Mbembe Towards Death: Necropolitics
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- Опубліковано 27 тра 2024
- This video is about necropolitics (necropower), the means by which governments dictate those who live and those who die. It builds off the ideas of Achille Mbembe in his 2003 piece "Necropolitics." Beginning with an introduction to Michel Foucault's "biopower," the video delves into the variety of forms that the necropolitical may manifest in. In this video, that is the right to kill, the fear of death, death in life (social and civil death), and the exposure to corpses. The video concludes with an exploration into the relation between freedom and death and the question: what is the necropolitical of today?
Music: Lumen by Tony Stocker
• tony stocker - lumen
Timestamps:
00:00 || Introduction
00:57 || Biopower and the Taboo of Death
04:54 || Necropolitics and the Forms of Death
12:34 || The Freedom of Death
15:32 || Conclusion
Sources:
Achille Mbembe, "Necropolitics," 2003.
Achille Mbembe, Necropolitics, 2018
Michel Foucault, “Society Must be Defended,” 1975.
Michel Foucault, History of Sexuality, 1976.
Marina Gržinić "From Biopolitics to Necropolitics:" • Marina Gržinić: From B...
Rosi Braidotti "Necropolitics and Ways of Dying:" • Rosi Braidotti - Necro...
Berlant, Lauren. "Slow Death (Sovereignty, Obesity, Lateral Agency)." Critical Inquiry 33, no. 4 (2007): 754-80. Accessed March 21, 2021. doi:10.1086/521568.
Christopher Lee, "The Necropolitics of COVID 19," africasacountry.com/2020/04/t...
this was one of the best and concise videos on complex political thought I have ever seen
Helped me out big time in my sociology class. Appreciate it!
Thank you for this video It's really helped me understand the topic for a paper I'm writing!
Before even watching, I am losing my mind that one of my favourite channels is posting about one of my favourite writers!! Will comment with actual thoughts as a reply to this after watching
Ah thanks! I hope I did justice to Mbembe and his thought and I'd love to here any critique or further ideas you have since I feel as though I only scraped the surface.
@@IanWithyBerry I forgot to write my comment out, sorry!
I'm not sure I wholly agree with the view that biopower is a choice, or that it is something that necessarily must function in the use of separations into those who live or die - in my thesis, I was of the view that biopower was, to Foucault, a necessary outgrowth of the mercantile era of European feudal banking. This outgrowth specifically was in that *everyone* could be accumulated, counted, quantified, shaped into the social production. This necessarily has to be everyone because of the selective application of power in the the sovereign society that it obsoletes - discipline is always gained, but it's rarely lost. I understand however that you're presenting Mbembe's reading of the topic though so I don't fault you for presenting it this way.
Your comment on the decline of the public execution misses a fairly key aspect of Foucauldian theory - this is the exact topic of his magnum opus, Discipline and Punish. Not a huge problem, but there were some great quotes and concepts to bring up here!
Your integration of daoism into the concept at hand is interesting and appeals, in a way I'd consider useful, to social norms and rituals. Most of the elaborations upon Foucault that I've seen - in particular, Agamben - focus primarily upon the nature of power itself and what it means to live in this sort of social ontology. This can sometimes miss the forest for the trees in my view, devising social technologies in order to obfuscate more "at hand" matters such as technology, and at its worst can end up speculating about what it means to live in a society a la Delanda. You've managed to duck the problem really nicely by bringing up matters such as the rites of burial, tying the tendency back into something practical rather than letting blurry social analysis run all over the the place. Not that I'm a positivist, but I do believe Foucault was a philosopher more than a sociologist, which people like Massumi and Delanda often forget.
Not to be too French in this comment, but I find the problem with Mbembe repeated here, which is why it is precisely that Death is such a threat. Foucault, I believe, did click this - the silencing. In transitioning to a kingdom of heaven or in the literal aspect of the ceasing of motion, the inability to speak renders one outside of any politico-semantic system that discipline renders. This makes Foucault's view become of the dignity and beauty of death more coherent, to my view, than simply the symbolic aspects of death. It also connects to your theme of social rites insofar that the "Last Will and Testament" acts as a transitionary action which attempts to tie the deceased person's act of rebellion against the semantic order back in, contextualising their death in the form of property rights.
Summing up, I think your analysis of Mbembe is faithful to his reading - I suspect that Mbembe would have wanted more consideration of the necropolitical mode of power in the postcolony and colony, e.g. Palestine, but it doesn't make this work lesser or wrong to not directly mention it. As you said, this video is an introduction to necropolitics, not the entire topic. You've done an excellent job here in my view!
If my arguments here seem a bit non-sequitur-ey or "citation needed", I'm sorry! I've definitely taken my thesis to heart and I can forget what's conventional and what wasn't, lol. I can send you it if you have further questions, or try to elaborate here in the comments.
@@285studios Thank you for writing this up! This is an amazing comment. Well written, knowledgeable, and informative, truly the depiction of an ideal comment!
Clearly, I have a lot more to learn about Foucault (and the rest of Post-Structuralism) and so I'd love to read your thesis! (I think my email is available in the "About" section of the channel)
And I definitely agree, much of the essay itself is spent discussing the actual creation of death worlds in Palestine, Kosovo, and across Africa. My reason for not covering these was, I think, due to an unfamiliarity with the specifics of these conflicts themselves and also an attempt to approach the necropolitical more so from the "philosophy of death," if such a thing is even possible. I certainly do not intend to have downplayed their importance at all with this video!
Hi! I hope this message gets to you as it is over a year ago that you commented. I am writing a paper about necropolitics and the current situation in Europe. I was wondering if I could read your essay and/or ask you some questions because it seems very interesting and of course valuable to what I need to study.
Have a great day!
Emilie
Such a clear analysis you have the perfect voice and rhythm for this, great job
this is an amazing video & analysis and should be seen by a lot more people.
very good channel and content. I am fascinated already with the quality
really good job!!! Congrats for share your ackowledge with us
Really great video! Love your style
Explained very well... great job
really good and smart analysis here!
This video is amazing!
This was very helpful. Thank you!
Amazing analysis
Thanks for saving my ass for this reading i gotta do ☠️⚰️💀🪦🏴☠️😵