Philosophy & Rhetoric Jun 2020

The Suicidal State: In Advance of an American Requiem

Stuart J. Murray Carleton University

Abstract

ABSTRACT Written in late March 2020 in the early days of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak, this essay represents a contingent reflection on the American pandemic response, mourning in anticipation of what would soon surely unfold. I argue that the State's long-standing sacrificial economies have in this moment culminated in a suicidal State. The term is Foucault's, appearing in a controversial lecture on biopolitics, Nazism, and “biological racism.” Despite Foucault's problematic treatment of racism, I suggest that some aspects of this discourse might nevertheless be apropos in our context. The U.S. pandemic response is racism's suicidal State legacy writ large: an extension and retooling of historically racist infrastructures deployed (once again, again) in racialized domains (as more recent reports evidence), but in this moment also across biosocial inequities and vulnerabilities marked by differential fungibilities other than race.

Journal
Philosophy & Rhetoric
Published
2020-06-15
DOI
10.5325/philrhet.53.3.0299
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
discourse analysis race and writing
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References (7)

  1. Agamben, Giorgio. 2020a. “The Invention of an Epidemic.” European Journal of Psychoanalysis, 26 Feb. “Coronav…
  2. Agamben, Giorgio. 2020b. “Clarifications.” Trans. Adam Kotsko. 17 Mar. https://itself.blog/2020/03/17/giorgio…
  3. Blanchot, Maurice. 1995. The Writing of the Disaster. New ed. Trans. Ann Smock. Lincoln: University of Nebras…
  4. Foucault, Michel. 2003. “Society Must Be Defended”: Lectures at the Collége de France, 1975–1976. Trans. Davi…
  5. Gilmore, Ruth Wilson. 2002. “Race and Globalization.” In Geographies of Global Change: Remapping the World, e…
Show all 7 →
  1. Sharpe, Christina. 2016. In the Wake: On Blackness and Being. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
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  2. Speer, Albert. 1970. Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs. Trans. Richard and Clara Winston. New York: Macmillan.
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