Modern totalitarianism can be defined as the establishment, by means of the state of exception, of a legal civil war that allows for the physical elimination not only of political adversaries but of entire categories of citizens who for some reason cannot be integrated into the political system
Interpretation
The quote discusses how modern totalitarianism creates a legal framework to justify the suppression and elimination of dissenting individuals and groups.
In this quote, Giorgio Agamben reflects on the nature of modern totalitarianism by asserting that it uses a state of exception—a legal condition that suspends normal laws—to enable a form of civil war. This radical political framework allows for not only the repression of political opposition but also the removal of entire groups of people deemed incompatible with the prevailing political order, thus highlighting the dangers of a legal system that can justify extreme measures against perceived threats.
In practice
In a speech addressing the dangers of authoritarianism, one might reference this quote to emphasize the need for vigilance against the erosion of civil rights.
To believe that will has power over potentiality, that the passage to actuality is the result of a decision that puts an end to the ambiguity of potentiality (which is always potentiality to do and not to do) — this is the perpetual illusion of morality.
Remembrance restores possibility to the past, making what happened incomplete and completing what never was. Remembrance is neither what happened nor what did not happen but, rather, their potentialization, their becoming possible once again.
One day humanity will play with law just as children play with disused objects, not in order to restore them to their canonical use but to free them from it for good.
Prejudice, not being founded on reason, cannot be removed by argument.
Silence is the nest and music is the bird. The bird leaves the nest early in the morning and returns to the nest in the evening. Similarly, in the spiritual world, divine music comes from the inmost soul of Silence.
The mob is the mother of tyrants.
A solitary, unused to speaking of what he sees and feels, has mental experiences which are at once more intense and less articulate than those of a gregarious man.
We ask for long life, but 'tis deep life, or noble moments that signify. Let the measure of time be spiritual, not mechanical.
Between the uprightness of my conscience and the hardness of my lot, I know not how either to show respect to my feelings or to the times. The bitterness of my mind urges me at all hazards to speak what I think, whereas the necessity of the times prompts me, however unbecomingly, to keep silence. Good God! Which way shall I turn myself?
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