The term biopolitics was coined by the french philosopher Michel Foucault and further developed by the italien philosopher Giorgio Agamben. Both describe the almost hopeless situation in which the individual today is at the mercy of the state’s advanced techniques of rule. Both are important philosophers of our time. But neither provides a way to organize promising resistance against biopolitics. This may be due to the fact that both were, or are, by their states highly recognized and well-paid university professors. I, Klaus Heck, a poor German cynic anarchist, living in Africa, do not put a fat pension at risk. I can practice parrhesia without worries, tell you my truth.
Why should I learn about biopolitics?
You don’t have to. Foucault and Agamben have pointed out the great danger in which we all find ourselves today. Not only did they neglect the question of possible resistance, but they also hid the very concept of biopolitics behind an armor of mysteriousness. As civil servants, they did not want to jeopardize their status. At least, in his last series of lectures before his death, Foucault gave a hint from which cue rescue is possible: he treated the ancient anarchist movement of the Cynics, which empowered itself around the one term – parrhesia.
Read more: The basics of cynicism and parrhesia
What is biopolitics?
I choose the simplest possible definition:
Biopolitics means the current age in which the state makes the naked life of the individual its subject and the techniques of domination associated with it. Your naked life in the hands of the rulers. This is biopolitics and it is exactly against this that the anarchist cynical resistance movement is directed.
What is resistance?
The techniques of rule of the state are quantitatively and qualitatively at the highest level in the history of mankind. Of course, this also applies to the state’s immune defense against dangers.
The anarchist and founder of Gestalt therapy, Paul Goodman, formulates in his Anarchist Manifesto1Unfortunately I have not yet found the original English text from 1945. I link to an Austrian anarchism page. The translation is by Stefan Blankertz. I recommend you to follow the link and read the whole text from Goodman, maybe translate it with deepl. I am grateful for a hint to the american original. :
We must proceed on the basis of the conviction that the coercive society knows very well the actions which are dangerous to it and which are not; actions which give rise to coercion have anarchic force; those which used to be punished but are now tolerated have lost this force. This is not neutral, but itself has coercive consequences.
What Goodman is telling us is that resistance is not possible in recognized NGOs, such as Greenpeace, Amnesty International, trade unions or political parties. If these institutions were dangerous to the state, they would be prohibited. The same applies to demonstrations, for example. Going to a permitted demonstration, like for “Black lives matter”, “me too” or “Fridays For Future” is, in the most harmless case, a waste of time, but certainly not resistance.
So what is resistance? Resistance is disobedience against the ruling value judgments. Because the ruling values are the values of the rulers.
What is resistance to biopolitics?
The ruling biopolitics functions through the direct construction and modeling of the naked lives of the individuals. Promising resistance against this biopolitics starts exactly where the state attacks you: you resist simply by parrhesia and decoining2The term “revaluation of all values” comes from Nietzsche. The early Cynics called it the revaluation or devaluation of the valid coin. However, what is meant is exactly what Nietzsche formulates. Many Cynics therefore adopt Nietzsche’s formulation and speak of the revaluation of the ruling values. A short catchy verb I sometimes use for the revaluation of all prevailing values is to decoin or decoining..
You don’t have to join any club or party to successfully resist biopolitics. You probably don’t have to perform any great heroic deeds either (although you will soon have the power to do so). It is the small courageous self-assertions in everyday life that will protect you and your loved ones from the terror of the state. Do not be afraid.
“The Force Is with You”
Keep reading: The Invisible Hand of Cynic Resistance
- 1Unfortunately I have not yet found the original English text from 1945. I link to an Austrian anarchism page. The translation is by Stefan Blankertz. I recommend you to follow the link and read the whole text from Goodman, maybe translate it with deepl. I am grateful for a hint to the american original.
- 2The term “revaluation of all values” comes from Nietzsche. The early Cynics called it the revaluation or devaluation of the valid coin. However, what is meant is exactly what Nietzsche formulates. Many Cynics therefore adopt Nietzsche’s formulation and speak of the revaluation of the ruling values. A short catchy verb I sometimes use for the revaluation of all prevailing values is to decoin or decoining.