Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- INTRODUCTORY ESSAY
- DIFFERENT/CIATION
- LIFE, ETHICS, POLITICS
- 8 Deleuze and the Meaning of Life
- 9 The Ethics of Becoming-Imperceptible
- 10 The Limits of Intensity and the Mechanics of Death
- 11 The Problem of the Birth of Philosophy in Greece in the Thought of Gilles Deleuze
- 12 Gilles Deleuze's Political Posture
- 13 Fabulation, Narration and the People to Come
- EPILOGUE
- List of Contributors
- Index
9 - The Ethics of Becoming-Imperceptible
from LIFE, ETHICS, POLITICS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- INTRODUCTORY ESSAY
- DIFFERENT/CIATION
- LIFE, ETHICS, POLITICS
- 8 Deleuze and the Meaning of Life
- 9 The Ethics of Becoming-Imperceptible
- 10 The Limits of Intensity and the Mechanics of Death
- 11 The Problem of the Birth of Philosophy in Greece in the Thought of Gilles Deleuze
- 12 Gilles Deleuze's Political Posture
- 13 Fabulation, Narration and the People to Come
- EPILOGUE
- List of Contributors
- Index
Summary
In this essay I will explore the eco-philosophical aspects of the ethics of becoming, with reference to the project of nomadic subjectivity and sustainability. The urge that prompts this investigation is not only abstract, but also very practical. Nomadic philosophy mobilises one's affectivity and enacts the desire for in-depth transformations in the status of the kind of subjects we have become. Such in-depth changes, however, are at best demanding and at worst painful processes. My political generation, that of the baby-boomers, has had to come to terms with this harsh reality, which put a check on the intense and often fatal impatience that characterises those who yearn for change.
We lost so many of its specimen to dead-end experimentations of the existential, political, sexual, narcotic or technological kind. Although it is true that we lost as many if not more of our members to the stultifying inertia of the status quo – a sort of generalised ‘Stepford wives’ syndrome – it is nonetheless the case that I have developed an acute awareness of how difficult changes are. Which is not meant as a deterrent against them; on the contrary: I think that the current political climate has placed undue emphasis on the risks involved in pursuing social changes, playing ad nauseam the refrain about the death of ideologies. Such a conservative reaction aims at disciplining the citizens and reducing their desire for the ‘new’ to docile and compulsive forms of consumerism.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Deleuze and Philosophy , pp. 133 - 159Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2006