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.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that humanity may eventually manipulate laws not to follow them, but to liberate society from their constraints.
Giorgio Agamben's quote reflects on the evolving relationship between humanity and the laws that govern it. He posits that in the future, people may interact with laws in a playful, almost carefree manner, not to enforce or adhere to them, but rather to dismantle them and move beyond their traditional meanings. This implies a transformation in societal norms and a shift towards a more liberated existence where laws are no longer the controlling force they once were.
In practice
In a debate about the evolving nature of justice, you might quote Agamben to emphasize the need for a re-evaluation of legal constraints.
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
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.
Part of being in New York is being able to brag about what used to be there.
Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.
It's a battered old suitcase to a hotel someplace, and a wound that will never heal. No prima donna, the perfume is on an old shirt that is stained with blood and whiskey. Goodnight to the street sweepers, the night watchmen flame keepers and goodnight, Matilda, too.
To be mad is to feel with excruciating intensity the sadness and joy of a time which has not arrived or has already been.
Those touchy mediocrities who sit trembling lest someone's work prove greater than their own - they have no inkling of the loneliness that comes when you reach the top. The loneliness for an equal - for a mind to respect and an achievement to admire.
How can I know anything about the past or the future, when the light of the Beloved shines only Now.
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