A poor man and a pilgrim receive hospitality at a monastery, as depicted in a 13th-century Spanish manuscript.
A passage from Sergio Bettini’s book on L’arte alla fine del mondo antico [Art at the End of the Ancient World] describes a world that is difficult not to recognise as similar to the one we are living in. “The political functions are assumed by a state bureaucracy; the bureaucracy is accentuated and isolated (anticipating the Byzantine and medieval courts), while the masses become abstentionist (germ of the popular anonymity of the Middle Ages); however, within the state new social nuclei are formed around the various forms of activity (germ of the medieval corporations) and the latifundia, rendered autarchic, are a prelude to the organization of some of the great monasteries and of the feudal state itself.”
If the concentration of political functions in the hands of a state bureaucracy, the isolation of this with respect to the popular base and the growing abstentionism of the masses fit perfectly with our historical situation, it is enough to update the terms of the following lines to recognize something familiar here as well. To the large estates evoked by Bettini correspond today economic and social groups that act in an increasingly autarchic way, pursuing a logic completely detached from the interests of the collectivity, and to the social nuclei that are formed within the state correspond not only the lobbies that operate within the state bureaucracies, but also the incorporation into government functions of entire professional categories, as has happened in recent years with doctors. Bettini’s book dates from 1948. In 1971 Roberto Vacca’s book Il medioevo prossimo venturo [The Coming Middle Ages] was published, in which the author foresaw a catastrophic evolution of the most advanced countries, which would no longer be able to solve the problems linked to energy production and distribution, transport, water supply, waste disposal and information processing. If Vacca could write that the announcements of imminent catastrophes were so numerous in those years as to have produced a veritable “ruinographic” literature, today apocalyptic predictions, particularly those linked to climate, have at least doubled.
Although disasters – such as those caused by nuclear energy – are, if not probable, certainly possible, the degradation of the systems in which we live is thinkable without necessarily taking the form of a catastrophe. The political, economic and spiritual collapse of European countries, for example, is evident today, even if they continue to survive for some time to come. How then can we envisage the advent of a new Middle Ages? How can the political abstentionism that we see all around us be transformed into a “popular anonymity” capable of inventing new and anonymous forms of expression and life? And in what way can the isolation of state bureaucracies and the spread of autarchic potentates be a prelude to the emergence of phenomena similar to the great monasteries, in which the exodus of existing society produces new forms of community? It is certain that this can only happen if an initially small but growing number of individuals can read in the dissolving political forms the harbinger of new or older forms of life.
Giorgio Agamben: The coming middle ages
A passage from Sergio Bettini’s book on L’arte alla fine del mondo antico [Art at the End of the Ancient World] describes a world that is difficult not to recognise as similar to the one we are living in. “The political functions are assumed by a state bureaucracy; the bureaucracy is accentuated and isolated (anticipating the Byzantine and medieval courts), while the masses become abstentionist (germ of the popular anonymity of the Middle Ages); however, within the state new social nuclei are formed around the various forms of activity (germ of the medieval corporations) and the latifundia, rendered autarchic, are a prelude to the organization of some of the great monasteries and of the feudal state itself.”
If the concentration of political functions in the hands of a state bureaucracy, the isolation of this with respect to the popular base and the growing abstentionism of the masses fit perfectly with our historical situation, it is enough to update the terms of the following lines to recognize something familiar here as well. To the large estates evoked by Bettini correspond today economic and social groups that act in an increasingly autarchic way, pursuing a logic completely detached from the interests of the collectivity, and to the social nuclei that are formed within the state correspond not only the lobbies that operate within the state bureaucracies, but also the incorporation into government functions of entire professional categories, as has happened in recent years with doctors. Bettini’s book dates from 1948. In 1971 Roberto Vacca’s book Il medioevo prossimo venturo [The Coming Middle Ages] was published, in which the author foresaw a catastrophic evolution of the most advanced countries, which would no longer be able to solve the problems linked to energy production and distribution, transport, water supply, waste disposal and information processing. If Vacca could write that the announcements of imminent catastrophes were so numerous in those years as to have produced a veritable “ruinographic” literature, today apocalyptic predictions, particularly those linked to climate, have at least doubled.
Although disasters – such as those caused by nuclear energy – are, if not probable, certainly possible, the degradation of the systems in which we live is thinkable without necessarily taking the form of a catastrophe. The political, economic and spiritual collapse of European countries, for example, is evident today, even if they continue to survive for some time to come. How then can we envisage the advent of a new Middle Ages? How can the political abstentionism that we see all around us be transformed into a “popular anonymity” capable of inventing new and anonymous forms of expression and life? And in what way can the isolation of state bureaucracies and the spread of autarchic potentates be a prelude to the emergence of phenomena similar to the great monasteries, in which the exodus of existing society produces new forms of community? It is certain that this can only happen if an initially small but growing number of individuals can read in the dissolving political forms the harbinger of new or older forms of life.
April 28, 2025
Source: Quodlibet