tragicoptimist

0. The crisis deepens, accelerates, clutters the horizon and, at the same time, continually changes any frame of reference. It is now clear to all that, despite desperate attempts to reassure us by various actors of governance, exit strategies are nowhere to be found. The new element of the modern crisis is that it has lost its cyclical form and become permanent: in this transformation – as we have said many times before against the illusions of a political left unable to rethink its own reformist function – there are no linear Keynesian solutions. Permanent crisis certainly does not mean that the “fall” of capitalism is near: these are hypotheses better left to theologians of history. However, this doesn’t take away the fact that the crisis demonstrates capital’s clear incapacity to make the common, a common produced by the labor of the multitude, function. » Read more «

by Antonio Negri*

With this book, the journey Agamben began with Homo Sacer seems to have come to an end. It was a long road, from the early ‘90s until today, nearly twenty years. An archeology of ontology conducted (with a rigor that not even the bizarre and misleading game of little numbers put in order over different stages of his research could render opaque) – up to the reopening of the problem of Sein. A dig that not even Heidegger (in the words of the author who claims to be a young student of the German philosopher) was able to complete – because here ontology is freed from any remaining “operativity” of every illusion that can be tied to will and control. What is left? “The philosophical question that appears is that of conceiving of an ontology beyond operativity and command, and an ethics and a politics totally freed from the concepts of duty and will”. » Read more «

1. The fracture of European space. Everyone is looking for an exit strategy. The rhythm of transformations is accelerating and, at the same time, is breaking any linearity: financial governance looks more and more like a system of fragmented tools, attempts at stabilization that duly end up reaffirming the crisis’s constitutive turbulence. In this framework, the temptation to accept a simple cartographic role of the crisis, ignoring the complexities of the present, is quite strong. “Fragmentation” and “complexness” are indisputable facts of our present: the risk, however, is that these terms are transformed into a charmer’s mantra, both for theoretical practices and social struggles. The shrewdness of those who know how to navigate these dark waters must be combined – and not without a certain audaciousness – with an attempt to look further into the future, to identify the rupture lines where struggles live, to experiment with possible re-compositional tools, and to elaborate programmatic proposals.

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La prima volta che incontrai il Rotolo era arrivato a Parigi da poco. Avevo appena organizzato una gita collettiva con altri poveri poeti parigini per vedere la prima mondiale del film Sulla Strada di Walter Salles e una visita gratuita al Museo di lettere e manoscritti era compresa nel prezzo del biglietto, come parte della massiva campagna mediatica per l’uscita del film. Poiché avevo pensato che non avrei mai avuto l’occasione di vedere il Rotolo originale (appartiene ad un privato e può essere visto dal pubblico soltanto in una manciata di mostre sparse attraverso il globo a intervalli irregolari), ho corso verso la fermata della metropolitana più vicina con il mio ingresso libero e mi sono precipitato sulla rive gauche. » Read more «

I first saw saw the Scroll not long after it arrived in Paris. I had just organized a group outing with other poor Parisian poets to see the world premier of Walter Salles’ latest film, On the Road, and a visit to the Museum of Letters and Manuscripts was included in the price of the tickets as part of the massive advertising campaign for the film’s release. Having thought I would’ve never gotten the chance to see the actual Scroll (privately owned, it is only displayed in a handful of shows scattered across the globe at irregular intervals), I headed straight to the nearest métro with my free ticket in hand and rushed towards the Left Bank.

Situated on the once literary Boulevard Saint-Germain, just blocks from the once Beat Hotel, this obscure little museum has probably never seen so much fanfare in it’s life: relocated to this prestigious space only two years ago, the permanent collection does include important handwritten documents ranging from Eisenhower’s cease-fire order to Mozart’s original scores to ancient scrawls of king Henry IV. But none of these usual residents can compare to the wave of interest generated by the museum’s new temporary guest. The Scroll has been brought to France for the first time to promote the film’s opening at the Cannes Film Festival and the entire first floor of the museum has been dedicated to this event. » Read more «