Militarization as comedy of (t)errors

Diken, Bulent (2011) Militarization as comedy of (t)errors. Economia Autonoma, 4 (7). pp. 72-92. ISSN 1657-5776

Abstract

The ultimate catastrophe, emerging from the war against terror, is the disappearance of politics. In a sense, therefore, it is deceptive to speak of a ‘politics’ of security for the difference between ‘normal’ politics and politics of security is not a quantitative but a qualitative difference. The difference is between politics as such and a politics, which consciously rejects the political nature of given questions. The subjectivity relevant to terror and security can no longer be related to the idea of freedom based on individual responsibility (discipline) or to the instances of security based on risk management through ‘objective systems’ (control). In stark contrast to both situations, terror and politics of security do not place responsibility in a definite actor or system. The convertibility of the hostage and the infantilization of the citizen bring with them a new constellation of responsibility. This paper explores how tendency of discipline turns in control, and the tendency of control in terror. It is in this context that the contemporary politics of security transforms the processes of post-panoptic ‘control’ into a form of sociality, a lifestyle. In this process, the different dispositive of sovereignty, discipline, control, security/terror seem to co-exist, overlap and clash, containing within themselves elements of one another. The logic at work here is that of the series: 1, 1+2, 1+2+3. After all, in relation to the biopolitics (of terror and security), a categorical, Kantian ethics cannot be sufficient. The crucial question is no longer the content of an ethical stance but, rather, the decision as to who counts as a subject worthy of ethical concern in the first place.