Being Against the World: Rebellion and Constitution (Birkbeck Law Press)

How can we save politics from the politician? How can we save ourselves? The wager of this book is to look at the example of those who leave the city and break the social contract, rebellious exiles and freedom fighters escaping the wheel of necessity, and learn from them. The aim is to proceed towards a politics beyond the ways of the understanding, beyond self-authorization, and beyond critique. Being against the World challenges a critical standpoint that, in ruling out archaic, quasi- or obscure objects as a superstitious thing of the past, has attributed to law and politics the sober task of managing or controlling human interaction. Rethinking the notion of objectivity that underpins this standpoint, the focus here is upon how archaic fetishes and quasi-objects return to create social conflicts that shatter the most mature ethical senses of precaution and legal policies of prevention. The return of these obscure objects is a political event that, shattering the conventional critical standpoint, seems to reveal a field of politics beyond critique. Being against the World elicits and addresses this beyond, in the domains of art, law and politics.Oscar Guardiola-Rivera is the author of 'Being Against the World: Rebellion and Constitution (Birkbeck Law Press)', published 2008 under ISBN 9780415459457 and ISBN 0415459451.