y the fear of a society grouped around the pro tectionist police stat e . In denouncing the illusions of consensus, we still conceived of the consensual state in terms of the tradition of the State of arbitration applying itself to minimal forms of wealth redistribution appro priate t o maintaining social peace. Now, a s the state tends to unburden itself of its functions of social regulation to give free run to the law of Capi tal, consensus adopts an apparently more archaic face. The consensual state in its accomplished form is not the management state. It is the state reduced to the purity of its essence, that is, the police state . The commun ity of sentiment which supports this state and which this state turns to its advantage - aided by a media which clearly does not have to b e owned by the state to support its propaganda - is the community of fear. The American government's conflict with 'old E urope' consists per haps in a contrast between two t yp e s of consensual state, whe re the one that is most 'advanced' is not the one we may think. B u t insecurity is also o n the agenda in old E urope, a n d in forms that a r e more fragmented, indeed more tortuous, than tho s e o f the great crusade against the axis of Evil. As such, the last French presidential election presented a remark able combat - or a remarkable complicity - between rival forms of insec urity. The discourse proferred by the rightwing can didate about the extreme rightwing candidate was built entirely around the the m e of the insecurity caused b y immigration. The official right candidate p roclaimed that immigration alone was capable of fighting effectively against this insecurity. Lastly, the left rushed to the rescue of the right candidate, holding him up as the last rampart of democracy against the supreme cause of insecurity - the danger of the totalitarian pest. Since this time, the defence of endangered democracy and the fight against threatening insecurity have tended to become more discree t . The priorities adopted by the French government have concentrat e d on the
III

C H RONICLES OF CONSENSUAL TI M ES

' m oderniza t i o n ' of the state a n d co u n t ry, t h a t is to say t h e lightening o f t h e s t a t e 's soci a l b u rd e n . B u t i n se c u r i t y i s t h e reby rep resented w i t h a n e w fa ce. Over the cou rse of A u g u st . the government fo u n d itself accused o f i t s lack o f foresigh t . which ended u p leaving t h o u s a n d s o f old fol k s to perish a s vict i m s of this ra re heat wave. T h e president defended h i m s e l f lll eekly a n d i n i t ia t e d a n i n q u cs t i n t o the co n d i t i o n s of t h a t neglige nce, but in so d o i n g he de facto con fi r m e d the notion e x p rcssed by t h i s op i n ion, t h a t he o u g h t . i f not e x a c t l y t o m a k e ra i n a n d good wea t h e r, t h e n a t l e a s t t o predi ct t h e co n s e q u e nces of t e m p e ra t u re change for divers e ca t egories o f t h e popu l a t i o n . H l'fe aga i n , we a re faced w i t h a n appa rently paradox ical a n d n l've r t h e l c s , logical sit u a t i o n . E x a c t l y w h e n t h e gove r n m e n t , accord i n g to g o o d l i be ra l doctri n e, p l e d g e s t o lower t a x es , r e d u ces p u b l i c s p e n d i n g o n h ea l t h a n d c u t s d o w n on t h e t r a d i t i o n a l s y s t e m s of s o c i a l p ro t ect ion, it a cce p t s its respo n s i b i l i t y for the acci d e n t s t h a t might be t rigge red by c l i lll iltic cha nges. R i g h t when t h e state docs l e s s f o r o u r h e a l t h , it d eci d e s t o d o more f o r o u r lives. I It is not certain t h a t t h i s c h a n g e w i l l grea t l y re d u ce state s p e n d i n g . What i t will d o , h oweve r, i s cha nge t h e relation between i n d i v i d u a l s a n d t he state. It was only y e s t e r d a y t h a t offi ci a l h y m n s still s a n g t h e benefits o f responsibility a n d o f t a k i n g i n d ivi d u a l risks a s opposed t o t h e ca u t i o u s ' p ri vileges' a fforded by t h e systems o f soci a l protection . Tod a y i t i s m o r e t h a n evident that the w e a k en i n g o f systems of social p rotection also i n volves establishing a n e w r e l a t i o n between individ u a l s a n d a state power that i s made a cco u n t a b l e for secu rity in general. for all the forms of security against threats t h a t are themselves multifo r m : terrorism and I s l a m i sm, but also the h e a t a n d the cold. This French s u m m e r will leave u s with the abiding fe eling t h a t we have still n o t taken enough preca u t iol15 aga i n st the inherent threat. t h a t i s , h e a t . Tha t i s , the feeling that w e h a v e n o t b e e n protect e d e n o ugh a g a i n s t thre a t s and that we need increasingly more protection - against known threats a n d against those t h a t we haven't even susp ecte d . The f a u l t t h a t o u r gove r n m e n t s r e c o g n i z e , or a re a c c u s e d of, w i t h respect to the protection o f t h e i r p o p u l a t i o n s t h u s p lays on its counter e f fect . In not prote cting us wel l , gove r n m e n t s prove that they a re there t o protect u s IIlore t h a n ever and that mOTe than ever we must pull tight a round them . That the A m e r i c a n gove r nment was u n a b l e t o protect i t s population 112 aga i n s t an extensively premed itated attack proves

THE I NSECURITY P R I N C I P L E

superlatively t h a t its very m i s s i o n consists in preventative protection against a n invisible a n d omnipres e nt t h r e a t . T o foresee dangers i s one thing; to manage the s e ntiment of i n s e c u rity is a nother, on e in which the state will a lways b e more expert, p erhaps because it is the ve ry prin ciple of its p ower. Preva i l i ng opinion has it that the development of secu rity rationales a r e the defensive reactions occasioned by the d a n g e r s t h a t weigh on a dva nced societies t o d a y from t h e reactive attit u d e s of d i sempowe r e d popUlations, w h o a r e b e i n g pushed b y p ove r t y l owa rds fanaticism and terroris m . B u t nothing indicates that either the
Cll

rrent

militaro -police campaigns or s e c u rity regulations will lead to a reduc tion in the gap between the rich and the poor said to constitute the perma nent threat weighing o n adva nced countrie s . If I ran is i nva d e d a f t e r I raq, t h e r e will still b e nigh on sixty ' r o g u e states ' left that th reaten the s e c u r it y of rich count r ie s . More, for o u r countries, inse curity is essentially much more than a set of fact s . It is a mode of management of collective life . The daily m e dia management of all forms of danger, risk and catastrophe - from tcrror isms to heat waves - not to mention the intellectual tsunami of cata strophe discourses and the morality of the lesser evil suffice to show that the theme of insecurity has unlimited resources at its disposa l . T h e d ecla ration of hostility by e nlightened opinion against the Iraq campaign per haps might not have b e en s o vociferous had the operations been aimed at toppling governments in cou ntries whose lack of foresight ris ked trigger ing some climatic, ecological, health or other type of catastrophe . The sentiment of insecu rity is not an archaic tension that has res ulted from circumstances in themselves transitory. It is a mode of management of states and of the planet that is geared towards reproducing and renewing, in circular fashion, the very circumstances that maintain it.

113

CHAPTER TWE NTY- E I G HT

The New Ficti o n s of Evi l , No vember 2003

E v i l is d o i n g we l l . I n t h e s h a d o w s of t h e g re a t B u s h i a n

mise-en -scene

of

t he f i g h t aga i n s t t h e a x i s of t h e s a m e n a me, severa l p i e c e s of fi c t i o n h ave been pro d ll c e d rece n t l y t h a t a re d e d i c a t e d to prese n t i n g t h e C f ll s a d e i n i t s i nverted vers ion : s h ow i n g t h e way i n w h i c h t h i s A m e r ica , a s i t h u n t s down deat h - m a kers a c r o s s t h e e n t i re s u rface o f t h e globe, fi n d s t h e m aga i n a t h o m e , a t t h e h e a rt o f t h e w i d e mapl e - l i ned avenues a n d t h e modern a n d conv i v i a l s c h o o l s of m i d d l e A merica , i n t h e fig u re of h onou rable citizens a n d o f a d o l e s ce n t s l i ke a l l o t hers . E v i l i s not v i o l e n c e . V i o l e n c e c a n b e d o m e s t icated i n va r i o u s ways . O n t h e one h a n d , i t ca n b e d e a l t w i t h a s a p u r e i n t e n s i t y : t h u ndero u s e x plosion s , s t rea m s of b l o o d a n d b u i l d i ngs c ol l a p s i n g i n fl a m e s a re t hus, l i ke deluges of d e c i b e l s o r s p e c t a c u l a r camera move m e n t s , p u r e i nt e n s i t i e s w h i ch m a ke u p t h e enj oy m e n t o f a spect a cle f r o m w h i c h o n e leaves a s o n e entere d . From t h i s v i ew p o i n t , t h e n , violence h a s no reperc u s s i o n s . From a n o t h e r, on t h e cont r a r y, it lend s i t s e l f to t h e g a m e o f d i fferences a n d of cau s e s . T h e r e i s g o o d a nd b a d v i olence . N o t too l o ng ago at the cinema, freela nce s h e r i f f s a nd righters o f w r o n g s u s e d t o wield, without i n h ibition, t h e violence o f t h e c o m m o n law, o r of m o r a l i t y, aga i n s t the v i olence o f t h o s e w h o followed t h e law o u t o f mere g reed. O n the world s t age, we r e d iscover, u n d e r an elapsed f o r m , a n opp o s i t ion of t h e s a me t y p e : a s w a s s a i d i n t h e t i m e s o f S a rtre a n d Frantz Fanon, t here i s v i olence wh ich oppr e s s e s a n d v iolence w h i c h l i b e rates . Th is d i fference c o u l d be m a d e b e c a u s e it was p o s s i ble t o a s s i g n cau s e s t o t h e violence, t o r e f e r i t b a c k t o a m o r e h i d d en violence, namely the 114

THE NEW FICTI ONS OF E V I L

violence of order and prop erty. O n t h i s basis, political scenarios were devised about the toughness required for j u stice, or aesthe t i c scenarios p resenting confrontations between these types of vio l ence. Today, to all appearances, these scenarios provoke suspicion. Michael Moore's

Bowling for Columbine

attests to this i n its own way. The a r g u

ment according to w h i c h ' t h e r e are c r i m e s because there are weapons that a nyone at a l l can buy' straddles an awkward position between two different logic s . According to the old logic, the causal schema would involve not simply pitting b etween a lobby group's interests against an American i d e a l of virility, but the very fact of living in a society i n w h i c h everyth ing i s bought. I f Moore stops causal chain whe r e he does, this is of cou rse because it corresp ond s to the contemp orar y forms of l eft consciousness, which a r e more attached to the regulation of dan gerous products than to the critique of property as such. But i n addition it l eaves the way free for another form of causality, namely t h at which refers the finite fact of s u c h - a n d - s uch a murderous act to t h e i n fi nite fact of evi l . In effect, t h e t h i n g a b o u t evil i s t h a t i t cannot be righted except at the price of a nother evil wh ich remains i rreducible . There is evil in particular:
a

shared trait

in t h r e e recent fi l m s t h a t s p e a k to u s of evi l in general a n d o f A merican law is either radical ly abs ent

Dogville, Mystic River and Elephant. In these films the ( Elephant), or else the accomplice of e v i l : ( Dogville) ;
o r insofar a s i t leaves shows the

t h a t is, insofar a s it designates the victim t o su ffer a n d leaves the care o f punishing t h e tort urers to the b a ndits wrongs unpunished the crime of the honest family father/gangsterlrighter of

(Mystic River) .

O f these no doubt it is

Dogville that best

gap b etween the two d ifferent logics, which also form a gap between the two e ra s . Its abstract

m ise-en -scene,

which compares the fi ctive space

of the cinema to the real space of the theatre, its comp osition in smal l acts, which functions a s s o m a ny mora l ta l es, a n d t h e distancing r o l e o f t h e voice o f f - a l l t h e s e featu res r e c a l l t h e theatrical origin of t h e p a r able which Lars von Trier prop oses to u s . The principles of this

mise

en-scene

are inherited from B r echt 's 'epic theatre '. And the story of

disillusionment endured by the young woman with blue eyes who wants to do good, but i s unable to, irrepressibly recalls

Die Heilige Johanne

der Schliichthofe. More,

it a l s o comes to the same conclusion, na mely that

doing good in a b a d world i s impossible a n d s o violence is necessary. B ut that is where the analogy stop s . Instead of C h icago, of capitalist 115

C H RONICLES OF CONSENSUAL T I M E S

s pe c u l a t i o n a n d m i s e r y

or

worker r e v o l t , we h a ve a l o s t h o l e of a place

somewhere in hea r t l a n d A m e r i c a , c o m lll u n i t y s e r v i c e s , a nd t h l' b a n a l i t y of e v i l a lllong good peopl e . S o t h e new Joa n o f A rc i s n o l o n g e r a p a ro d y o f C h r i s t , who offe r s h e r l i fe u p for t h e peopl e 's r e d e m p t i o n a n d d i scovers t h e t e r r e s t r i a l rea l it ie s o f c l a s s st ru g g l e . Grace ( wh o i s g ra c e i t s e l f ) b e c o m e s a C h r i s t i c fi g u re ii

la D o s t oyevs k y, a n e nvoy from t h e E l s e w h e r e who encou n t e rs t h e t a s te

o f ex ploi t a t io n a n d h u m i l i a t i o n i n fl i c t e d upon o t h e r s i n the t i n i e s t a nd most peacefu l cel l s of t h e s o ci a l b o d y. T h e e v i l i nc a r n a t e d , i n p a r t i c u l a r, by t h e pervers i t y of t h e l i t t l e J a s o n , w h o a s k s G race for a s pa n k i n g a s a proof of l ove a n d t h e n u s e s it a ga i n s t h e r, c a n not be rem e d i e d by a n y s t rugg l e . Th i s i s what i s show n by t h e a mb i g u i ty o f t h e p h o t o g r a p h s t h a t accompa n i es t h e fi l m 's c l o s i n g c r e d i t s : photo g r a p h s by Wa l k e r Eva m , D o rothea L a nge a n d o t h e r p h o t o g r a p h e r s , a l l of w h o m b e M w i t n ess t o t h e e ra o f t h e G re a t D e p r e s s i o n a n d t h e socia l com m i t m e n t of a r t i s t s . S i m p l y, we a re ! e l l wo n d e r i n g w h e t h e r t he s e photos h a v e b e e n s h own to u s to rem i n d u s of a s o c i a l i n j u s t ic e w h i c h n o one c a n p u t r ight, or to h a v e it u nd er s t o o d t h a t t h e fa m o u s m e n o f J a m e s Agee a n d Wa l ker E va n s h ave t u r n e d i n t o t h e s m a l l m o n s ters of h e a r t l a nd A m e r i c a . B u t one t h i n g is certa i n : no l o n g e r is it s o ci a l s t r u g g l e t h a t m e a s u res

up t o t h e evil that Grace e n c o u n t e r s . The w i l l to d o good n o longer

proves to be a n a ive t y t h a t n e e d s e n l ig h t e n i n g . T h e L o r d , G r a c e ' s f a t h e r, w h o rese rves a l l venge a n c e for h i m sel f, is i d e n t i c a l to t h e k i n g o f t h u g s wh o renders j u s t ice to h u m a n i t y i n t h e f o r m of a ra d i ca l p u rg i ng . Th i s v i s io n of e v i l a n d o f j u s t ic e r a i s e d some h a c k l e s , a n d n o t o n l y A me r i c a n ones . T h e p r e s i d e n t o f t h e F e s tiva l o f C a n n e s e x p l i c i t l y s a i d t h a t a fi l m t h a t i s s o fa r removed f r o m h u m a n sent i me n t s c a n n o t b e awa rded a p r i z e .

Mystic River, no d o u b t , r e s p onds to t h e c r i t e r i a o f

h u m a n i s m s u c h a s t h e y o u g h t t o b e held b y t h e C a n ne s J u r y. B u t i t a l s o shows u s t h a t ' hu m a n i s m ' i t s e l f h a s c h a n g e d . I n for m e r t i m e s , h u m a n i sm was a fa i t h i n t h e h u m a n c a p a c i t y t o create a world a s j u s t a s was p e r m it t e d by t he equ a l l y h u m a n capa c i t y for wea k n e s s . Today, i t r a t h e r con s i s t s i n t e s t i f y i n g to t h e i mp o s s i b il it y o f a n y s u c h j u s t i c e . We engage in too much wrongdoing to be able to a ff o r d the l u x u r y of being j u st , s uch i s the m e a n i ng of the m u t e g es t u r e s e x c h a nged a t the fi l m 's end b y t h e u npu n i shed assassin a n d t h e cop t h a t s h a r e s h i s s e c r e t . S e a n and J i lll m y a rc g u i lt y of h av i n g once l e d t h e t i m i d Dave a s t r a y w i t h t h e i r s t r e e t games, g u i lt y of h a v i n g l e t g e t away those paedop h i l e s p o s i ng as

116

THE NEW FICTIONS OF EVil

policemen, who s e questered and rap e d him. The trauma suffered was irrepa rable . And, according to the logic of this irrepa rabi lity, t h e adult D ave would b e beset with presumptions of guilt in rel ation t o t h e mur der of Jimmy 's daughter and b e come a victim of Jimmy 's act of s u m mary j u stice a g a i n s t h i m . T h e whole structure of t h e fi l m s e e m s t o consist in the distending of a small episode from one of the pioneer films of the America n way of the last 3 0 yea r s : Once upon a time in America. The camera of Sergio L eone has u s r e a d t h e decision of a killer i n the face of a powerless child whom he will shoot dow n . It thus has u s enter into a confusing collusion with the killer's enj oyment and the child's wait for the inevitable. Mystic River similarly presents a long chronicle of a death announced long b e fore hand . The mental a nd p erceptual la ndscape of this putting to d e ath overthrowing the classic s cenario of the falsely accused by a s cenario of the promised victim - is comp o s e d by the nocturnal atmo sphere in which D avid turns - and the camera arollnd him - as if in an aquarium, the gesticulations and howls o f Jimmy and his two acolyte s a n d the fury of the orga n . The fi l m's moral - the mora l that it stage s and t h e m o r a l of i t s staging - m i g h t b e s u m m e d u p thus: since we 've a l l killed a child, it may as well be done properly. Clint E a stwood was compl i mented for having avoided the variou s 'manicheisms' of Michael Moore and Lars von Trier. O n closer e x a m i nation, this 'non -ma nicheism', t h i s acceptance of inj u stice in the name of evil, we see a homogeneity between it and the prevailing d i s course against the axis of E v i l . A s a l l o f us a r e s avage s, a l l potential murderers, we ought to accept the work of j ustice. But for the s a m e reason, we must not demand that j u stice b e too j u s t . T h e struggle a g a i n s t i n finite e v i l will produce blunders, will create victims, in the working class areas of B oston a s much as i n t h o s e of A rab town s . The film Eleph a n t dispenses with all considerations of j ustice and a l l causal schema s . I f C lint E a stwood's ' Freudianism' resides i n its demon stration of i rrepa rable traum a , Elephan t 's lies in its a n a lysis of a psych osis: the a dol escents i n the film live in an 'inno cent ' world, a world from which sin, the law and authority are radically absent . The a lcoholic, depressed father, whose sons treat him a s a child, is the sole repre sent ative of the pa rental instance. But no psychological causa lity is implied here . John, son o f t h e d i s g raceful father, is precisely neither c u lprit nor victim . Throughout the film his presence functions only a s t h at of a
117

CHRONICLES O F CONSENSUAL T I M ES

w i t ness who a s s u res t h e c o n t i nu i t y t h ro u g h o u t t h e b r o k e n n a r ra t i o n . A n d in comp a r i son w i t h t h e l i t t l e J a s o n , i t s t w o m u rderers appea r rat h e r ca n d id . No psycholog y of f i l i a t i o n a n d i t s t roubles, n o r a ny t h e o l o g y of e v i l com e s t o replace t h e va n i s h e d s o c i o - p o l i t i c a l h o r i zo n . There i n r e s i d e s t h e fi l m 's e n t i re p r i n c i p l e . I n co n t r a s t to t h e h e a v i n e s s
o f t h e t ra u m a i n w h i c h C l i n t E a s t wo o d 's e x pre s s i o n i s t m ise-cn-scene

p\Jces

LI S ,

G u s Va n S a n ! , l i k e La rs von T r i e r, e x h ibits a com m i t m e n t to

concept u a l a b s t ra c t i o n i n t u r n i ng t h e m ise-en -scene i n t o the rigoro u s d e m o n s t ration o f a p o i n t of v i ew. T h i s p o i n t of v i e w i s t h a t t h ere i s n o reason for c r i m e, o t h e r t h a n t h e v e r y a b s e n ce o f rea s o n s . H i s mise - c n

scenc is t h e long m a n i fe s t a t i o n o f t h i s a b s e n c e . T h e p r i m a ry school i s

s t r a ngely i n habited . T h e l a n g u age l a boratory where t h e k i l l e rs store t h e i r equ ipment i s a s d e s e r t e d a s t h e g y m n a s i u m t h ro u g h w h i c h t h e ' u llcom for t able-wit h - h i m se l f ' a d ol e s c e n t c r o s s e s . T h e s e ro o m s present
i ll adva nce the void t h a t the m u r d e ro u s a d o l e scent w i l l c o n t e m p l a t e at

t h e e n d a s his own work . T h e ca m e ra fol l ows a t l e n g t h t h e t w i s t s a n d t u r n s of bod i e s fi l med f r o m b e h i n d t h ro u g h a l m ost d e serted co r r i d o r s . Th i s s p a c e without con s i s t e n c y - w h i c h i s a l s o often f u z z y - a l re a d y re sembles t h e s p a c e of t h e s c r e e n o n w h i c h t h e t w o a d o l e s c e n t s order t h e i r weapon s a nd o n w h i c h o n e of t h e m t e s t s h i m s elf o n a ga m e of massacre w h ile t h e o t h e r contents h i m se l f with m a s s a c r i n g B ee t h oven on the piano. And, in re t u r n , i t i s a s s o m e v i de o - ga m e c r e a t u re o n a screen t h a t A lex w i l l a p p e a r a t t h e e n d i n t h e gaze o f t h e two a doles cents pro m i sed to d e at h . But t h e e n d of the fi l m w i l l leave t h e prom i s e d dea t h h a n g i n g i n s u s p e n s e . Th i s s uspended end i s e m b le m a t i c o f t h e fi l m 's e n t i re m e t h o d . I n t h e cool room , A l e x i s f r a m e d b y s i d e s o f m e a t , enj o y i n g for an e t e r n it y f r o m t h e delay g r a n t e d t o / i mp o s e d o n t h e t w o adolescents; a ll we h e a r a re thei r plead i n g voi c e s . S e r g i o L e o n e , n a t u r a l l y, comes a ga i n t o m i n d . B u t these q u a rters o f m e a t u s e d t o f r a m e t h e c h i l d - k il l e r t a ke us e v e n f u r t her b a c k i n the h i s t o r y o f c i n e m a . T h e y b r i ng t o m i n d t h e a b a t t oi rs that E i s e n s t e i n i ntroduced s y m b o l i c a l l y i nt o h i s fi l m Strike, t o wh i c h s o m a ny ll l m m a kers h a v e p a i d m o r e o r l e s s e x p l i c i t v i s u a l h o m a g e . B ut here the s y m b o l i c s ig n i fi c a t i o n ( m e a t / b l o o d / v i olence) i s a b s orbe d . A l l that rema i n s i s t h e c o o l r o o m , w h i c h c o n d e n ses t h e cold o f t h e cor ridors a n d e m p t y r o o m s , l i ke t h a t o f t h e computer s c r e e n o r t h e B e e thoven 'cl a i r de l u n e ' . Ult i ma t e l y a l l t h a t rema i n s i s c i nem a 's own self- d e s i g n a t i o n , t h e comm i t me n t of t h e fi l m m a k e r a s t h e c o n s t r u c t o r
118

THE NEW FICTIONS OF EVIL

of this cool room i n which nor m a l ity and monstrosity, r e a s on a nd absence of reason enter into equivalence . The final shot tells u s : a l l this is only a film. The staging o f t h e killers a n d that o f t h e filmmaker, t h e n , are mir rored i n one a nother. The fi l mm aker, like the k i llers, puts into play a principle of interruption. I n his cool room just like in the room and o n t h e s c r e e n o f the t w o k i l l e r s , the endless wandering th rough the cor ridors and the interminable circulation of empty words - those of the t h re e sma l l pa rakeets or of the a s sociation homo-hetero - b e come blocked, fram e d , subj ect to a p r inciple of closure. The fi 1 m 's lesson would lie here . It posits a good kind of interruption to respond to the bad kind. 'Make love, not wa r ', p eople used to say in the times of viol ence . 'Make films, not m a s sacres ', such would be, with Gus Va n S a nt, the formu la of a n ethics s u ited to those of evi l . Unfortunately not every body can make cinem a .

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CHAPTER TWENTY- N I N E
Cri m i n a l D e m o c ra cy? March 2004

A few m o n t h s ago i n F ra nce, t h e re a p p e a r e d a work i nt r ig u i n g l y t i t l e d : Us Pl'I1chants crimin els de I ' Eu rope democratique. 1 The a u t h or, Jea n - C l a u d e

M i l n e r, d i d n o t l e a v e rea d e r s i n t h e d a rk fo r l o n g a s t o t he c r i m e o f w h i c h democracy w a s , accord i ng to h i m , g u i l t y. V i a t h e e x t re m e s u b t l eness of a demon s t r a t i o n t h a t mobi l i ze s a l l t h e resou rces o f p h i l o s ophy a nd l i n g u i s ti c s , o f p s y c h o a n a l y s i s a nd of h i story, t h e a rg u m e n t a dva nced i s s i m p l e . The c r i m e t h a t E u ropea n d e m o c r a c y bea rs with i n i t , q u i t e s i m ply, i s t h e e x t e rm i n a t i o n o f t h e Jews o f E u rope . There would be little poi nt in respo n d i n g t h a t t h e Nazi reg i m e that had p l a n n e d t h i s e x ter m i n a t i o n wa s not c l a m o u r i n g f o r d e m o c ra c y. The a rg u m e n t , p r e c i sely, i s i nve rted : w h a t . accord i n g to M i l ne r, m a d e t h e construct i o n o f
a

Eu rope resting on t h e p r i nciple of democracy possible a fter 1 9 4 5 is

prec i s e l y the fact t h at N a z i s m , in t h e ye a r s preced i n g , h a d e l i m i n at e d t he el ement t h a t thwa rt e d i t s a dvent, n a mely the e x i s t ence of a s t rong Jewish comm u n it y i n E u ro p e . Th i s u nverifi able h i storica l a rg u ment c l e a rl y n e e d e d b a ck i n g u p by a t heoretica l a rg u m e n t , w h i c h r u n s as follows : t h e reign of modern democracy is one of a society that will consider no l i m it to i t s powe r s . Th i s l i m i t lessness i s illustrated i n p a r t ic u l a r i n contempora r y drea m s of genetic manipu l a t io n , w h i c h a b o l i s h the last d i f ference between n a t u re a n d a rtifice a n d give c hildren created in vitro to homo s e x u a l couple s . Now, t h e tendency of modern d e m o c ratic s o ciety to want t o take its l i m itless power to the point o f a b o l is h i n g fi l i a tion encounte r s an irre ducible enemy : t h e people who gather under the principle of fi l i ation and transmission, that i s , t h e J e w i s h people. The conclu s i o n followed as
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C R I M I NAL DEMOCRACY?

a matter of cou r s e : in a n n i h i l at i ng the Jews, Hitler realized t h e intim ate dream of democracy a nd a llowed it to prevail in E u rope . A s extreme a s i t i s , t h i s demonstration h a s n o trouble blending into the present-day landscape o f political and philosophical thought. This landscape, we k now, endured a maj or change during the 1 9 8 0 s . Until then, the s o - called western world laid claim to a certain idea of demo cracy, conceived as a j u ridico - p olitical syste m . Accordingly some con trast its u n ive r s a l law and individual liberties to totalitarian coercion. Others denounced the r e a l ity of economic exploitation and class dom ination concealed b e n e a t h its universal forms. Real democ racy aga inst form a l democracy or, conve r s ely, the rights of democratic m a n agai n s t totalitarianism - such was the landscap e . T h e opposition, doubtless, authorized a few m e diations : the p a rtisans of real demo c racy could show themselves t o b e more attentive i n the defence of formal liberties than the champions of l i b e r a l democracy themselve s . And the latter, from their side, would hlame democracy's weaknes s e s or excesses for the advent of totalitarian r e g i me s . B u t i t was too f a r t o leap from there to the idea that the extermination of the Jews was the direct realization of the democratic pri nciple . To overcome such a b a ffl i n g logical leap, the lands cape of politica l thought had to u ndergo a serious upheava l . This upheava l h a s indeed occurred, hut it also took a form at fi rst sight paradoxical. On the one hand, since the b e g i n n i n g o f the 1 9 8 0 s, the denunciation of tota litari anism has b ecome more radical and more insi stent than ever b efor e . B ut o n t h e other, the d i stinction b e tween t h e tot alita rianism denounced and democracy h a s tended to b e come increasingly tenuou s . O n t h e one h a n d , t h e end of the S oviet system h a s b e e n accompanied by a meticulous inventory that turns the whole history of communism into a long list of crimes, m i nutely detailed in thick 'black books'. At the same time, a n entirely new sort of attention has b e en brought to bear on the Nazi genocide. This foun d expression not only with the multipli cation of testimonies but also i n a current of thought for which the death camps became a radical event i n whose l ight the whole history o f t h e last t w o centuries had to b e re conceive d . H e r e i s where t h e p aradox a pp e a r s . W e might have thoug h t that the collapse of the S oviet a lternative and the new ledger of Nazi and S oviet crimes might reinforce the fragile western faith in the virtues of demo cracy. Nothing of the sort transpired, quite to the contrary. The more

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CHRONICLES OF CONSENSUAL T I M ES

t h at these reg i m e s ' c r i m e s ca m e u nd e r a n e w sort of public l i g h t , the more the for m e r cha mpions o f western a nd democratic h u m a n rights t u rned against t h e i r idol o f y e s t e r d a y. The fiercest condemners of S o v i e t c r i me s w e r e , l i k e the h i stori a n F r a ncois F u ret, the fi rs t to see it a s t h e d i rect con s e quence of t h e F r e n c h R e v o l u t i o n . O n e wou l d s t i l l have b e e n a b l e , it i s t r u e , to con d e m n t h e e x c e s s e s of t h e revol u t i on a r y 'gove r n m e n t of the people' a nd opp o s e to t h e m t h e h u m a n r i g h t s p ro c l a i med b y the A m erica n l i beral revol u t i o n . But t h e s e rights too q u i c k l y ca me u nd e r s u spicion . These were t i m e s in which A m erica n sociolog i st s , in t h e wake of D a n iel Bell, b e g a n t o cond e m n t h e d a m a g i n g effe c t s of m a ss i nd iv i d u a l i s m for r u i n i ng of a l l for m s of p u b l i c a u t h o r i t y. Ta k i n g up the baton, F rench pol i t i c a l s c i e n t i s t s , s u c h a s M a rcel G a u chet, then c o n st r u ed h u m a n r i g h t s a s t h e pre c i s e e x pression of this m a ss demo c ratic i n d i v i d u a l i s m , h a r m f u l not only to a u t h o r i t y b u t to t h e very sense o f pol i t i c a l com m u n ity. So, st e p - by- step, t h e trad i t i o n a l o p p o s i t i o n s tended to va n i s h . The revol u t i o n a ry c rowd s and t h e i r u n re s t c a m e to b e ident i fi e d with t h e d i spersion c a u s e d by the ego t i stica l a n d n a rc i s s i stic i n d iv id u a l s of d e m o c ra t i c society. And the d e m o c r a t i c e ffect of ' u n d o i n g b o n d s ' w e r e i d e n t i fied w i t h tota l it a r i a n c a t a s t r o p h e . T h i s m a d e i t possible, with G i orgio A gamben, to show that t h e R ig h t s of Man i nvolved a confu sion between t h e citi z e n - i d e n t i t y a nd b a r e l i fe a nd t o fi n d i t s logic b e i ng c a rried o u t b oth i n the Nazi g e n o c i d e a n d i n t h e everyd a y l i fe o u r d e m o c r a c i e s . O ne cou l d , t h e n , with Jea n - C l a u d e M i l n e r, s e c democra c y a s t h e very p r i nciple of genocide . The remaining problem wa s to fi n d t h e g o o d f o r m of govern ment t h a t counters t h i s democracy no longer d i s t i n g u ishable f r o m tot a l it a r i a n i sm . S ome have called it a repu b l ic a n d so emphasized the virtue of t h e good republ ican government a g a i n s t t h e a n a rc h y of democratic individuals r e g ulated by their simple good ple a s u r e . Jea n - C la u d e M i lner, for h i s p a rt, chose a blu nter ter m . He h a s c a l l e d it p a storal gove r n m e n t . Thi s doing, he reca l l s t h e v e r y old o r i g i n s of c u r rent d i s c o u rses on d emocra c y. It was Plato, i n t h e

Republic, who p a i nted t h e picture of t h e

democratic c i t y s o e n d l e s s l y rep r i s e d b y o u r s o c iolog i s t s : democra cy, h e s a id, is t h a t cha r m i n g r e g i m e i n which a l l a re f r e e and do e x a c t l y as t hey ple a s e : not only men but a Iso women a nd ch i 1 d r e n a nd even horses a nd a s s e s , whose democratic p r i d e pushes t h e m to occupy t h e street a n d k nock passers-by over. T h i s is the indocile democratic ass t h a t we s t i l l

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C R I M I NAL D E M OC RACY?

find being discussed in the self- satisfied descriptions of t h e s o c i e t y of g o o d , unlimited pleasure in which workers who a lways want more and the j obless, d r u n k with new forms of enj oyment, ruin the republican community with their senseless demands . But the condemnation of the indocile ass, doubtless, conceals a more profound trouble . I n dem o cracy, Plato tells u s , governors appear a s the governe d , a n d the gov erned the governors . We underst and, then, that the true scandal of democracy does not reside in the u n rest of the masses or the licence of individual s . It resides simply in the fact that in it governing comes to appear a s an activity that i s purely contingent, not fou nded on any title that is g ranted by birth, age, knowledge or a supposedly m a n i fest supe riority. D em o c racy is the form of government that is b a s e d on t h e idea that n o individual o r a n y group has a t i t l e to govern over other s . T h i s contingent gove r nment of a nyone at all testifies, for Plato, to a world which r u n s upside down. There was a time when the world guided by divinity r a n a s it shou l d : a time when authority t o o k on the a i r of the enlightened solicit ude o f t h e pastor who knows what is best for his flock. It i s this p a s toral government - in which the e lites exhibit paternal concern for their flo c k and protect it from its own reb e l l ious spirits - that, in the We st. i s increa singly loudly d reamt of today. B ut the matter of who is to e ducate these pa stors and by what signs we can recognize their wisdom remains rather obscu re.

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CHAPTER TH I RTY
The Diff i c u l t Leg a cy of M i c h e l Fo u c a u lt,

June 2004

I n t h i s very month , M ic h e l F o u ca u l t w i l l have been d e a d for 2 0 ye a rs . A new occa s i o n h a s t h u s a ri s e n f o r a com m e m o ration , popu l a r a s t h e y
a rc i n F ra nce. T h i s a n n iversa r y, h owever, is m o r e proble m a t i c t h a n that o f Sa rtre's 4 yea rs ago. F o r t h i s latter o cca s i o n , i t wa s neces s a r y to p ro d uce a m aj or opera t i o n o f reco n c i l i a t i o n i n order t o e x t ricate t h e p rovocative p h i losopher from t h e ' e x t re m i s t ' c a u s e s i n which he h a d compro m i sed h i m self, s o t h a t h e c o u l d b e i n t ro d u ced i nto the n a t i o n a l p a ntheon of w r iters a n d t h i n ke r s , t h e f r i e n d s of l iberty. T h e c a s e o f F o u c a u l t i s m o r e compl e x . T h e p h i l o s o p h e r a nd activi st h a s n o e x c e s s e s t h a t m u s t b e pa rdoned i n t h e n a m e o f h i s v i rt u e s . F o r , preCisely, one does not know what the a c t i v i s t s h o u l d b e reproached fof, n o r w i t h w h a t the p h i l o sopher s h o u l d b e c r e d i t e d . M o r e r a d i c a lly, t h e r e i s a ser ious u ncerta i n t y in u nd e r s t a n d i n g t h e relation between t h e o n e a n d t h e other. Thi s u n certa i n t y rece i v e s e x p r e s s i o n i n t h e debates over Fouca u l t 's l e gacy. One of them conce r n s h i s relation to t h e cau se of s e x u a I m i nor i t ie s . In

La Volante de savoir, I i n fact. Foucault p u t forwa r d a provocative

a rgument: the notion of ' s e x u a l r e p r e s s i o n ' a c t u a lly works to mask the i nverse operati o n , the effo r t s of power t o g e t u s to spea k about s e x , to oblige i n d i v i d u a ls to over-i n v e s t i n t h e s e c r e t s and the prom i s e s that it deta i ne d . S ome were keen , n o tably in t h e Un i t e d S t a t e s , t o i n fe r from t h i s an i nvalidation of t h e for m s o f i d e nt i t y pol itics to which s e x u a l

Saint Foucault, 2 the p h i losopher was e n t h r o n e d as the patron s a i n t of t h e queer

m i n o r it i e s w e r e com m i tt e d . C onversely, w it h David Halp e r i n 's

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THE DIFFICULT LEGACY OF MICHEL FOUCAULT

movement for his denouncing of the game of sexual identities that the homophobic tradition had set up. In France the polemic developed on another terrain. Indeed, one of the editors of Foucault's Dits et B crits. ' Francois E wald, is today the appointed theoretician of a b osses union , and is committed, in the name of the morality of risk, to continuin g the struggle against the French system of social protection . Hence, the question that worked the p olemicists: can a programme of struggle against social security be drawn from the Foucauldian critique of the 'society of control' ? Some have aimed to rise above these debates and attempted to draw out the philosophical foundations of Foucault's politics. The se are gen erally sought for in the analysis of biopower that he once sketched. Others, with Michael Hardt and Toni Negri, have equipped him with the substratum of a philosopher of life, which he himself never took the time to elaborate, in a bid to assimilate biopolitics to the m ovement of the multitudes breaking open the shackles of Empire. Others stilL like Giorgio Agamben, have assimilated Foucault's description of 'the power over life' to a generalized regime of the state of exception, com mon to democracies and totalitarian regimes alike. And still others see Fou cault as a theoretician of ethics and enj oin us to discover - between his scholarly studies on asceticism in antiquity and his small con fidences in the contemporary pleasures of the sauna - the principles of a new morality of the subj ect. All these enterprises have one point in common. They hope to ascer tain in Foucault's traj ectory a principle of finality that would assure the coherence of the whole and provide a solid basis for a new politics or a novel ethics. They want to see in him a confirmation of the idea of the philosopher who synthesizes knowledge and teaches us the rules of action. Now, this idea of the philosopher and of the concordance between knowledge, thought and life is precisely the one that Foucault chal lenged, through his approach even more than his statements. What he foremost invented was an origi nal way of doing philosophy. When phe nomenology was promising us - at the end of its abstractions - access to the 'things themselves' and to the ' world of life', and when some were dreaming of making this promised world coincide with the one that Marxism promised the workers, he practiced a maximum distance. He did not promise life. He was fully in it, in the decisions of the p olice, the
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C H RON ICLES OF CONSENSUAL T I M E S

c r ies o f the i m pri soned or the e x a m i n a t i o n of t h e bodies of the i l l . B u t h e d i d not say to u s what we could d o w i t h t h i s ' l i fe ' a nd w ith its k now l e d ge. M u ch ra ther, h e saw it a s t h e refutation in act of d iscourses of comc i o u sness [ conscience] a n d of t h e hu m a n that b a c k t h e n lI nd e r p i lll lt'd the hopes o f l iberated tomorrow s . More than a ny other 'struc t ll ra l i ';( ' t h eoreticia n , Foucau lt wa s accused of bei n g a t h i n ker o f tl' c il n ocrat i s lll , of t u rn i ng o u r society a n d o u r t hought i n to a mach i n e d e f i n e d by i n eluctable and a no n y m o u s fu nCl i o n i ngs. We kn ow how the 6 8 yea rs would overt u rn t h i ngs. Between the Cfe , H ion of the Universite de Vincennes and the fou n d i ng of the Group o f I n formation on P r i s o n s , the s t r u ct u ra l i s t 'tech nocrat ' fig u red a mong t h e top ru ng of i ntellect u a l s i n w h i c h t h e a nt i - authorita r i a n movement reco g n i zed itself. Everyth i n g suddenly became obvious: he who had a n alysed t he b i rth of medica l power a n d the great con fi nement of t h e Ill ad a n d t h e m a rg i n a l wa s p e r fec t l y pred isposed to symbol i z e a movc Ill e llt wh ich attacked not only the relations o f product ion a nd t h e v i sible i n stit ll t i o m of t he state, but a l l the form s of power that a re d i ssem i n aIl'll t h roughout the socia l body. One photog raph would s u m up this logic: in i t we see Fouca u lt, a rmed w i t h a microphone, a longside his old e nemy Sa rtre, rousing some demonstrators who had gathered together to conde m n a rac i st crime. Thc photo i s titled ' t he ph i losophers a rc i n the s t reet '. B u t a phi losopher's bei ng i n the street does not s u ffice for his ph i l o sophy t o ground t h e movement, nor even his o w n presence there. The p hilosophica l d isplacement operated by Foucau lt implied precisely u psetting the relations between positive k nowledge, philosoph ical con s c i ousness a n d a ction . I n a b a ndoning itself to the examination of the rca l f u nction i ng by which e f fe c tive thought a c t s on bod ies, ph i losophy a b d icates its ccntral posit i on . But the k nowledge that it y ields does not thus form a ny weapon of the masses in the M a rxist m a n ner. It simply constitutes a new map on the terra i n o f t h i s effective a nd deeentered t hought . It does not provide the revolt with a consciou sness . But it per m its the net work of its rea s o n s to Ilnd the net work of reasons of those who, here or there, exploit their k n owledge and their own reason to i ntroduce the gra i n of s a n d tha t j a m s the machine. The archaeology of the relations o f p ower a nd of the workings of t hought, then, fou nds revolt no more t h a n it does subj ugation . It redis t ributes the maps a nd the territori e s . In subtracting tbought from its
126

THE D IFFICULT LEGACY OF MICHEL FOUCAULT

royal place, it gives right to that of each and all of us, that notably of the ' infamous men' whose lives Foucault had undertaken to write. By the same token, however, it prohibits thought, restored to aIL from taking any central position in the encounter between knowledge and power. This does not mean that politics loses itself in the multiplicity of power relations everywhere disseminated. It means, first of all, that it is always a leap that no knowledge j ustifies and which no knowledge adminis ters. The passage f rom knowledge to an intervention supposes a singu lar relay, the sentiment of something intolerable. ' The situation in the prisons is intolerable', Foucault declared in 1 9 7 1 with the founding of the Groups of Information on Prisons. This 'intol erable' did not come from some self- evidence piece of knowledge and was not addressed to some universal consciousness that would be com pelled to accept it. It was only a 'sentiment', the same one, no doubt. that had pushed the philosopher to commit himself to the unknown terrain of archives without knowin g where i t would lead him, and still less where it might lead others. Some months later, however, the intol erable sentiment of the philosopher would be forced to encounter that which the prisoners in revolt in several French prisons declared with their own weapons based upon their own knowledge. Thought does not transmit itself to action. Instead thought transmits itself to a thought and action which provokes another. Thought acts insofar as it accepts not to know very well what is pushing it and renounces to assert control over its effects. The paradox is that Foucault himself seems to have found it difficult to accept this entirely. We know that he stopped writing for a long while. It occurred right after La Volon te de savoir, the book around which today's exegetes vie. This book aimed in principle to be an introduction to a Histoire de la sexualite. whose signification it summed up in advance. It seems that Foucault came to fear the path that he had mapped out in advance. Before the imm inence of death pushed him to publish L" [Jsa,qe des plaisirs and Le Souci de soi. he had not published anything save inter views.4 In these interviews, of course, he was asked to say what it was that linked his patient investigations in the archives with his interven tions on the repression in Poland, his delving into the Greek techniques of subjectivation and his work with a union confederation. All his responses, as we clearly sense, comprise so many deceptions that rein troduce a place of mastery which his very own work had undermined.
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C HRONICLES O F CONSE NSUAL TI M ES

" l in e h o l d s for a l l t hose ra t i o n a l i z a t i o n s t h a t pu rport t o d ra w from w r i t i ngs either the p r i n c i p l e of the q u e e r revolution, that of t h e e m J nci pat ion of t h e lT1 u l t it u d e s o r t h a t of a n e w et h i es of t h e i n d ividua I . T h erc is not a body of Fouca u l d i a n t hought t h at fou nds a n e w pol i t ics o r <l new e t h ics. There a re b o o k s w h i c h p ro d u ce e f fects to t h e v e r y e x t e n t t h at t h e y d o n o t s a y to u s wh a t we m u s t d o w i t h t hem . T h e emba l m ers <l IT goi n g to have a t ough t i me of i t .
The his

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CHAPTER TH I RTY- ONE

The N ew Reasons for the Lie, A ugust 2004

At the summer's start a news item shook France . A young woman trav elling in a suburb a n tra i n with her baby was robbed and battered by a gang of black and Maghrebin adol e s cents . Seeing, as they stole her papers, that she was born in the 'posh suburb s ', they concluded that she was Jewish. C on s e quently, t h e robbery turned into a n a n t i - S em itic attack: they scarred her face with a knife, painted swastikas over her and cut her hair s avagely. None of the train's passengers had intervened to defend the young woman and her baby, not even, simply, t o pull the alarm signa l . Within

48 hours, we saw declarations from politicians and com m ent

aries in newspapers proliferat e . E ven more than the attack, it wa s the passiveness of the commuters that provoked indignatio n . The mon strous behaviour of t h e s e yout h s appeared as a reality that was u n for tunately all too explainable : newspaper columnists did n o t cease to evoke the wrongdoings o f small gangs of youths from the poor suburbs, often with an immigrant background. The reality of tensions bet ween the Jewish a nd Muslim communities is also very pre s e n t a s are the attacks aga i n st Jewish persons and institutions that have occ u r re d over recent months . But how are we to explain the compl icit pas s ivenes s of the commuters? Le Monde thus ran two sorts of commenta r y side -by s i d e . A s o ciologist explained that the young Magh rebi of the poor sub
II rbs

were sending back t o society the image that the lat t e r made 01

them : that of brutal. macho a n d fanatical youths. An editori a l i s t made clear that the commuter s ' b e h aviour testified to someth i n g o f a far more serious nat u r e : a phenomenon of col l ective coward ice, of the collapse of the most traditional collective values . The event the reby
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C HRONICLES O F CONSENSUAL TIMES

reflected hack to societ y t he i mage of a twofold decomposition : on t h e o n e h a n d , sma l l gangs of savages; on the other, a n apathetic m a s s of egotistica l i nd ividu a l s . Two d a y s l ater, w e lea rnt t h a t the whole a f fa i r wa s a pu re a nd si mple fabrication . The you ng wom a n h a d done i t t o a t t ract the attention of a companion who h a d not heen s e n s i t ive e n o u g h to her prohl e m s . F a l s e news is as old a s t h e worl d , a s i s u s i n g i t i n t h e fra mework o f i nter-com m u n i t y con f l i c t s . Th i s fa l s e n e w s , h oweve r, s e e m s to te st i fy t o a new reg i m e of l y i n g . T w o t ra d it i on a l form s of m a s s l i e a re more t h a n fa m i l i a r to u s . There is t h e form of the 'popu l a r r u m o u r ' whereby i n t h e M id d l e Ages, for exa mple, Jews were acc u sed of k i d n appi ng c h i l d re n f o r rit u a l m u rders. A n d t h e r e i s the for m of l i e tha t is del iherately made u p by a n a u t hor i t y, state o r other, a s an e x ped ient way of s t i r r i n g u p h a t red aga i n s t a com m u n i t y t ha t s e r v e s a s a scapegoa t . T h e l i e t o l d b y t h e you ng M a rie L e o n i e d o e s n o t fi t i nto either o f t hese t wo fra m e s . The i n form a t ion m a c h i n e of our ti mes goes q u icker t h a n a ny popu l a r ru mou r. Mo reover, ou r conse n s u a l gove r n m e n t s have no i nt e rest i n fuel l i ng wa rs b e t ween com m u n it i e s . So, i t i s not possible i n t h i s case t o blame either the 'g u l l ibi l it y ' o f the popu l a r ma sses o r t h e perverse imagi n a t ion of men of power. B u t t h i s l i e i s n o t , f o r a l l t h a t , a p u rely individ u a l creation . B y t h e very way i n which it s i m u lates a 'societal phenomenon' for private e n d s , it testi fies to a new form of the false . Th is form i s not linked to any e xcess o r lack but to the norma l functioning of the i n formation m a c h i ne, to the norma l relation hetween i n formation a n d power i n ou r societies. The ' i ndividual' i nvention of this racist attack was possible and plausible because the social m a c h i n e of fabrication and of the i nterpretation of events i n a c e r t a i n sense e x p ected the event . Let's be more specific. At stake here is not to say, with certain critics of the media, that the televi s u a l screen has rendered reality a n d simu lacr u m equivalent, and that the events n o longer h ave any need of r e a l l y existing because their i m ages exist without them . Regardless of what the critics say, the i m age does not constit ute the heart of media power and of its u t i l ization by the authorities . The heart of the i n forma t ion machine i s i nterpretation . No events, not even fal s e ones, are needed hecause their i nterpretations a re a lready there, because they pre- exist them and cal l them forth . F rom t h i s v iewpoint, the u n a n i m o u s indig nation aga i n st the 'cowardice' of the witnesses i s sig n i fi cant.
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From the fact that no witness manifested himself, none of the comment ators d rew the simplest conclusion, if not a single witness to the event did anything, perhaps this is because the event did not take place. What is intolerable in the eyes of the mora listic journalist is the very idea that nothing has happened. It is the lack of events. The interpretation must, then, be turned upside down: if there was no witness, it is because the witnesses made a show of their cowardice. And is it this cowardice which becomes the heart of the event itself, the societal phenomenon to be delved into. For the machine to turn, there must always be events. This does not simply mean that in order to sell papers there has to be a bit of sensa tionalism. At stake is not simply to scribble on paper. Material must be furnished for the i nterpretative machine. This machine does not always need somethi ng to happen. It needs a certain type of thing to happen, things called 'societal phenomena': that is, particular events that hap pen to ordinary p eople at some point within society, but a Iso events that constitute symptoms - events which invite an interpretation but an interpretation that is already there in front of them . For, u ltimately. the interpretation given always amounts to the same explanation ill two points: first, that modern society is troubled because it is not mod ern enough, because there are groups which are not yet really modern, which still carry the same traditional tribal values; and second, modern society is troubled because it is too modern, because it too quickly lost the sense of the collective solidarities which characterized traditional societies and that in it everyone is indifferent to everyone else. The bar barism of yet-to-be-socialized youths inhabiting the poor suburbs, and the indifference of the ordinary passengers of public transport. The extraordinary nature of the imaginary attack suffered by Marie Leonie is a mere repeat of the ordinari ness of the interpreting machine. This is not just a simple matter of the constraint weighing on a media prey to the hard law of sales and audience ratings. It is a matter of the mode of exercise and of legitimation of the social and state machi ne. This is what explains the celerity, indeed the imprudence, w ith which the French leaders reacted. It is true that they have no interest in spread ing news liable to stir up quarrels between commun ities. B ut they do have a vital interest in showing their vigilance with regard to every thing which can generate such quarrels, their attentive ear to all 'soci etal phenomena' that expresses some discontentment in the social body.
l31

CHRON ICLES OF CONSENSUAL TIMES O ll r govern m e n t s have no n e e d of l i e s to excite c rowd s . B u t t h e y do need

e ve n t s a nd i n terpre t a t i o n s b e c a u s e i t is t h e i r legitimacy itself t h a t i s con s t i t u t e d b y t h i s con t i n u o u s col l e c t i o n o f fa c t s a n d i ncessa nt rea d i ng o f s y mptom s . The consen s u a l order represents i t s e l f a s t h a t o f the great fa m i l y i n which t h e l e a d e r s a re for e m o s t d o c t o r s w h o a t t e n d to a l l t h e s y m pt olll s o f a n i n c u ba t i n g s i c k n e s s , i n d e e d e v e n of a n i l l -being l i able t o e ngender fa n t a s i e s t h a t j eopa rd ize t h e col l e c t ive hea l t h . The r i s k o f s a n c t io n i n g a fa l s e s y m p t o m i s , t h e n , l e s s t h a n t h a t o f m i s s i n g a t r u e o n e , a n d

a bove a l l to t h a t of n o t a p p e a r i ng to be i nterested i n t h e m . T h e patern a l

COI1 c e r n o f gove r n m e n t s i s t h ereby i n h a r m o n y w i t h t h e a c t i v i t y o f a s o ci e t y t i relessly t a ken up w i t h t h e t a s k of i t s s e l f - e x a m i n a t i o n a n d s e I f i nt e rpretation . The e s se n t i a l t h i n g i s t h a t t h e re a re a lways eve n t s t o i nt e rpret, symptoms t o deciph er. A fa m o u s t he a t re j o k e has i t that a ma n i n good hea l t h is a sick p e r s o n who d o e s not yet k now it . Tod a y t h i s logic has become the g l ob a l logic of a society where a n o n - event i s a lwa ys a n eve n t t h a t h a s not yet cottoned onto t h e fact t h a t it i s one.

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CHAPTER TH I RTY-TWO
Beyo n d A rt? October 2004

The visitor entering the door of the Biennale de Sao Paulo is immedi ately enthralled: facing him is a 'Cauchemar de George V' showing a tiger attacking an elephant; to his right extends a scenery of pyramids, similar to the scale models of archaeology museums; to his left, there are sewing machines on which women are weavi ng threads, as if they are working on the scenery s urrounding them - squares in patchworks on which urban or rustic decors are arranged on foam rubber covered with coloured fabrics, evoking both stuffed toys for children and con struction games, to mark an interrogation into the economic trans formations and identity mutations occurring in contemporar y China. C ontinuing further, the visitor will encounter, notably, a fi shing boat from the Nordeste that evokes the crossing from Portugal to B razil, a dream house made of fabrics , a Mongolian tent, a 'Puzzle Polis I I ', which arranges, in the form of a town, lamps that have the shape of highrises or of the cars of a shantytown arti st; one hundred and ninety eight por traits of C hinese peasants , placed side by side like a great fresco; an assemblage of many tens of photographs representing a Mali Jiving room for all social conditions, ethnicitics or religions; photographs of a sma I I Polish town testifying to p ost-socialist misery; photographs of sordid scenes from heartland America testifying to the underneath of capitalist prosperity; some small photographs of ordinary Ukrainians stuck onto grand kitsch decors of parks abounding with ponds and swans. It is commonplace for nostalgics to claim that contemporary art is the reign of 'anything goes'. The judgement is too global to teach us any thing. The putative 'anything goes ' is always a something, a determin ate mixture, testifying to a given state 01 relations between forms of art
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J n d obj e c t s , i m ages or u s e s of o rd i n a ry l i fe . At t h e B ie n n a lc of S a o Paolo, a s a t s o m a n y c on t e m p o r a r y e x h i b i t i o n s , it i s not the f a n t a s y of a r t i s t s beholden t o t h e i r c a p r i c e t h a t reig n s . T h e v i s i tor i s r a t h e r s t r uc k b y t h e s i m i l a r i t ics b e t w e e n t h e a rt i s t s ' preoccupat i o n s a n d c h o s e n p roced u res, t h c m l' rega rd les s o f w h e t h e r t h e y a re C h i n ese or A me r i ca n , H ra /.i l i a n , I n d o n es i a n o r S l ova k . N o d o u b t t h e orga n i zer's c h oice of
-

t h e c i t y - a l s o crea t e d pa rt of the u n i t y. B u t the t he m a t i c c h o ice

i t sel f r e f l e c t s a very broad t e n d e n c y : a sort of obsession w i t h , i nd e e d a fa n a t i cism of. t h e rea l . Th i s obsession w i t h t h e rea l t a k e s m a ny for m s . I t c a n reside i n a con
c e rn

to b e a r w i t ness to t h e s t a t e of t h e world t h ro u g h the obj e c t iv i t y o f

t h e photograph ic appa ra t u s , re n d e r i n g e x a c t l y t h e scenery of ord i n a r y l i fe a t t h e h o u r of g l oba l i z a t io n . I t ca n i nvolve t h e d e s i re to m i x t h e i m a g e s of everyday c u lt u re or t he o bj e c t of p o p u l a r a r t w i t h t h e conce p t u a l a r ra n g e m e n t s of a rt i st s . Ta k i ng p l a c e s i m u l t a n e o u s l y i n R io d e J a n e i ro , a n e x h i b i t i o n ca l led Tudo
e

Brasil t e s t i fied t o t h e recu r re n t

d rea m o f a B ra z i l i a n a rt a b l e t o u n i f y con s t r u c t i v i s t m o d e r n i s m w i t h for m s o f popu l a r a r t or c u lt u re : g re a t a b s t r a c t p a i n t i ng s compr i s i ng a m u l t i p l i c i t y o f do mi nos or pieces of a footba l l . or v i d e o works i nv e n t o r y i ng t h e a r t of t a g g i n g a n d o f s t r e e t p a i n t i ng . T h i s obsession c a n a l s o r e s i d e i n t h e w i l l to c reate rea l obj e c t s , obj e c t s freed f r o m t h e i rr e a l it y

of t h e p a i nted ca nva s o r t h e m e d i a t i o n s of p hotographic repro d u c t io n

a nd a b l e promptly to i m p o s e the i r r e a l i t y i n t h e t h ree d i m e n s i o n s of space : a house, a tent. a b o a t . . . It is as if t h e refu s a l of the s i m u l a c r u m

of repre s e n t a t i o n wa s proce e d i n g i n t h e opp o s i t e d i re c t i o n to t h a t w h i c h

s t a mp e d a r t i n the t i m e o f M a l e v i t c h o r M o n d ri a n : n o l o n g e r t h e a bstract p a i nt i ng b u t i ns t e a d rea l ly e x i s t i n g o bj e c t s a s t h i n g s o f t he worl d . I n the Cratylus, P l a t o e v o k e d t h e l i m it towa r d s w h i c h res emb l a nce t e n d s , a t t h e r i s k of a b ol i s h i n g i t s e l f i n i t . Th i s l i m i t i s t h e o bj e c t w h i c h i s a b s o l u t e l y s i m i l a r t o t h e m o d e l . t h e d o u b l e w h ich n o l o n g e r dist i n g u ishes i t s e l f f r o m t h e r e a l t h i ng . The a bi d i n g n a me for t h i s attempt to m a k e of t h e s i g n o r of t h e i m a g e n o t longer an i n d ice or a c opy of t h e t h i ng, but t h e t h i n g i t s e l f, i s c r a t y l i s m . A n d h a u n t i n g t h i s bien n a l e wa s i nd e e d a c r a t y li s m n o t u n l ike t h a t t o b e fou n d i n s o m a n y other m a n i fe s t a t i o n s o f contempora r y a r t . B u t t h e o b s e s s i o n w i t h t h e r ea l c a n a l s o emph a s i z e t h e a c t w h i c h i nt e r v e n e s d i r e c t l y in social rea l ity. The w a l l s of contemp o r a r y e x h ib i t i o n s o f t e n i nc l u d e photog r a p h s o r v i d e o s t h a t t a ke s t o c k o f

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such interventions : provocations s u c h a s Gianni Motti's placing him self, i n h i s staging o f a p olitical fiction, at the core of s t ate secrets, or S a ntiago Sierra's paying Moroccan sub - proletarians to mime their exploitation b y digging their own grave s . P rovocation, however, is not what i s at i s s u e i n a work shown at the B iennale by C uban a rtist, Rene Francis c o . With a g r oup o f artists, he devoted the money h e received from a n artistic foundation to conducting a su rvey of the needs of inhabita nts from a p o or suburb. It does not suffice, however, to con duct a s u r ve y o f n e e d s . The needs must also b e met. The v ideo Rene Francisco thus shows us a r t i s t s / a r t i s a n s busy fixing the plu mbing and p ainting the h o u s e o f a n old couple whos e shadows on the c a nvass are watching the m . ' I s this art? ' t h e aesthetes w i l l a s k . The question is badly forme d . The fact is that modern art a s a whole has been moved by the concern to leave itself in order to transform the actual reality of things . The pion eers of abstract p a i nting, reduced to its e s sence a s a n arrangement of coloured form s, a l s o championed a kind of art that would be art no longer, that would transform itself into a form of common life . To make 'painting' no longer, not as sepa rate reality, but to construct the forms of life and the furniture of a new life - such was the dream common to both Mondrian and Malevitc h . And it provided the ground for the art istic avant-garde 's a d hesion to the creation of the S oviet 'new life ' . What is n e w and significant is therefore n o t t h e w i l l o f a n a r t acting directly on the worl d . It i s the form that this will take today : i ndividu a l assistance to the m o s t destitute there were once rej ected b oth b y the artistic avant-garde and the constructors of socialism. The d ream of an art that builds forms for a new life has be come the modes t proj e ct of 'relational a r t ' : a kind of art that no longer strive s to create works but instead situations o f relations, and i n which the artist, as a F rench the oretician of t h i s a r t says, renders to society 'little services' d e signed to repair ' the cracks i n the social bond ' . ! The i rony is obviously that at the B iennale the repres entatives of this aesthetics of art qua social service were artists from the last remaining countries that subscribe to Marxist socialism. There wou l d b e little interest i n accusing the naivety of a rtists or the cunning of the exhibition organizer s . B ecause this obsession with the real, this feverish will to 'make or do' something whether a s olid obj ect, an effe ctive act or a testimony on the state of the world, also r e flects the
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CHRONICLES OF CONSENSUAL TIMES

s i ng u l a r sta nce of a r t i s t i c a c t i v i t y in a u n iverse i n which not o n l y do the g reat revol u t io n a r y proj ec t s tend to d i sappea r but so a l s o the forms of p o l i t ica l con fl ict themselves. The void of the pol itica l scene i ncites the a rt i st s and the actors of the a rt world to put the mea n s and sites a t the i r d is[losa l t o testi fy to a rea lity o f i n e q u a l i ties. o f contrad ictions a n d of con fl icts wh ich consen s u a l d i scou rse t e n d s t o render i nv i sible a n d to s u ggest ways of i nt e rven i ng aga i n s t t h e reig n i ng fat a l i s m . The probl e m i s t h a t t he u n d e n i able e fforts of m a n y a rt i s t s to b rea k w i t h the dom i n a nt consensus a nd u nd e r m i n e t h e e x i st i n g order tends to e n l i st i n the f r a m ework of consen s u a l description and categories. ret u rn i ng t he a r t i s t i c powers of provocation to the e t h i c a l tasks of witnessing a world i ll [( )m mon a n d of provid i n g a ssista nce to t h e most d i sempowered .

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CHAPTER TH I RTV-THREE
The P o l itic s of Images, February 2005

Two contemp orary h i storical and cinematic topics have once aga i n r a i s e d a recu rrent question . T h e first is t h e sixtieth anniversary of the entry of the allied troops in Auschwitz, the second the release of the film The Downfall which recounts the last days of Adolf Hitler in his bunker. And the que stion : what must or must not b e shown of the great Nazi enterprise a n d of its outcome - the extermination of the Jews of E u rope? The question obviously contains two questions . The fi rst is about h i s torical fiction in g e n e r a l and asks: h o w are w e to reconcile t h e requ i s i t e s of fiction and those of history? B e fore t h e a g e of modern revolutions, this question was b a rely raised: h istorians recounted the high deeds of princes and generals; grand poetry narrated the thoughts, sentiments and actions of characters situated above commoners . For two centuries, however, the maps of the fictional and of the historic have b e en redis tributed, a s have those o f the great and the small. Fiction h a s decreed the equality of all b e fore its law; history has found itself torn between the decisions of s t ate and the slow and obscure life of the multitude s . H istorical fiction h a s b e come t h e interweaving of these two logics . I t shows u s the great deeds of history through the perspe ctive o f the small people and the upheaval s of private live s . In this vein , The Downfall based itself on a b o o k w ritten by a h istorian about Hitler's l a s t days and the testimonies of it by one of the Fuhrer 's former secre t a rie s . Wim Wenders strongly reproached the fi lmmaker for this mixture on the grounds that it enables the author to dispense with having a point of view. But the same reproach could be made to Hugo or to Tolstoy: Les

Miserables and War and Peace are formed around this exact o scillation. It
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C H RONICLES O F CONSENSUAL T I M ES

wa, Tol 'itoy who elaborated i t s theory a nd t h e for m u l a h a s s u bsequently bet' n reprised by cou ntle" novel ists a nd fi l m m a kers . So, t he reproach h a s h a rd l y a ny sign i fica nee i n itself. In fact, it obscu re, a n c n t i rely d i fferent problem . By becom i n g p a r t of the veri s i m i l it udes of f i c t ion a nd t h e fa m i l i a ri t y o f e m bod i e d c h a racter" the deeds of fa mous Illell a rt' brought closer t o us, a rt' related to t h e bod ies to which we a rc semi t i ve, to syst e lll s of ex pla n a t ion t h at j u sti fy t hern . F iction must be a cccpted; but how ca n it be w i t hout ren d e r i n g a cceptable t hat wh ich it s h olYs, on t h i s occu rrence the m u rderous m a d ness o f a system? T o i nsist t h ,l t t he a u t hor t J ke up a v i e w po i nt mea n s req u i ring him to cont rJd ict t h i, n at u ra l logic of fiction, to i n t roduce t h e u n a cceptable i nt o t h e a cccpt able. W ha t form s must this u n a ccept a b l e t a ke? I n The Downfall we never s t op h e a r i n g t h e m o n s t ro u s rem a rk s o f H it l e r o r his adepts, or s e e i n g u ll bea rJble spectacles: a m putated b o d i e s , bra i n s blow n out by revolvers, t he glacia l ceremon i a l of M rs Goebbcls poison i n g h e r s i x c h i l d re n one a f t L' r t he other. B u t t h e Ill o n s t ro u s ra mbl i ng s a re t h o s e of a used man, a m a ll con fi ne d t o h i s b u n ker a nd h i s d el i r i u m , a k i n t o one of those mad k i ngs we see a t the theatre. M r, G o ebbels' m o n s t rous m e t i c u lousness rev ives m emories of a ncient heroes protec t i n g them selves and thei r f a m i ly from servitude. A l l t h e blood - d renched bodies belong to a va n qu ished people, a n d there i s a lways some com m i seration for t h e d e lcated . I f t h e everyday o r d i n a riness of t h e b u n ker works to triv i a l i ze t h e Nazi crime, t h e extraord i n a ri ne s s of t h e words a nd of tht' mon st rOllS acts tips it over into tragic terror. Some w i l l say that t h e trial is a trap from the start: what i s repre s ented i s the defeat of Na zism . Only, what must b e j udged i s n o t its d e feat but its prior 'victories', the monstrous order that it set up. What the fi l m i 'i missing a r e i t s ver i t able victi m s : not general s w h o h a ve their brains blown out but fi rs t of all the six m i l lion dead of t h e e x termina tion ca mps . Unfortu n ately, t h e same problem a r i s e s from this side . And t h e choice of the films presented by t h e telev i s io n s t a t i ons to commemorate Auschwitz restaged t h e same question : how a re the camps to be shown? Obviollsly not by m e a n s of a c t u a l images: t h e y a re missi ng due to the very logic of the process which effaced its own trace s . O r, then, by means of a fic t ioIl of the type u sed i n Holocaust, tha t i s by recounting the fate of some of the individuals caught i n the process, from the side of
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THE POLITICS OF I MAGES

the henchmen o r that of the victims? But our empathy with the tragic destiny of the Wei s s family is i mm e d iately dubiou s . Does sha ri n g i n t h e m i s fortunes of a suffering family not imply forgetting what this fa mily is suppo s e d to incarnate : the fate o f a n entire p e ople? D o e s n o t com miseration that we feel for those about to enter the gas chamber and even our identification with the combatants of the ghetto produce a counter- effect? They render present those whos e existenc e , and even traces, the Nazi plan a im e d to eliminate. O u r commiseration t h e refore prevents us from a ny level- h eaded consideration of the mon strosit y of the ove rall plan to exterminate a collective and the silence with which this process was accompl ishe d . The second problem m ight thus b e formu lated a s follows : how a r e we to give a fictional form to the exceptional crime of the extermination? It has become com monplace to compare the trivia lization with the rigour of

Holocaust 's sentimental Shoah. C laude Lan zmann's film, in fact,

simultaneously refus e s all historical images and any fictiona lization of history. He s t r ives to render the p a s t present only i n the speech of the s urvivors b e fore the s i lence of the sites 01 extermination. He thereby claims to have avoide d two forms of trivialization: that of the fiction which effaces the extermination b y rendering bodies present; and t h at of the historical document which fi n d s reasons that place it within a more extensive chain o f causes and effects . The good representation of the extermination therefore w o u l d b e one that sepa rate s o u t the horror of the crime from every image t hat brings it closer to our s e n sibility, from every explanation that provides it with a reason makes i t acceptable t o o u r i n telligenc e . It would b e the repre s entation of the unrepresentabl e . But the following question immedi ately a ri s e s : what does the goodness of this repres entation con sist in? An oft-repeated saying p rovid e s a prompt respons e : those who ignore their past a r e d o o m e d to relive i t . It i s therefore necessary, we are told, to observe a 'duty of memory' and t o examine the past closely to pre vent its recurrence. B ut what a r e we to understand by this exactly? The expression c a n mean two thing s : fi rst, that the horror must b e shown in its sensory r e a l ity s o as to induce the feeling of the i ntolerable that brings us to repel the i d e a s t h a t spawned the horror; or else that we must show how these i d e a s themselves were spawned s o t h at o u r knowledge of the process in t u r n spawns the means to prevent it s repro duction . O nly, the purism of the g o o d representation renders both t hese

139

C H RONICLES OF CONSENSUAL T I M E S

d e d u l t io n s n u l l a n d voi d . To p u t b o d i e s s u f fe r i n g t h e i n tolerable i n t o i m a ges a l s o m ea n s o f fe r i n g t h e m u p to s e n t i m e n t a l com m i s e r a t i o n o r p e rverse voye u r i s m . T o p r e s e n t t h e r e a s o n s for t h e e x te r m i n a t i o n i s t o p re s e n t i t w i t h a j u st i fi c a t io n . The h o r r o r o f t h e e x te r m i n a t i o n m ll s t re m a i n w i t h o u t a n y c a u s e o t h e r t h a n t h e m o n s t ro s i t y o f i t s p ro p e r p ro j ect . B u t t h e n no e f fe ct is to be e x p ec t e d f ro m k nowledge of t h e pa s t . T h e p o l i t ics o f m e m o r y i s s e l f - c o n t r a d i c to ry. A n d t h e good represe n t a t i o n is n o more certa i n of i t s e f fe c t t h a n t h e b a d o n e . Here w e come t o t h e botto m o f t h e m a l le r . T h e o p p o s i t i o n b e t w e e n good a n d bad ways o f repre s e n t i n g h i st o r y con fou nds t wo probl e m s . O n t h e o n e h a n d , i t d e fi ne s n o r m s o f a c c e p t a b i l ity. So i t p ro t e s t s a ga i n s t repres e n t a t i o n s t h a t t ra n s fo r m c r i m i n a l s i n to m e n l i k e o t h e r s . I t s u p p oses t h at w e a re l e s s s e n s i t i ve t o H i t l e ri a n ba rba r i s m if w e s e e t h e d i c t a t o r m oved by h i s d o g o r d i sp l a y i n g a f fe c t i o n towa r d s h i s s e c re t a ry.
B u t i t J l so s t rives to t u r n t h e s e n or m s of a c c e p t a b i l i t y i n t o p r i n c i p l e s of

u t i l i t y. Now, why wou l d In i m age o f H i t l e r pa l l i ng his d o g o r his s e c r e t My be l1I ore u s e f u l t o t h e c a u s e o f c o m ba t i n g N a zism? Why wo u l d t h e represent a t ion o f t h e e x t e r m i n a t i o n a s a d i se m b o d i e d m e c h a n i cs b e m ore approp r i a t e t o fee d i n g h a t red of a n t i - S e m i t i s m t h a n t h a t o f t h e su ffe r i ng o f t he v i ct i m s o r t h e i n n e r s t a t e s o f t h e e x e c u t i o n e r s ? W e ca n a l ways fi n d some c r i t e r i a to s a y t h a t than

Shoah i s a more appro p r i a t e way Holocaust to t r a n s m it t h e m o n st r o s i t y o f t h e genocide a n d to respect

the memory of its v i c t i m s . D e d u c i n g f r o m t h i s t he i r respect ive a b i l i t i e s to pro h i b i t e q u i v a l e n t fo r m s o f m o n s t r o s i t y i n f u t u re i s a n a ltogether d i f ferent thing. B et w e e n t h e g o o d way o f s p e a k i n g a b o u t t h e p a s t hor ro r and the u s e f u l way of preve n t i n g t h e horror in t h e f u t u r e there i s n o n e cess a r y l i n k . Th i s p i o u s way of t h i n k i ng , w h i c h a i m s to use its k now l e dge of the past to g u a ra nt e e t h e f u t u re, s t i l l c l i n g s p e r h a p s t o t h e ti mes of p r i n c e s a n d o f t h e i r a d v i s e r s who wou l d t e a c h t h e m t h e e x a mples to follow in order to gove r n p e oples and win b a t t l e s .

140

CHAPTER TH I RTY- FOUR

D e m o c ra cy a n d Its Doctors, May 2005

Unrest hit the F rench a n d E u ro p e a n governmental staff a fter several polls showed that the French might vote 'no' i n the referendum to rat ify the European C onstitution . How is such a thing poss ible, it was asked, when both the conservative government a nd the socialist oppo sition called to vote 'yes ' ? This i s because, came the response, the French have not u nderst o o d . They want to express their discontent ment with the i r government, i n forgetting that they are not being asked for their opinion about this govern ment but about a treaty t h at binds 2 5 E uropean state s . But i f they d o not understand the que stion b eing asked, this i s no d o u b t due to the effect of a dis contentment, t h e discon tentment of a nation me l ancholically contemplating its irreversible decline. ]) 0 the French feel worse today than they did 10 or 2 0 years ago? The question is difficult to a n s wer. And it is perhaps not necessa ry. For the diag nostic, in a ny case, precedes the disorder. There are no surprising or disappointing electora l results that do not immediately give rise to this ready expla n ation : p eople did not vote a s they should have because they did not understand the choice they had been presente d . They did not understa n d this choice b e cause they are su ffering a d i sorder. And the discontentment that they feel is because they b elong to economic groups, socia I classes or national states that are in decline. So, more than the supposed disorder of the ill, what merits our atten tion is what is expressed by the reasoning of its doctors - this medical i z ation of opinion, this i nterpretation of every vote that does not con form to the official expectations a s an expression of a pathologica l state. If an 141

C HRONICLES OF CONSENSUAL T I M E S

l' l ec t or a l b o d y i s a s ked t h e question of w h e t h e r i t is f o r o r aga i n s t a m e a s 1I [t'

p roposed by i t s govern m en t , t h e n t h e propos it ion must a c t u a l l y

i n c lude t h e possibi l i t y of a negative respon s e . Th i s is w h a t , t h e y say, d i s t i ngu i s h e s ou r democratic cou n t r i e s f r o m t h o s e i n w h i c h govern ments a re u n p ert u rb e d l y l'lected by a l i t t l e l e s s , o r even a l i t t l e more than 1 0 0 per cent o f t h e ele cto r s . S o why i s t h e re s o m u c h s u rp r i s e a n d desolat i o n w il e n t h e free, u n p red i c t a ble c h o i c e i nc l u d e d i n t h e righ t s g r a n t ed t o c i t i z e n s i s a c t u a l l y t ra n s lated i n a c t o r t h re a t e n s t o be a s a n u n foreseen r e s p o n se? What is the m e a n i ng o f t h i s s t ra nge struct u re whereby t he free choice a ccorded to popu l a r su ffrage a c t u a l l y t u r n s out to be a test of its a b i l i t y to d i s cern t h e correct response a nd o f t h e s t a t e of health wh ich e n J b les it to do so o r prevents it from d o i n g so? H e a p i n g doubt on t h e va l id it y of popu l a r d e c i s i on d i d not b e g i n y e s t e rday. What i s new t o d a y i s t h a t i t i s d e c r i e d b y t h o s e who e x u l t i t s p r i n c i p l e . For a long w h i le , s u c h conde m n a t i o n was l e ft to t h e 'el i t e s ', who bemoa n e d t h e fa c t t h a t t h e c h o i c e o f gove rn ment wa s l e f t to t h e m e rc y of t h e ' ra bb l e ' . Th e n , t h e M a r x i s t s c a m e a l ong, d e n o u n c i ng t h e i l l u sion of form a l d e m o c r a c y concea l i ng b e h i n d i t a rea l i t y of c l a s s s t ruggle a n d d o m i n a t i o n . To d a y, i t i s t h e gove r n m e n t s of s o - c a l led d e l110cra t i c reg i mes who fi n d t h i s p r i n c i p l e d i s q u ie t i n g . They c l a i m t o b e repres e n t a t i ve of the free c h o i c e of t h e i r fel low c i t i z e n s . B u t t h e y i m m e d i a t e l y b e m o a n t h e f a c t t h a t t h e i r p r o p o s e d m e a s u res a re a l s o at the mercy o f t h i s free c h o i c e . F o r t h e s e m ea s u res, accord i n g to them , a re n o t t h e preserves o f free c h o ice but of t h e necessity o f t h i ngs . I f the electoral test doubles up a s a t e s t of inte l l igence a nd of the hea lth of the e l e c t o r a l body, t h i s is because we l ive u nder t h e regime of a twofo l d legitimacy. O u r govern ments base their authority on two opp o s e d systems o f reasons: on t h e o n e hand, it i s b a s e d o n t h e v i r t u e of popul a r decision; o n t h e other, on t h e a b i l i t y t h at is t h e i r s , a n d which the p e ople who chose them a re in pri nciple m issing: an a b i lity to choose the good solution s that will solve societa l proble m s . O n l y, these good solutions c a n b e r e c o g n i z e d b y the fact that t h e y didn't have to be chosen but rat h e r follow from a knowledge of t h e objective stale of t h i ngs, which i s a matter for e x p e r t knowledge, not for free choice . The virtue o f gove rnments, which distinguishes them from t h e people t h at choose them, i s that they k now how to d istinguish b etween what c a n be chosen - t h a t i s , themselves - a n d what c a n not be: t he state of things a n d the solutions that they propose to bring to it. 142

DEMOCRACY AND ITS DOCTORS

There was a time when harmony between the expert knowledge that legitimates the action of governments a nd the free popular choice that legitimates their exis tence was presupposed. Today these two prin ciples tend to d i ssociate themselves, albeit without being able to divorce. And it is to fill up this gap that the electoral process adopts this strange aspect of being a pedagogical test and a therapeutic process. On the one hand, this process increasingly resembles the e xercises of school maieutics, in which the schoolmaster who knows the right response pretends not to know it a nd to be leaving it to the i nitiative of the students to fi nd it out. But in pedagogical rationale the master wins every time: he demons trates either the excellence of the students educated by his method or their i nability to find the right response without him. For our governors the exercise is more perilo us. It is the inability of their students which establishes their competence but this inability first risks working against them. So the pedagogical exercise is transformed into the crude psychoana lysis of the sick social body. Hence the importance of these exercises of simulation called polls a nd of t he enormous work of interpretation that governments, experts and journalists expend in their regard to show to the sovereign people that it is merely a sick population if it believes it can really choose, and consequently adopt. the suicidal position involved in refusing reality. The electoral process is then transformed into a psy choanalytic cure in which the population i s enjoined to fear itself at it moves closer to the edge of the abyss of negation and by this means to regain its mental equilibrium. The E u ropean referendum has brought this logic out into broad day light. Those who want to conj u re away the risks of a negative popular suffrage essentially employ two arguments. First. that this E uropean Constitution does not change anything that was not already there. All the clauses that provoke the cries of its opponents, decrying E urope's 'liberal' drift, were already effective in the extant framework. So it is vain to protest against it today. Second, that there is no 'alternative solution'. Those with twisted minds might respond that the t wo a rgu ments contradict one another: if everything is similar to what was before, there i s no need for an alter native solution and perhaps no need of a new Constitution . But to respond in this way they would denounce themselves as twisted, as negative souls. For the argument is simply that they must say yes to what is, since if they do not say yes to what is, they
143

C H RONICLES OF CONSENSUAL TI M E S

say y e s t o i t s con t ra ry, n a m e l y n ot h i n g n e s s . T h e a rg u m e n t is t h a t t h e y

m us t b e a lfi r m a t ive a nd n o t n e g a t ive . T h i s , i n fa c t , i s t h e o n l y way to make both p r i n c i p l e s o f l e g it i m a c y co i n c i d e : t h e e x p e r t k n owledge w h i c h i d e n t i fi e s t h a t w h i c h i s a n d s e t s t h e m e a n s t o a d apt t o i t , a n d t h e popu la r vote w h i c h i s pro c l a i m e d sov ereign ove r t h e c h oice of its gove r n o r s b u t i s u n a b l e t o b e over the d e t e r m i n a t i o n of t h e rea l i t y w h i c h for m s t h e s u bj e c t of t h e i r gove rn m e n t . H e re i n resides t h e s t a ke s of a con s t i t u t i o n of s u p ra n a t i o n a l s p a c e s l i k e E u ro p e : a bl u r r i n g of t h e r e l a t i o n b e t w e e n t h e sovereign people a n d t h e s pan' of s ove reig n t y. Th i n g s wou ld be s i m p l e i f at i s s u e wa s o n l y t o re place t h e s m a l l n a t i o n a l s t a t e s w i t h a l a rger o n e t h a t wou l d e n c o m p a ss t h e m . B u t t h i s is n o t w h a t is at s t a k e . T h e E u ropea n C o n s t i t u t i o n i s

n ot , i n fa c t , a C o n s t i t u t i o n . I t i s n o t t h e e m a n a t i o n o f a ny people a n d d o c s not fo u n d a n y s t a t e . B u t t h i s C o n s t i t u t io n w h i c h is not o n e d raws, by t h e sa m e t o k e n , a new m a p of t h e r e l a t i o n s b e t w e e n a sove re i g n

people a n d a c o m p e t c n t s t a t e . I t d i s t e n d s t h e r e l a t i o n b e t we e n t h e s y m

b o l i c s p a c e i n wh ich sov e re i g n t y o f t h e fi rs t a n d t he m a t e r i a l space i n

w h ich s t a t e a n d i n t e r s t a t e c o m p e t e n ce i s e xe r c i s e d . I t completes t h e e f fort o f ou r s t a t e s t o i n s t i t u t e t h e s p a c e o f a coe x i stence free o f con f u s i o n between t h e l eg i t i m a c y of p o p u l a r s u ffrage a n d t h a t of e x p e r t k nowl edge . Here is i n fact t h e bottom of the probl e m . It d o e s n o t concern t h e i l l b e i n g of s u ch - a nd - s uc h a p e ople o r s u c h - a n d - s u c h a g r o u p . I t conce r n s t h e rel a t i o n between p a rl i a m e n t a r y s t a t e s w i t h t h e p o p u l a r s u ffrage t h a t l e gitimates t h e m , t h e rela t i o n s of 'demo c r a c i e s ' with their own n a me .

144

N otes

CHAPTER TWO
I . Michel Foucault, The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human

Sciences, New York: Vintage B ooks, 1 9 94 ( French original, 1 96 6 ) .

CHAPTER THREE

Walter Benjamin, 'Theses on the Philosophy of History' in Illu minations, edited and with an introduction by Hannah Arendt, trans. Harry Zohn, New York: Shocken Books, 1 969, 2 5 3-64 ( German original, 1 9 5 5 ) . 2 . Alvin Toffler, Future Shock, New York: Bantam Books, 1 9 70.
I.

CHAPTER SIX
I.

E mile Zola, La Biite Humaine. translated with an introduction and notes by Roger Pearson. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1 996 ( French original, 1 8 9 0 ) .

CHAPTER SEVEN

Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment. ed. Gunzelin Schmid Nerr, trans. E dmund Jephcott, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2 0 0 2 ( German original, 1 947 ) . 2 . Friedrich von Schiller, L etters on the Aesthetic Education of Man, trans. Elizabeth M. Wilkinson and L.A. Willoughby, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1 96 7 ( German original, 1 79 5 ) .
I.

145

NOTES

CHA PTER EIG H T

I

C la u d e

Lev i - S trauss,

Tristes

Tropiques,

trans .

John

and

Doreen

Weightma n , New York : A t h e n e u m , 1 9 74 ( F rench o riginal. 1 9 5 5 ) .

2

C l a u d e Genou x , Memoires d 'un enfant de la Savoie: les carnets d 'un colporteur,

cd . Lu ciell C h a v o u t ier, Montmeli a n : la Fontai n e de Siloe, 2 00 1 .

CHA PTF R NINE

I

St C-pha n e C o u rt o i s ( ed . ) The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror,

Repression, tra n s . Jonathan M u rp h y and M a rk Kramer, C a mb ridge :

H a rvard U n i ve rs i t y Press, 1 9 9 9 ( F rench origi n a l ) .

A u t h or o f The Unknown Revolution, 1 9 1 7- 1 92 1 . New Yor k : Free Li fe

Ed i t ions, 1 9 74 ( French original. 1 947 ) .

CHA PTER ELE VFN

I

Roberto B e n i n gi 's fi lm wa s r e l e a s e d i n English as Life Is Beautiful. G e ra rd Waj cm a n , " ' S a i n t Pa u l ' G o d a rd c o n t re ' M oi'se ' Lanzma n n ? " ,

L e Monde, 3 D ecember 1 9 9 8 . , A 1 9 3 9 fi lm by J e a n R e n o i r, r e l e a s e d in E n glish a s The Rules of the Game

1 ( 950) .
CHA PTER TWELVE
I

J e an Baudrillard, The Gulf War Did Not Take Place, trans. Pau l Patton, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1 99 5 ( French original. 1 99 1 ) .

CHAPTER FIFTEEN
I.

Th i s title, Bruit de f ond, comes from the French translation of the n ovel by Don Delillo, White Noise, New Yor k : Penguin, 2 0 0 2 . Th ierry de D u v e , Voici, 1 00 ans d 'a rt contemporaine, Pa ris: Ludion/

2.

Flammarion, 2 0 0 0 .
CHAPTER SE VENTEEN
I

Jean-Jacques

Delfour,

' Loft

S t o ry ,

une

machine

totalitaire',

Le Monde, 1 9 May 2 00 1 .
2

'Pouvoirs e t strategi e s ' , i n t e rview with M i c h e l F o u c a u l t, Les Revoltes

logiques, no. 4, winter 1 9 77, p. 9 0 .

146

NOTES

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
L

The film was Hrst released in 2 00 1 , and was titled The Lady and the
Duke in English.

CHAPTER TWENTY
L

Pierre Hadot, La Ph ilosophy comme maniere de vivre, interviews with Jeannie Carlier and Arnold I. Davidson, Paris: Albin Michel, 2 00 1 ; Catherine Rambert, Petite Philosophie du matin, Paris: Le Grand Livre du mois, 2002; Roger-Pol D roit, 101 Experiments in the Philosophy of Every day Life, trans. Steven Romer, London: Faber & Faber, 2002; Michel Onfray, Antimanuel de philosoph ie, Paris: Breal, 2 00 1 ; Alain de Botton, The Consolations of Philosophy, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2000 .

CHAPTER TWENTY- THREE

L

The original French text is: Je suis tombe par terre, C 'est la fau te a Voltaire Le nez dans Ie ruisseau, C' est la faute a Rousseau !

CHAPTER TWENTY-FO UR
L

In question is the quarrel provoked by Daniel lindenberg's work Les

Nouveaux Reactionnaires.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Translator's note : This is my attempt at translating the well-known French song 'J' ai fa memoire q u i flanche' . . . 2 . Robert Redeker, 'Les n eopacifistes en guerre . . . contre la paix', Le Monde, 2 6 March 2 0 0 3.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
L

A still more striking illustration has since been provided by the case of Teri Schiavo, in which we saw the American C ongress, in a full period of tax cuts and welfare system reform, sit as a matter of utmost urgency on a holiday weekend and vote in a law of exception to order the reconnection of an artificial feeding tube.
147

NOTES CHA PTER TWENTY-NINE

I

Jean - C laude Milner. Les Penchants criminels de l 'Europe democratique [The C riminal Ten d e n cies of D e mocratic E u rope ] , Paris: E ditions Verdier, 2 00 3 .

CHA PTER THIR TY

I

Michel Foucault, History of Sexuality, Volume 1 : A n Introduction, tra n s . Robert H u rley, Harmondswort h : Penguin books, 1 97 8 ( French original, 1 9 7 6 ) . David M . Halperin, Saint Foucault: Toward a Gay Hagiography, New York: Oxford University Press, 1 99 5 . Michel Foucault, The Essential Works of Michel Foucault 1 954-84 ( i n 4 volumes ) , edited by Robert H u rley, J a m e s D . Faubion and Pa ul Rabin ow, New York : The New Press, 2 00 0-2 0 0 6 . Michel Foucault, The Use of Pleasu re: The History of Sexuality, Volume 2 , tra n s . Robert H u rley, H a rmondsworth: Penguin books, 1 9 92 ( French origi n a l , 1 984) and Care of the Self" The History of Sexuality, Volume 3, tra n s . Robert H u rely, H a rm o ndsworth : Penguin books, 1 9 90 ( French original, 1 9 84) .

CHA PTER THIR T Y- TWO

I

Nicolas Bou rriaud, Esthetique relationnelle, D ij on : Les Presses du reeL 1 99 8 .

148

Ind ex

abstract painting 1 3 4, 1 3 5 Ackerman, C hantal 5 8 Adorno, Theodor 24, 2 5, 2 6 , 2 7, 40 aerial-strike war 47 Agamben, Giorgio 1 2 2 , 1 2 4, 1 2 5 Algerian demonstration in Paris 3 4 Algerian insurrection 6 6 America I Africa encounter 2 9 American expressionism 3 8 American government conflict with 'old Europe' I I I American hegemony 7 7 American liberal revolution 1 2 2 anti-authoritarian movement 1 2 4, 1 2 6 anti-imperialist mobilizations ( 1 960s-70s) 8 4 anti- Semitism 4, 6 , 1 4 0 anti-terrorist war, US-launched 74 apocalypse 1 6 , 1 9 Arendt, Hannah 5 2 Aristotle 1 2 , 1 9, 5 3 art 40-3, 49, 5 2 , 5 7- 6 1 , 8 9, 9 5, 9 8 , 1 0 0 -5, 1 33 - 6 authenticity o f 2 6 -7

cinematographic 2 1 crisis of 3 6-9 of governing 2 1 art-archive, art-school 5 9 art o f living, philosophy as 7 9 A u - dela d u spectacle 5 8 , 5 9 paintings, contrasted with media images 5 9 Auschwitz 40, 6 2 , 65, 1 3 8 allied troops, sixtieth anniversary of 1 3 7 Aussares ( G eneral) 6 6 autobiography 1 0 5 autonomy 9 8 Barney, Matthew 97, 9 8 , 9 9, 100 Baudrillard, Jean 3 6 , 3 8 Beethoven 1 1 8 Benigni, Roberto 40 Benjamin, Walter 1 0, 2 4, 9 6 , 102, 103 Beuys, Joseph 3 6 , 6 0 , 1 02 Biennale of Sao Paolo 1 3 3 , 1 3 4 bill, innocence and rights of victims 49 photos of victims 49 Bin Laden 78, 82
149

I N DEX

C h ristia n 5 8 , 60, 9 6 , 104 H o ro ro v i l lage, topography 3 0 H O'iIl i J li S 4 6 \{ o " n i a n wa r 4, 5 dt'/i, C!o recog n ition, B o s n i J He rzegov i n J 4 (iL' mocracy 6 donos/ethnos 6 e t h n ic clea n s i ng 5 gl'Opolitica l ration J l ity of powers 5 J J pJ n in west 6 f3,1\diIl8 for Columbine 1 1 5 B raIiI, cou ntry of sociology 2 9, 30, 3 1 B resson, Ca rtier 52 B n)()dthaers, M a rcel 60, 1 0 2 f3 ruit d e fond 5 8 , 5 9 B liSh, George 74, 84, 1 0 6, 1 1 4
B o l t a ll s k i ,

contempor a ry a rt 3 6, 5 8 , 5 9, 1 04, 1 3 3, 1 3 4 contempora ry capitalism 1 0 0 contemporary music 3 9, 9 8 contestatory a rt 37 con t i n gent gove r n ment 1 2 2 , 1 2 3 'control society ' 6 8 cor r uption 5 3, 5 5, 5 6 cou nter-revolution 54, 70, 7 3 Crash 2 0 , 2 1 cratylism 1 3 4 Cratylus 1 3 4 Cremaster cycle 9 7, 9 8 , 1 0 0 C ronenberg, David 20, 2 3 C r usoe, Robinson 3 1 dadaism 9 7 Dagen, Phi l ippe 3 6 D a m ie n H i rst instal lation 39, 1 0 1 'dead o r a l ive ' principle 8 2 Debord, Guy 5 8 d e D uve, Thierry 5 9 d e Gaulle ( General ) 3 3 , 8 7 Delillo, Don 5 8 Demes 6 democracy 5 , 6 , 16, 36, 55, 5 6 , 6 5 , 7 5 , 8 3 , 1 0 7, 1 1 1 , 1 2 0, 1 22 , 142 liberal 94, 1 2 1 real again s t formal 1 2 1 socia l 8 3 D ialectik der A ufkliirung? 2 4 dictatorship 38, 5 4, 1 0 7, 1 0 8 Didi-Huberman, G eorges 96
D ie Heilige Johanne der Schliichthofe

Cahiers du cinema 1 02 C a l le, Sophie 1 04 capitJl ism, contempora ry 1 0 0 catast rophe fi l m s 1 8 'C auchem a r de George V ' 1 3 3 Christ mort soutenu par les an8es 6 0 'CJair d e l u ne: Beet hoven 1 1 8 C lare, Jean 3 6 C l isthenes 6 communism 8, 3 3 , 7 5 , 8 5 , 9 3 , 102, 1 2 1 Communist Manifeste 1 02 C omte, A u g uste 2 9, 3 0 C ondorcet, writings of 2 5 consensus I , 3 , 3 8 , 4 6 , 6 8 , 74, 86, 9 1 , I l l , 1 3 6 The Consolations of Philosophy 78, 79 constructivist modernism 1 3 4
150

( play) 1 1 5
Dits et E erits 1 2 4, 1 2 5 Dogville 1 1 5

D oisneaus 5 2 Dostoyevsky 1 1 6

IN D EX

The Downf all 1 37, 1 38 Durkheim, E mile 2 9, 3 0

E astwood, Clint 1 1 7, 1 1 8 ' Elections, idiot trap' (slogan by de Gaulle) 8 7 Elephant 1 1 5, 1 17 Elliot, Grace 7 1 Eloge de l 'amour 7 3 emancipation 9 , 2 4 , 2 5, 2 6 , 2 7, 65, 9 9, 1 2 8 'epic theatre' 1 1 5 E picurus 7 9 equivalence, principle o f 2 9 equality 3 , 1 8 , 3 1 , 94 - 5, 9 7, 1 3 7 inequality 3, 2 3 Esprit 3 6 ethical identity, litestyle and values 8 4 ethico-police symbolization 8 5 ethnic cleansing 5 , 5 1 ethnic conflicts in European East 7 5 ethnicism 4 5 ' Ethos' 8 4 European Constitution 1 4 1 , 1 4 3 , 144 European referendum , logic of 143 E vans, Walker 1 03 , 1 1 6 evil and violence 1 14
101 Experiments in the Philosophy of
e 80 Everyday Lif expert knowledge 1 4 2 , 1 4 3 , 1 4 4 extraterrestrials 1 6, 1 8

fetishism 2 7 fiction and reality 8 1 Fin de siecle scepticism 8 Finkelstein, Norman 6 2 , 64, 6 5 Flaubert 1 5, 3 8 , 9 5 , 1 0 3 , 1 0 4 Flaubertian idea of absolute work 1 0 4 Foucault, Michel 4 , 6 8 , 1 2 4 Francisco, Rene 1 3 5 French Revolution 1 0 , 1 7, 2 2 , 70, 7 9, 1 2 2 French strikes ( 1 9 9 5 ) 3 ' Freudianism' 1 1 7 Fukuyama, Francis 7 5 fundamentalism 7, 7 5 , 8 3 Furet, Francois 70, 1 2 2 Gassings 6 2 , 63 Gaullist Republic 33 General Aussares (Algerian war) 66 General de Gaulle 33, 87 genocidal undertaking 4 5 genocide 4 5 , 5 1 , 6 2 , 6 5 , 6 8 , 8 5 , 1 2 1 , 1 2 2 , 140 genocide, Jewish 65 Genoux, C laude 28, 2 9, 30, 39 German Romanticism 3 7 Godard, Jean-Luc 40, 4 1 , 43, 60, 73, 1 0 2 Goebbels (Mrs. ) 1 38 Goldin, Nan 1 0 5 government candidates 8 9 governments, authority of action and existence 1 4 2 virtue of popular decision / ability to chose 142 governors vs. governed 3 Gramsci 2 4 Great D epression 1 16
151

fanaticism 1 1 3 Fanon, Frantz 1 14 Feldmann, Hans-Peter 5 8 Festival o f Cannes 70, 1 1 6

I N DEX

The G reat Dictator 42, 4 3

G re e n berg, C l ement 6 0 G roups of I n fo r m a t ion o n
Prisons 1 2 7 Gua n t a n a m o B a y, p r i s o n e r s o f 8 5

i n d i v i d u a l i s m 55, 94, 9 9, 1 0 0,

1 02 , 1 0 3, 1 2 2
' i n fi n it e j u st i c e ' 82, 8 3, 85, 1 0 9 I ra q c a m p a i g n 1 1 0, 1 1 3 I s ra e l i - A ra b wa r 65 J e f fe r s o n , T h o m a s 9 4

G u l f wa r 1 8, 44 H a i ns, Raymond 60 H alperi n D a v i d 1 2 4

,

J i h a d 74 jospin, Lionel 8

H a rri s , E ric 4 8 H e a r t fiel d , J o h n 5 9 H i l l , David O c t a v i u s 1 0 3

Jo urnal d 'u n e f emme de chambre 1 0 4 Jules et Jim 1 0 6

j u r i d i c o - p o l itica l c o m m u n it y 84,

His/oire(s) d u

Cinema 4 1 , 60, 1 02

h i storical evol u t i o n , l i n ea r
conce p t i o n of 76

86, 1 2 1
K a n t a n d t h e E n l ig h t e n m e n t 5 3

H i t l e r 42, 47, 'i l , 5 9, l 2 1 , 1 37, 1 3 8, 1 4 0 ' H i t leri s m ' 4 7 H i tl e r i t e F ra nce, t h reat o f 9 1 Hobb e s i a n t h e o r y 9 0 Holocaust 62, 1 3 8, 1 39, 1 4 0 Holocaust i n d u s t r y 6 4 Horkhci mer, M a x 2 4, 2 5, 2 6 , 2 7, 40 H ugo, Victor 9 2 , 93, 94, 9 5, 9 6 , 1 37 ' h u m a n i t a r i a n ' 46, 5 1 , 8 4 m i l i t a r y a nd a s s i stential 4 6 ta rgets, i l l -identi fi e d 4 6 huma n it a r i a n wa r 4 5, 46, 47, 84 h u m a n i t y 2 1 , 22, 2 7, 2 9, 45, 47, 5 1 , 9 9, 1 1 6 and a n t i - h um a n it y 4 5 h u m a n rights 2 4 , 4 6, 9 4 , 1 2 2 h y perrea l i s t photogr a p h s 60
' i mage rights: p olemics o n 49 i m p e r i a l i s m 74

'Kant with Sade ' 2 2

K e l l e y, M i ke 1 0 5 K le b o l d , D y l a n 4 8 K o sova r 4 5 , 46, 5 1 Kosovo wa r 45, 47, 5 0

Krisis 3 6
L a c a n , Jacques 1 2, 1 3, 2 2 Lanzm a n n , C laude 40, 4 1 , 42, 1 39

L 'A nglaise et Ie Duc 70 La Societe du spectacle 5 8

L a vier, B ertrand 5 8 , 1 0 1

L a vita e bella 40, 4 1 L a Volo n te de savoir 1 24, 1 2 6, 1 2 7

law in t e r m s of rights 8 3

L e Debat ( j ou rnal o f hard line

l i b e r a lism) 3 6

L e Fab u leux Destin d 'A m elie Poula in 8 1

legal indeterminacy 85

Le Mon de ( d aily newspap er) 4 0,

6 7, 1 08, 1 2 9
L e n i n 2 4, 3 3 Leone, S ergio 1 1 7, 1 1 8

Independence Day 1 6, 1 8
i nd ignation 6 6 , 6 7, 1 2 9, 1 3 0

152

IN DEX

Le Pen 9 0
Les Miserables 9 2 , 9 3 , 9 4 , 9 5 , 9 6 ,

1 37 Gavroche's song 9 3 L es Mots e t les Choses 4 Le Souci de soi 1 2 7

Les Penchants criminels de l 'Europe democra tique 1 2 0

Maupassant 38 McDonalds chain, farmers against 5 0 'mecanomorphic' paintings ( P icabia) 98, 99 Mekas, Jonas 5 8
Memoires d 'un enf ant de la Savoie 2 8 Merleau-Ponty 39 Messager, Annette 1 0 5 Michaud, Yves 36, 38, 39 Michelet 93 Milner, Jean- Claude 1 2 0, 1 2 2 minimalist sculptures 6 0 Mitterand, Fran<;ois 8 modernism constructivist 1 34 Manet's 5 9 Mondrian 1 3 4, 1 35 Montaigne 7 9 Montana University 3 0 Moore, Michael 1 I 5, 1 1 7 Moretti, Nanni 1 0 5 Morozov, Pavel 5 4 Motti, Gianni 1 3 5 Mou ron rouge, stories of 7 0 music, contemporary 38, 3 9, 9 8 Mystic River 1 1 6 and 'humanism' I I 5

Levine, Sherry 1 0 3 Levi- Strauss, C laude 2 8 , 2 9, 3 0 Lewinsky, Monika 5 6 liberal democracy 94, 1 2 1 'liberals' 7 Liberation (daily newspaper) 3 6 liberty 1 0 7 political liberty 1 0 8 Livre noir d u communisme 3 3 Loft Story ( French reality T V programme) 6 6 , 6 7 Luis Borges, Jorge 4 L ' Usage des plaisirs 1 2 7 Macqueen, Steve 9 6 Malevitch 43, 1 3 4, 1 3 5 Mallarme 5 7, 1 0 3 , 1 0 5 Malraux's imaginary Museum 1 0 2 Manet 6 0 Marxism 8, 1 2 , 1 4 , 2 4 , 2 6 , 2 7, 92, 1 2 5 Marxist 1 2 , 6 5 , 1 2 6 , 142 A merican Jewish 64 anti- 93 critique 2 5, 2 6 , 27 identification, scientific theory and practice of emancipation 2 5 literature 1 3 socialism 1 35 theory 24

Nambikwara, death of 3 1 narcissism 5 9, 69, 1 0 0 NATO 45, 47 Nazi genocide 6 5 , 85, 1 2 1 , 1 2 2 Nazism/Nazi 33, 37, 40, 4 2 , 5 0 , 5 9, 6 3 , 65, 67, 85, 1 2 0 , 1 2 1 , 1 2 2 , 1 37, 1 3 8, 1 39, 1 4 0 negationism 14, 6 2 , 63, 6 4 neo - Gothic 9 7 neo - liberal politics 26
153

I NDEX New Wave fi l m m a kers 7 3

N ie l lscile 2 5, 7 9, 1 0 0 p o r no - fi c t i o n 2 0, 2 2 p o r n o g raphy 2 3 p o s t m o d e r n socio l o g y 1 4 p o s t-Rega n America I I I p o s t-Thatcherite E ng l a n d I I I p r i n c i p l e o f n o n - i n ference 8 4 ' p rotest ' / ' protestors ' 8 9 ' P u zzle Polis I I ' 1 33

Nillfil modenza 9 6
n o n - i n ference, p r i nciple o f 8 4 ' I1 on - m a n i c h e i s m ' 1 1 5

N ()v i c k , Pe t e r 6 2 , 6 5

Objet du SU:c1e

40

Ono: upon a time in America 1 1 7 O p era t i o n Iraqi Freedom 1 0 7

p a i n ted i m age, power o f 3 9
P a p o n , M a u rice 3 2 , 3 3 , 3 4, 3 5 t r i a l a nd verd ict 32 Pa r i s i a n i n t e l lectu a l s 9 7

r a c i st a n d xenophobic right 7 5 , 88 R a m bert, C h ri s t i ne 8 0 R a s s i n i e r, Pa u l 6 3 Reaga n , R o n a l d 3 rea l is t s / re a l i s m 8, 9, 1 0, 1 1 , 6 8 , 73, 75, 9 7

p a storal govern m e n t 1 2 2 , 1 2 3
Pau l ( Sa i n t ) 43, 60

Rez'chsbahn 4 2
' relation a l a r t' 1 35

Paysan de Paris 9 5
p eace agre e m e n t for ex-Yugosla v i a 4 p eople v i i i , 1 - 6 , 9 - 1 0, 1 4 , 1 7- 1 8 , 2 1 , 3 0 -3, 4 6 , 5 2 - 3 , 5 5 , 70-3, 9 3 , 9 5 , 1 0 3 , 1 0 7- 1 0, 1 1 6 , 1 2 2 , 1 3 7-4 5 a s demos 6 , 4 5 a s ethnos 6, 4 6 p essimism 8 0 Schopen h a u erian 2 5 Petai n , Marsh a l l 3 2

Republic 1 2 2
Republ i c a n idea l i s m 94 Republica n politics 37 Republ i c a n v i rtue 55 Republic o f G enera l d e Gau lle 33 'republic o f judge s ' 5 3 revolution American liberal 1 2 2 ' b o u rgeois 1 02 'counter-revolution' 7 3 fi l m 7 0 French 1 0, 1 7, 2 2 , 7 9, 1 2 2 i n formation 1 0 1 , 1 02 literary 1 0 3 p ostmodern 1 0 3 Rossellinian 7 3 technical 1 0 2 ' r ight o f humanitarian inte rference ' 8 4 R ights o f M a n 1 2 2 ' r ight to disobedience' 34

Petite Philosophie d u matin 7 8 , 8 0

photography 3 7, 5 1 , 9 5 , 1 0 3 P icabia exh ibition 9 7 Plato 2 , 3 5 , 7 9 , 1 2 2 , 1 2 3 , 1 3 4 P latonic legislator 2 P l atonic utopia I p olitics, neo -liberal 2 6 popular suffrage 142, 143, 1 4 4 population viii, 1-2, 5-6, 1 2- 1 8, 3 1 , 3 5 , 46-7, 7 1 , 84, 1 07, 1 1 2-1 3

154

INDEX

'right to humanitarian interference' 1 0 7

Soviet empire, fall of 1 7, 65, 7 5 , 83 S t a l i n (istlism) 3 3 , 3 7, 54, 67 Stock E xchange 3

The Rock 1 8
Rohmer, E ric 7 0 , 7 1 , 7 2 , 7 3 Romanticism 1 0 2 German 3 7 via symbolism 3 7 RosIer, Martha 5 9 Rossellinian realism/ revolution 7 3 Rousseauism
=

Strike 1 1 8
submission, mechanism of 9 0 surrealists 3 0 , 9 5 , 1 0 3 technocratism 1 2 6 technological revolution, effect
=

glasshouse

of 1 0 2 terrorism 8 2 , 1 1 2 , 1 1 3 Third French Republic 3 1 t hreat, preventative protection against 1 1 3 Toffler, Alvin 1 1 totalitarianism 24, 5 5 , 6 8 , 6 9, 8 5 , 9 3 , 1 0 9, 1 2 2 denunciation of 1 2 1 Rousseauism
=

totalitarianism 5 4 Rousseau, J e a n - Jacques 52, 5 4, 93

Saint Foucault 1 2 4
S a i n t Paul 4 3 , 60

Salle des Martin ( e x h ibition )

101 Sa rtre, Jean-Paul 3 4 , 9 2 , 1 1 4, 124 S c h legel Brothers 1 0 3 S ch open hauer 2 5, 7 9, 8 0 , 8 1 second denunciation of S ov i e t crimes 85 Seneca 79 S eptember 1 1 7 5 S erbs 4 6 , 47 Sherman, C i ndy 1 0 5

glasshouse

totalitarianism 5 4 'soft totalitarianism' 5 4 , 6 7, 68, 75

Traite d e fa servitude volontaire 1 0 8

transparency 54, 5 6, 6 8

Tristes Tropiqu es 2 8 , 2 9, 3 1 Tudo e Brasil 1 3 4 f der Geschichte 1 0 Ober den Begrif Ober die dsthetische Erziehung des Menschen 27
U S - launched anti-terrorist war 74 U S policy of s upport 6 4 Va lj e a n , Jean 9 2 , 94 Van S a nt , Gus 1 1 8, 1 1 9 Vichi n sky 68 victim of absolute wron g / right 1 0 8

Shoah 4 0 , 4 1 , 1 3 9, 1 4 0
situationism 5 8 S o cialist Party 8 7 socialists 7, 9 3 sociology 1 4 , 2 9, 3 0 , 3 1 S o c rates 2 5 , 7 9, 8 0 , 8 1 'soft totalitarianism' 5 4 , 6 7, 6 8 , 75 sophists 4 4 Soviet crimes, s econd denunciation of 8 5

155

INDEX
Vietnam c h i ld ren b u r n t b y n a p a l m 6 2 Wa r 8 4 v i olence d o m e s t i c a t i c a t i o n of 1 1 4 s y m bol ic 3 s y m b o l i c s i g n i fi c a t i o n 1 18

Wa r a n d Peace 1 3 7
Wa r h o l , A nd y 3 6 , 6 0 Wei ss fa m i l y, t r a g i c desti ny of 1 3 9 We n d e r s , W i m 1 3 7 weste r n m e t a p h y s ics, H e i d egge r i a n c r i t i q u e of 2 5

of t e rror 1 7

Voila : L e lvlonde dans la tere

( e x h i b it i o n ) 5 7 Vo l l J i re 9 3
von von

White Square on a White Background 4 3

' Work o f t h e d i a le c t i c ' t h e o r i z a t i o n on 9 6 Xenophobia 12

S c h i l ler, F r i e d r i c h 2 7 T r i er, L a r s 1 1 7

Waj c m a n , Gera rd 4 0 , 4 1 , 4 3 Wa l l , J e f f 6 0 Zola, E m i le 2 1 , 9 3

156

taught at the University of Paris V I I I , France, from 1 9 69 to 2000, oc cupying the C hair of Aesthetics and Politics from 1 990 until his retirement.

, the translator of this volume, is the editor and tra nslator of Alain Badiou's Polem ics (Verso, 2006) and Jacques Ranciere's
Dissensus (Continuum, 20 1 0) .

J a cket i l l ustration : E http://www ,

r I r' la del
I

com/

continuum

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