Politics and suicide : the philosophy of political self-destruction / Nicholas Michelsen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Michelsen, Nicholas, author.

Series:

Interventions (Routledge (Firm))

Interventions

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Suicide--Political aspects.

Suicide.

Self-immolation.

Hunger strikes.

Suicide bombings.

Mass suicide.

Political violence--Philosophy.

Political violence.

Philosophy.

Physical Description:

xiv, 192 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2016.

Summary:

Politics and Suicide argues that whilst the historical lineage of suicidal politics is recognised, the fundamental significance of autodestruction to the political remains under examined. It contends that practices like suicide-bombing do not simply embody a strange or abnormal 'suicidal' articulation of the political, but rather, that the existence of suicidal politics tells us something fundamental about the political as such and thinking about political violence more broadly. Recent world events have emphatically shown our need for tools with which to develop better understandings of the politics of suicide. Through the exploration of several arresting case-studies, including the 'Kamikaze' bombers of World War Two, Jan Palach's self-immolation in 1969, Cold War nuclear deterrence, and the suicide-terrorist attacks of 9/11 Michelsen asks how we might talk of a political suicide in any of these contexts. The book charts how political processes 'go suicidal', and asks how we might still consider them to be political in such a case. It investigates how suicide can function as 'politics'. A strong contribution to the fields of philosophy and international relations theory, this work will also be of interest to students and scholars of political theory and terrorism & political violence. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Kamikaze 15

State suicide 15

Politics, the assemblage of desire 18

The fascist assemblage 23

Revolution and annihilation 32

Mishima's revolution 40

2 Self-burning 57

Immolare 57

Death and desire 66

Events and death 70

Palach's revolution 76

On suicide machines 82

3 Hunger striking 99

Crossing the threshold 99

Bodily inscription 102

Decoding death 106

Exchange 107

Terror and production 112

4 Terror 126

Human bomb 126

The despot 130

Liberal suicides 134

Terror and liberalism 141

A politics from the outside 147

5 Cult and revolution 163

Revolutionary suicide 163

Jonestown 166

Millenarianism 171

Dying well 176.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781138942103

1138942103

OCLC:

919252583