RU134: SIMON CRITCHLEY, PHILOSOPHER "INFINITELY DEMANDING"

On this episode of Rendering Unconscious, Philosopher Simon Critchley presents "Infinitely Demanding: Politics of Resistance, Ethics of Commitment" to Das Unbehagen - A Free Association for Psychoanalysis at The New School for Social Research on April 18, 2013. You can watch this lecture + Q&A: http://dasunbehagen.org/simon-critchley-das-unbehagen-ethics-of-commitment/ You can support the podcast at our Patreon. Your support is greatly appreciated: https://www.patreon.com/vanessa23carl “It is at this intensely situational, indeed local level that the atomising, expropriating force of neo-liberal globalisation is to be met, contested and resisted. That is, resistance begins by occupying and controlling the terrain upon which one stands, where one lives, works, acts and thinks. This needn’t involve millions of people. It needn’t even involve thousands. It could involve just a few at first. Resistance can be intimate and can begin in small affinity groups. The art of politics consists in weaving such cells of resistance together into a common front, a shared political subjectivity. What is going to allow for the formation of such a political subjectivity – the hegemonic glue, if you will – is an appeal to universality, whether the demand for political representation, equality of treatment or whatever. It is the hope, indeed the wager, of this book that the ethical demand – the infinite responsibility that both constitutes and divides my subjectivity – might allow that hegemonic glue to set into the compact, self-aware, fighting force that motivates the subject into the political action.” – Simon Critchley, Infinitely Demanding For more visit: http://dasunbehagen.org http://www.drvanessasinclair.net http://www.renderingunconscious.org The song at the end of the episode is “Present and Future within its Invisible Walls” by Vanessa Sinclair and Carl Abrahamsson from the album “The Pathways of the Heart” available from Highbrow Lowlife. https://vanessasinclaircarlabrahamsson.bandcamp.com Vanessa Sinclair's book of cut-up poetry and collages "The Pathways of the Heart" was recently published by Trapart Books: https://store.trapart.net/details/00172 Photo of Simon Critchley