Tag Archives: Walter Benjamin

From Revolution to Destitution

We are confronted with an expansion of the revolution that reaches the point of becoming something else. Today’s uprisings point toward an anthropological and no longer merely a political revolution, in which Marx’s distinction between political and social revolution begins … Continue reading

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Portugal: The revolution of 1974-1975

The Portuguese experience between 1974 and 1976 shows that revolutionary activity does not develop as the result of strategies devised by system analysts or bourgeois planners … It emerges in the course of the struggle itself, and its most advanced … Continue reading

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Yazan Alloujami: Gaza-on-the-Rhine, a history lesson

From lundimatin, #418, 04/03/2024 … To articulate the past historically does not mean to recognize it ‘the way it really was’ (Ranke). It means to seize hold of a memory as it flashes up at a moment of danger. Historical … Continue reading

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The gilets jaunes: Those who walk away from capital

While the politicians and the media scrutinise the weekly accounting of the number of demonstrators with each Act of the yellow vests’ movement, closely seconded by sociologists and political scientists, the movement persists, defying all predictions. And even if it … Continue reading

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Revolution imagined outside history

Utopia of a Tired Man Borges story Illustration by Federico Abuyé   The chronicler, who recounts events without distinguishing between the great and small, thereby accounts for the truth, that nothing which has ever happened is to be given as … Continue reading

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Walter Benjamin: Messianism and Revolution – Theses on History

The essay that we share below, by Andrew Robinson, bears the virtue of clarity; like a collector, he assembles the bits of Walter Benjamin’s work on messianism and revolution.  And yet because he writes as a collector of ideas, Benjamin’s … Continue reading

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The reign of the police

This so perfect democracy itself constructs its inconceivable enemy, terrorism.  It wants, in effect, to be judged by its enemies rather then by its results.  The history of terrorism is written by the State: it is therefore enlightening.  The spectator … Continue reading

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The Space and Time of Utopia

Reflections around the concept of utopia, on the 500th anniversary of Thomas Moore’s Utopia, reflections that echo earlier thoughts on the time and space of revolution. In revolution, everything happens incredibly quickly, just like in dreams in which people seem to be freed from … Continue reading

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Time, revolution and historical subjectivity

(Photographs by Alexey Titarenko) In revolution, everything happens incredibly quickly, just like in dreams in which people seem to be freed from gravity. Gustave Landauer, Revolution We have merely to tear down the Bastilles of the future, restructure the past … Continue reading

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Reflections amid violence

(Photograph by Francesca Oggiano, from the series The Stolen Eyes) in memory of Walter Benjamin for n.m.   A historical materialist approaches a historical subject only where he encounters it as a monad.  In this structure he recognizes the sign … Continue reading

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