The State and War
Today I am providing my English translation of a very short article by Giorgio Agamben, originally in Italian, first published on QuodLibet.it on Saturday 14th June 2025 and then on ComeDonChisciotte.org on Tuesday 24th June 2025.
What we call the state is, in the final analysis, a machine for waging war, and sooner or later this fundamental vocation ends up emerging beyond all the more or less edifying goals it may set itself to justify its existence. This is particularly evident today. Netanyahu, Zelensky, and European governments are pursuing a policy of war at all costs, for which goals and justifications can certainly be identified, but whose ultimate motive is unconscious and rests on the very nature of the state as a war machine. This explains why war, as is evident for Zelensky and Europe, but also true in the case of Israel, is pursued even at the cost of possible self-destruction. And it is futile to hope that a war machine can stop in the face of this risk. It will continue to the end, whatever the price it has to pay.
War is the ultimate expression of the state.
No expense is spared in manufacturing weapons.
Meanwhile people pile up credit card debt and bridges collapse.
what an excellent post. But its not just ' today ' its been this way since the kings and serfs...we have to change it. No more politicians. Government agencies can be run by the people the agency represents...so the Ministry of Education is run by teachers - Ministry of Health run by doctors and nurses...maybe even rotating back into teaching after a few years in the ministry. And no bribes - no ' donors ' but Mandatory Gifting from big corporations - not too big though - no crossover from one division of society to the other. Finance and government and culture. finance = fraternity /
government = rights / culture = freedom