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Title: Resistance to State Idolatry Author: DestituentOne Date: jan 3rd 2020 Language: en Topics: anarchism, Walter Benjamin, Giorgio Agamben, Donald Trump, punching nazis, insurrection
Trump is gone for now, but whatever comes after him could be far worse;
this all has roots in the way the Weimar Republic collapsed from a
democracy into a dictatorship. Authoritarianism, paranoia, and
conspiracies have spread; I would argue we are nearly at the Rubicon
point in American history. Democracies are prone to rot from the inside
out if they are not cared for and tended to.
Trump has dictatorial aspirations, as can be seen when the Capital was
stormed as well as his rhetoric both before and after the event in
question transpired. This is a mere repetition of Hitler’s coup and
eventual democratic election.
The beast was released, with the collapse of the Weimar Republic as well
as the granting of Hitler with Unlimited emergency powers; jurist Carl
Schmitt had a pivotal role in these events that transpired.
“Between 1934 and 1948 in the face of the collapse of Europe’s
democracies the theory of the state of exception (which had made a
first, isolated appearance in 1921 with Schmitt’s book,Dictatorship) saw
a moment of particular fortune-”
-No sooner did Hitler take power (or, as we should perhaps more
accurately say, no sooner was power given to him — On February 28, he
proclaimed the Decree for the protection of the people and the State,
which suspended the Weimar constitution concerning personal liberties,
The Decree was never repealed.(Agamben)
Schmitt referred to himself tempting fate, as the “Katechon,” the term
used by Apostle Paul, as in the one who held back the arrival of the
anti-Christ, like a flood gate holding back a flood, for an example (
Ullrich). This holds some sick ironic truth to it, except the figure of
the dragon has greater thematic overlap, with the dragon gave the
anti-Christ its power; this overlaps with Schmitt and the giving of
powers to Hitler. The beast I saw resembled a leopard but had feet like
those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the
beast his power and his throne and great authority (Revelation 13:2 NIV)
The fascists tried to wage a genocidal war against God’s chosen people,
the Jewish populace. This echos Revelation how the beasts and false
prophets of Revelation would perform atrocities against God’s sacred
people. It was given the power to wage war against God’s holy people and
to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people,
language, and nation. (Revelation 13:7 NIV). Once again, the mythmaking
of the Genocidal State seemed invincible.
“People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the
beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the
beast? Who can wage war against it?” “The one who gives the anti-Christ
his power.” ( NIV) Democracy is fragile and prone to backsliding into
authoritarianism if one is not prepared to fight against those who wish
to dissolve democracies.
Benjamin lived during a time when it seemed as if the apocalypse was
unfolding; it was before Benjamin’s suicide that he wrote, “history is
nothing but one chain of catastrophe unfolding, wreckage upon wreckage”
This “wreckage upon wreckage” is the history of the oppressed fighting
against those regimes that slaughter innocents (Benjamin).
This is why as citizens; we must protect our democracy from rotting on
the inside out to become a dictatorship.The Critical Theorist Walter
Benjamin I would argue serves as the perfect antidote to the legacy of
Schmitt that has inspired aspiring dictators since his inception of the
world stage with the collapse of the Weimar republic. Benjamin, whose
lens of understanding the world I would argue was anarchistic,
understood the key to understanding Fascism as an aestheticization of
politics; this anarchism is the exact opposite of Schmitt’s Fascism,
which is obsessed with maintaining the illusion of a hierarchy, or some
form of order when ironically all that arises is the worship of death
and a shambling bureaucracy that can hardly hold up against its own
weight whose sole purpose is to deal death to maintain an illusion of
authority.
“Fascism attempts to organize the newly proletarianized masses without
affecting the property structure which the masses strive to eliminate.
Fascism sees its salvation in giving these masses not their right but
instead a chance to express themselves. The masses have a right to
change property relations; Fascism seeks to give them an expression
while preserving property. The logical result of fascism is the
introduction of aesthetics into political life. The violation of the
masses, whom Fascism, with its FĂĽhrer cult, forces to their knees, has
its counterpart in the violation of an apparatus which is pressed into
the production of ritual value. “--All efforts to render politics
aesthetic culminate in one thing: war. War and war only can set a goal
for mass movements on the largest scale while respecting the traditional
property system”- Benjamin).
Benjamin’s text, the Critique of Violence, elaborates on an anarchistic
form of resistance where myth-making violence making sets up oppressive
regimes and divine violence as law destroying to negate the evil of the
State when it oppresses “Just as God is opposed to myth in all spheres,
so divine violence runs counter to mythic violence, indeed, divine
violence designates in all respects an antithesis to mythic violence, if
mythic violence is law-positing, divine violence is law-annihilating; if
mythic violence inculpates and expiates at the same time, divine
violence, de-expiates if theformer threatens, the latter strikes”-
Divine violence is law destroying and inherently anarchic; It destroys
idolatry of the State that attempts to set up.
Just like in when the followers of Korah rebelled and were swallowed up
by the earth as a sign to the rest of the Israelites in the Torah-Old
Testament. Benjamin alludes to this “ The legend of Niobe may be
contrasted by this way of example with God’s judgment on Korah’s hoard,”
( Benjamin). The fact that Fascism is formulated around myth-making if
building up a myth of what is worshiped is ultimately a false idol, then
Benjamin’s anarchistic notion of Divine violence is that of
law-destroying, which will serve as a counterweight when the Idolatrous
State attempts to ravage the populace, and until a Messianic Rupture
when Benjamin’s angel can awake the dead, we will have to continue our
resistance to protect those who are oppressed In the respect that we
must smash false idols, the most idolatrous of systems is that of
Dictatorship; the response is to resist unjust hierarchy-power
relations, as well as to follows God’s order to crush idolatry. After
all, “The Messiah arrives not only as of the redeemer but as the subduer
of the anti-Christ”(Benjamin). The subduing of the anti-Christ is
something that must be done once one is subdued, another rises, A
healthy democracy needs to be wary of these threats and fight once they
arise in order to protect those that the genocidal regime’s goal is to
murder.
To counter this, I argue that the synthesis of Critical Theory and
theological studies serve as a weapon as well as a shield to protect
those who are oppressed will be the key to our overcoming of
neo-fascistic regimes should they arise, Critical Theory to understand
power relations and the history of fascistic paradigms, and Theological
studies to see past the veil of the anti-Christs. The power of
mythmaking is the bedrock of fascism as well as the flimsy foundation
that requires constant dealing of death in order to keep up an illusion
of authority, Benjamin writes,” Mythic violence is blood-violence over
mere life for the sake of violence itself; divine violence is pure
violence overall life for the sake of the living the former demands
sacrifice the latter assumes it.
This points out how mythic violence, as in Fascitsic regimes, demand
“blood-violence” for the “Sake of violence” whereas the law destroying
divine violence kills for the sake of life, not for the sake of death
worship (Fascism), as such False idols will be undone by the Divine
law-destroying violence, that is to say, countered the Mythmaking
genocidal threat with myth destroying divine violence” (Benjmain). We
must counter idolatry when it rises up, in the form of Fascistic or
neo-fascistic regimes. Be it Hitler, Trump, or whatever despot comes
next on the world stage.
We must be simultaneously Theoreticians to grasp the power relations,
Theologians who can see past the smog of the false idols as well as
prophets to follow the biblical commandments that the Fascists have
tried so hard to erase from this earth. We must repeat never again, and
it is imperative to prevent genocide wherever it may attempt to arise
and to topple dictatorships, which are the birthplace of anti-Christs,
be it if it takes the form of Hitlerism, Trumpism, or something else in
the distant or not so distant future.
Citations
Agamben, G. (n.d.). State of Exception. Univ. of Chicago Press.
Benjamin, W., & Arendt, H. (1978). Illuminations. edited and with an
introd. by Hannah Arendt. translated by Harry Zohn. Schocken Books.
Benjamin, W., Fenves, P. D., & Ng, J. (2021). Toward the critique of
violence: A critical edition. Stanford University Press.
Ullrich, C. D. (2018, July 3). Carl Schmitt: Katechon. Critical Legal
Thinking. Retrieved February 19, 2022, from
https://criticallegalthinking.com/2018/07/03/carl-schmitt-katechon/
Wilkinson House. (2012). Niv.