@exiliaex Might be cliche but Benjamin — Critique of Violence is probably my favorite Benjamin
@fokes i love that piece, that's a great choice.
@exiliaex Derrida’s The Gift of Death
@exiliaex Not sure if it's one of the bests, but a Marxist classic is Engel's "The Role of violence in history".
Do you understand french?
@ja_herre no. i mean, i've been reading stuff translated from french and checked the originals enough times that i can pick up a little french but i'm in no way a french speaker/reader
@exiliaex
I ask because you reminded me of this interview of anarchist philosopher and sociologist Geoffroy de Lagasnerie, where he argues the opposite: he thinks he recognizes a form of martyr fetish in violent confrontations with the police in ritualized forms of leftist activism like protests. His point is that it gets activists arrested without achieving much else. He pleads for inventing new forms of disruptive direct action and infiltrating the state and academia.
@exiliaex
Maybe with the subtitles you can get something out of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VVCrFhJ9vk
@exiliaex
Oh f*k, there are no subtitles, sorry.
@exiliaex
Here he is talking about his book "sortir de notre impuissance politique". Not sure whether it was translated or not.
@exiliaex Well, if you're talking about revolutionary violence, I can help.
i ask because i want to expand my repertoire of works that i can reference for conceptions of violence (and its supposed opposite non-violence).
i'll be having a discussion with a few others on a stream in a few days, and we'll be discussing violence.
in general i think the average person's conception of violence papers over much of the daily violence that upholds our lives. i think the average person's conception of "nonviolence" is a kind of Martyr fetish that sees the role of the oppressed as one to be beaten until the oppressor's heart is moved by the display of nonviolence.