Crises, conflicts and security -käsitteet

crisis

external and internal events that require governmental interventions. allows opportunities to practice things that would normally not be accepted.

conflict

a serious disagreement within a person or between groups. politics is expected to manage and resolve conflicts. without conflicts, there wouldn’t be politics.

security

the condition of being safe. the fundamental value of political life. defines government’s effectiveness and legitimacy.

political theology

carl schmitt: secularized politics has originally been religious, wanted to bring theology back to politics

what does Hans Blumenberg say about secularization?

the modern concepts of politics are based on theological principles

what does Karl Löwith say about secularization?

secularization transfers a concept from the religious to the worldly context, but the meaning and function remain same

what does Roberto Esposito say about secularization?

political theory is a bipolar structure. the primacy of politics is a semi-religious belief. highlighting of a non-political divinity as a political stance.

what happens when there is no religion in politics?

politics without religion become a new religion (totalitarianism where the leader is worshipped like a god)

what happens when there is no politics in religion?

religion without politics would enjoy enormous political power

profanation

Giorgio Agamben: the act of treating something holy with disrespect. any object can be used in every possible way.

the most ancient sense of crisis

legal and political decision on war and peace, life and death etc.

medical notion of crisis in ancient Greek

the critical turning point in a disease when a patient gets better or worse. the moment when intervention by doctor is needed.

religious notion of crisis

Judeo-Christianity: last judgment, apocalyptic revelation

concept of crisis in 17th century

metaphorical application of the medical notion of crisis to the body politic. the political system faces a moment of decision where it will recover or collapse entirely.

concept of crisis in the late 18th century

secularization of the religious notion.

Rosseau: anticipation of momentous transformation of the social order

French Revolution: crisis becomes synonymous with revolution and secularized, central concept of modernity

concept of crisis in mid 19th century

the concept of crisis is extended into the economic sphere

concept of crisis in 20th century

concept on crisis is expanded in philosophy, history, sociology and media

polycrisis

multiple global crises happening at the same time, making each other worse

metacrisis

the underlying root cause that causes the symptoms of global crises

crisis of crisis management

happens when the tools that handle emergencies fail to resolve a problem and instead make it worse

medical context of crisis (Foucault)

crisis is the moment the disease shows itself most intensively. to ensure a successful intervention, the doctor has to identify this moment correctly.

crisis is a state experienced by an individual and a tool that can cause recovery from that state.

truth (Foucault)

truth is not something waiting to be discovered by doctors. truth is produced through institutional practices and power relations. the truth of an illness (in psychiatry) is shaped by the authority of the observer.

crises of overproduction (Marx)

occurs when the economy produces more goods than consumers can buy. will lead to capitalism’s self-destruction.

mega-crisis

regular crises common in capitalism, will eventually produce a mega-crisis that destroys the capitalist system. delayed but inevitable.

crisis as the state of exception (Schmitt)

concept where a government uses a crisis to temporarily suspend regular laws which leads to extra power to protect the country.

only a sovereign can decide on the exception.

commissarial dictatorship

temporary self-suspension of the law to ensure public order. intention is to resolve a crisis.

sovereign dictatorship

suspension of law to create a new law. intention is to produce a crisis. origins in revolution.

the real state of exception (Agamben)

temporary suspensions of law tend to become permanent. exception becomes the normal and threatens democracy.

the real state of exception (Benjamin)

capitalism and the bourgeois society don’t use temporary suspensions of law as a temporary fix. permanent crisis is how the society runs.

the real state of exception is revolutionary, crisis that doesn’t need resolution.

the politics of crisis

crisis is the moment when the truth of society’s being is revealed in a way that it’s possible to respond to the threats it faces.

only an actor in a position of authority can identify a crisis and take proper action.

when does a conflict become political?

when it concerns the whole community, threatens its existence or demands action by its authorities.

stasis (Hobbes)

medicine and physics: balance

political history: violent civil war

politics as struggle (Machiavelli)

conflict never fully disappears in an established order.

managing conflict is essential to government.

stability of state is achieved through continuous conflict. politics is an arena where the ruler must struggle against internal rivals, external threats etc.

politics as pacification (Hobbes)

the sovereign minimizes conflict in society but is able to do so only by threat of force.

to escape constant conflict, individuals agree to a social contract: natural freedoms are given to an absolute sovereign authority in exchange of security and peace.

politics as pacification and struggle (Hegel)

struggle is the necessary process that eventually leads to universal pacification.

true freedom is achieved when an individual is an active participant in a rational state.

politics as struggle (Marx)

conflict is natural in economy and civil society. the capitalist state is an instrument of the ruling class used to oppress the working class.

the state uses laws, religion and political structures to pacify the working class while oppression continues. class struggle is the essence of the historical process.

only the working class’ revolution and the withering away of the state would eliminate conflict.

politics as struggle (Schmitt)

the political only exist when there is a group of people willing to identify another group as existential enemy. without the possibility of war, politics ceases to exist.

friend-enemy distinction

friends are who belong to one’s group. enemies are who threaten that group’s way of life.

real enemy (Schmitt)

opponent identified as legitimate. intention is to defeat not to destroy.

absolute enemy

illegitimate opponent that has no right to exist. intention is to destroy. fueled by an abstract, universal ideology (communism, absolute moralism etc.)

pluriverse

reality consisting of multiple, coexisting worlds, cultures and belief systems.

anarchism

all forms of governmental authority are unnecessary. society should be based on voluntary co-operation and self-governance. ei maailmanvaltiota.

depoliticization

action of causing something or someone to have no political connections.

however, depoliticization is a political act in the most intense way.

antagonism (Mouffe)

strong feeling of dislike, active hostility or opposition between people or groups. the opponent is viewed as an existential threat with no right to exist.

fundamental and ineradicable feature of human society.

conflict can never be fully eliminated because all social orders are built on power relations.

agonism (Mouffe)

conflict can unfold within a common framework. opponents are recognized as legitimate.

you fight the opponent group’s ideas, but their right to fight is also defended.

dissensus

a fundamental disagreement

the wrong

foundational lie of a society that claims to be whole while completely ignoring and excluding a specific group of people from having a voice.

political conflict begins when this group rises up to demand their equal right to exist.

radical form of inequality.

the police (Ranciere)

established social order that assigns everyone their specific place, role and value in society.

system of laws, institutions and norms that dictates who is allowed to speak and who remains invisible.

securitization (Buzan, Weaver, de Wilde)

performative speech act that transforms an issue into a security problem. the issue gets removed from normal politics and exceptional measures are allowed.

securitizing actor designates issue X as an existential threat to a referent object for a certain audience.

constative (Austin)

statement that can be judged as true or false

performative (Austin)

statement that performs an action by being spoken.

biopolitics (Foucault)

the ways in which modern governments regulate and control the lives of their populations. example: health, birth rates and survival.

immunity (Esposito)

a protective mechanism that preserves life and community from external threats, but does so by restricting and isolating life.

community swallows a controlled dose of its potential destruction to prevent a total collapse.

too much of immunity destroys the social bonds that make community useful.

katechon

religious concept that refers to a force or power that prevents the coming of Antichrist and therefore prevents the end of the world.

Schmitt’s brought it back into politics: a power (institution, state) that prevents a chaos or civil war from happening.

inevitable.

anomie

disorder

accelerationism

intentionally speeding up capitalist, technological and social processes to trigger a radical transformation of society.