Pit Schultz on Fri, 10 Nov 95 22:37 MET |
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ES GIBT KEINEN STAAT IN EUROPA (fwd) |
http://lois.kud-fp.si/~lukap/embassy/1a/staat.html > ES GIBT KEINEN STAAT IN EUROPA > > Slavoj Zizek > > For many long years in left-wing (and not only left-wing) mythology > the State appeared as the original source of Evil, as a living dead > sponging off the body of the community. The repressive, particularly > ideological machinery of the State was presented as the process of > supervising and maintaining discipline, as armour shaping the > healthy body of the community. The utopian perspective, which > henceforth opened up towards both the radical left-wing as well as > the antiliberal right-wing, was the abolition of the State or its > subordination to the community. > > Today's experience, summed up in the word "Bosnia", confronts us > with the reality of this utopia. > > What we are witnessing in Bosnia is the direct consequence of the > disintegration of State authority or its submission to the power > play between ethnic communities - what is missing in Bosnia is a > unified State authority elevated above ethnic disputes. A similar > tendency can be observed in Serbia where we are again dealing with a > state which is not based on the modern concept of nationhood, but > has fused with the pre-state ethnic mix, and thus in Kosovo > paradoxically in the same territory two states coexist: the Serbian > state authority and the para-State agencies of the Republic of > Kosovo. The old left-wing disinclination towards the rule of law and > order has thus come face to face with its own truth, manifested in > Bosnia and Serbia where unsupervised local warlords are plundering, > killing and settling private scores. In contrast to expectations it > has become clear that there is nothing liberating about the breaking > of state authority - on the contrary: we are consigned to corruption > and the impervious game of local interests which are no longer > restricted by a formal legal framework. > > In a certain sense "Bosnia" is merely a metaphor for Europe as a > whole. Europe is coming closer and closer to a state of > non-statehood where state mechanisms are losing their binding > character. The authority of the state is being eroded from the top > by the trans-European regulations from Brussels and the > international economic ties and from the bottom by local and ethnic > interests, while none of these elements are strong enough to fully > replace state authority. > > Thus, Etienne Balibar has altogether appropriately labeled the > current situation in Europe with the syntagma "Es gibt keinen Staat > in Europa" ("There is no State in Europe"). > > From all this it is thus necessary to draw what at first glance > seems a paradoxical, yet crucial conclusion: today the concept of > utopia has made an about-face turn - utopian energy is no longer > directed towards a stateless community, but towards a state without > a nation, a state which would no longer be founded on an ethnic > community and its territory, therefore simultaneously towards a > state without territory, towards a purely artificial structure of > principles and authority which will have severed the umbilical > chords of ethnic origin, indigenousness and rootedness. > > As far as art, according to definition, is subversive in relation to > the existing establishment, any art which today wants to be up to > the level of its assignment must be a state art in the service of a > still-non-existent country. It must abandon the celebration of > islands of privacy, seemingly insulated from the machinery of > authority, and must voluntarily become a small cog in this > machinery, a servant to the new Leviathan, which it is summoning > like the genie from the bottle. > > Ljubljana, 1993