Skip to main content

Life in the State of Exception

What is life if it is not in a "state of exception"? We live in the suspension of life. There is a fascinating articulation by none other than Carl Schmitt, who, in his Dictatorship and Political Theology, expounds this concept. The true intensity of law is realized in its suspension and its exception. Norm remains unrealised unless it is suspended in its realisation. Just like "state of emergency" is declared to suspend the juridical order so as to protect it from internal or external aggression. In the same line of reasoning, the freedom of speech and expression as a fundamental right in normal sense remains in the Constitution without any realisation unless law like sedition comes into the picture, or the power of contempt comes at issue, in that condition only, the freedom of speech and expression is visualized in its full intensity. I mean, who talks about a norm, unless a fact of its violation becomes possible. Just like, who talks about life unless its suspension, i.e., death is perceived as inevitable. To read state of exception as exception is a mistake. Every exception is a corrupt copy of its pure norm, a deviation in immanent sense, to refer Deleuze's marvellous work, Difference and Repetition, a phantasms, which is as normal as the established pure norm. I mean, which day or which moment is normal? Every moment is an exception of its previous one. Our life is, in fact, lived in exception. There is no perfect and normal moment. Every moment is the suspension and realisation of life. Every moment is passing on and realising itself at the same moment. Every moment is a fullstop, though we perceive it as a comma. Life cannot be captured in a normal routine, it is, in fact, realized in its exception, its suspension, and it goes on permanently in the state of exception.


What happens in actuality that the moment we keep certain thing as normal, the excitement dies forever for that thing, in that very moment, exception is carved out, which suspends the normal permanently in order to realise the excitement and guilt of its violation. The life of law and juridical order is just like a language. There are abundance of signifiers, floating in the space of reality, but does it mean that it is related to something called real in the objective world? You can't find a word with a perfect signification, without having any scope of interpretation and interpolation. It is, in fact, a deviation, a difference from Platonic concept in an immanent sense, which is realised in its deviation and suspension. Life is just like excitement in the state of exception. Make it normal, you will avoid going near to it. Make it a routine, you'll lose the interest of it. Just like stability is a myth, a "normalized myth", which is realised in its constant suspension. The life of law is alive only in the "State of Exception". Just like desire is alive in its non-realisation. The moment a desire is actualized it is no longer a desire. It is as normal as anything else.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Imagination

Student: I want to excel in my life. Over the years, my graph of success is achieving a new height. I am doing hard work to become one of the smartest and richest persons on the Earth. Teacher: Wonderful! Who is  achiever and what is achieved? Student: I am the achiever. My name and fame are shining day by day.  Teacher: Who is this ‘I’? What is the material by which it is produced? Student: I is the ego which is the agent achieving successes and facing failures. Teacher: Whether ego is real or imaginary? Student: It is made of name, form, and function. Teacher: Whether name, form, and function are eternal?  Student: No, they are changing. Teacher: Anything changes does it exist? Whether these are real or merely fictitious images appearing and disappearing before the sightscreen of mind? Student: They are the images constructing my identity as a person. Teacher: Well said! What is the stuff by which these images are made of? Who is maker and what is made? Student: They ar...

पिरोता जाऊँ एक माला ज़िन्दगी का

पढ़ता हूँ हर एक दिन एक ही पन्ना, हर दिन हज़ार ये मालूम पड़ते हैं। जबसे होश संभाला है एक ही पन्ना सवांरते आया हूँ, लोग इसे ज़िन्दगी कहते हैं। इसपे लिखे हर एक लब्ज़ जो मेरे मालूम पड़ते हैं, ना जाने कितने जुबां पे चढ़े होंगे। आज हम भी कुछ पल के लिए ही सही इसके सारथी हैं, जाने से पहले कुछ रंग मेरा भी इसपे चढ़ जाए, बस इसीलिए एक ही पन्ना बार बार पलटता रहता हूँ। हर कोई अनजाने किताब की तलाश में बाहर निकलता है, जिसका हर एक पन्ना वो ख़ुद है। जब ख़ुद के रंग को समझ ही ना पाया, तो भला इंद्रधनुषी किताब के क्या मायने हैं? अस्तित्व में ना जाने कितने पन्ने बिखरे पड़े हैं, बस एक से ही अवगत हो जाऊँ, उसके हर एक शब्द को चुनता जाऊँ, कुछ पल के लिये सही, पिरोता जाऊँ एक माला ज़िन्दगी का।

Time and Love

Time passes by Like moving in a train of thoughts Its sequence is always forward Vibrating like a cosmic dance of Shiva Time is creating and engulfing The little waves of the ocean Going where? Nobody knows Like a dream does not have a destination It is as true as any absurd play With friends of pleasure It moves like speed of light With friends of need It is felt like a moving river Allowing a little moments of thoughts Before everything becomes a history With friends of virtue Time becomes a sublime touch Soothing and healing the pain Becoming a spectator To watch the cries and follies Beauty and ugliness The rainbow of joy And an album of suffering Time touches Yet it remains aloof Like Purush is witnessing The colours of prakriti Yet remains unblemished And untouched The union of two is always mystical Their touch is a source Of creation and transformation Time is witnessing everything In its sequential movements Who is witnessing time? What is independent of the originatio...