Buttler J._on Cruelty

7/25/2019 Buttler J._on Cruelty

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On CrueltyJudith ButlerJudith Butler - On Cruelty

BUYThe Death Penalty: Vol. IbyJacques Derrida,translated byPeggy Kamuf

Chicago, 328 , !2"#$%, January, &'B( )*8 % 22+ ""32 %

-.hence comes this bi/arre, bi/arre idea,0 Jacques Derrida as1s,

reading (iet/sche on debt in On the Genealogy of Morals, -this

ancient, archaic uralte idea, this so 4ery deely rooted5enrai/ada,

arraigada6, erhas indestructible idea, of a ossible equi4alence

bet7een inury and ain Schaden und Schmerz9 .hence comes this

strange hyothesis or resumtion of an equi4alence bet7een t7o

such incommensurable things9 .hat can a 7rong and a su:eringha4e in common90 By 7ay of an ans7er, he oints out that -the origin

of the legal subect, and notably of enal la7, is commercial la7; it is

the la7 of commerce, debt, the mar1et, the econsciousness of guilt?, >bad conscience?0 came into the 7orld#

@arlier he laments -that 7hole sombre thing called reAection0, in

7hich the self becomes its o7n obect of relentless 5imlacable6

scrutiny 5e


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creature# & can be counted on to count the time and count u the

money to ma1e the reaymentE that accountability isthe romise# &

can count on myself, and others can count on me# &f & ro4e caable

of ma1ing a contract, & can recei4e a loan and be relied on to ay it

bac1 7ith interest, so that the lender can accumulate 7ealth 5rique/a6from my debt in a redictable 7ay# Fnd if & default 5incumlir6, the la7

7ill inter4ene to rotect his interest in the interest he e


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lace of some equi4alent, something or someone, one grants in

return, as ayment, the leasure of doing 4iolence Genuss in der

Verge"altigung#

Fnd though Derrida accets the translation of Verge"altigungas

-4iolence0 usually Ge"alt, it is also the Herman 7ord for -rae0,raising the roblem of 7hether 5si6 it is ossible to distinguish

bet7een se


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himself in my lace 7ould ha4e to do the same, that the other is

guilty to7ards me, has 7ronged me or 7ill 7rong me and so forth L

gi4en that the crime is meaningful, deliberate, calculated,

remeditated, goaloriented, it belongs to the order of enal ustice

and is no longer dissociable from a condemnation to death, from aroerly enal act# Ft that oint, the distinction bet7een 4engeance

and ustice becomes recarious#

But (iet/sche also 7rites something more, namely that commercial

contracts model the social contract, 7hich requires that humans

undergo 5someterse, sufrir, adecer6 an internalisation of their

aggressi4e dri4es 5imulso6# .hat is internalised or, indeed, reressed

by entering into the social contract is -hostility, cruelty, oy in

ersecuting, in attac1ing, in change, in destruction0# his

internalisation can oerate as sublimation, gi4ing rise 5ele4acin6 to

the soul, the entire inner 5interior6 7orld, bad conscience and guilt

e4erything that ma1es man interesting# he de4eloment of this

caacity comes at a 4ery high rice, 7hat some 7ould call neurosis,

and 7hat (iet/sche describes as that -serious illness that man 7as

bound to contract under the stress of the most fundamental change

he e4er e


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Pleasure Princi!lecalls into question the e


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rest of human1indE hostility seems a more reasonable default

osition#

.hat seems to be at sta1e here is neither a random attitude of

hostility nor e4en an occasional roensity to7ards cruelty, but the

broader roblem of the death dri4e# &n 'eyond the Pleasure

Princi!leand then in (i#ilisation and Its Discontents, 7ritten ten years

later, in )3%, Mreud 7rites about a 1ind of destructi4eness that

seems to dismantle social forms constructed on the basis of aim

inhibited social bonds, such as family, community and nation# Ie

remar1s on se4eral occasions, in articular 7hen considering the

ambi4alence constituti4e of lo4e, that the leasure rincile and the

death dri4e 7or1 in tandem, but they should be distinguished

nonetheless 5no obstante6 in terms of their =nal aims 5obeti4o6#

&n 'eyond the Pleasure Princi!leMreud ma1es t7o in4erse 1inds of

claim about the relationshi bet7een leasure and the death dri4eE

=rst, he gi4es the e


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abolitionism, remar1ing on -the hyocrisy that animates and agitates

the defenders of ust causes0# Iere is a reoinder# Derrida0s osition

imlies that the only route to an abolitionist osition is through the

4iolent suression of the aggressi4e imulse, a redoubling of

aggression that is no7 con4eyed and amli=ed by moral instruments#But gi4en that aggression can be interruted by more relational

orientations, 7hy 7ouldn0t oosition to the death enalty emerge

from those9 he leasure rincile inter4enes to derail aggression

time and again, and & ha4e noted already that for Mreud the death

dri4e can be brought 7ithin the ser4ice of the leasure rincile, and

that leasure can ser4e the urose of creating and reroducing

social bonds# &n the conte


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t7o 7ishes at 7or1, t7o true moti4es struggling to coe


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indi4iduated & may seem# Fnd it isn0t that you and & are the same;

rather, it is that 7e in4ariably lean to7ards and on each other, and it

is imossible to thin1 about either of us 7ithout the other# &f & see1 to

reser4e your life, it is not only because it is in my selfinterest to do

so, or because & ha4e 7agered that it 7ill bring about betterconsequences for me# &t is because & am already tied to you in a social

bond 7ithout 7hich this -&0 cannot be thought# 'o, 7hat imlications

does the thesis of emotional ambi4alence in lo4e ha4e for thin1ing

about alternati4es to the death enalty and for legal 4iolence more

generally9 &s there a 7ay to mo4e beyond the dialectical relation

bet7een the unishment of the death enalty and the life sentence9

R

Mollo7ing Benamin0s -Critique of Violence0, Derrida underscores theto


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ossibility of lin1ing the goal of death enalty abolitionism 7ith

strategies for rison abolition#

Ni1e Da4is, Derrida understands that the death enalty and

imrisonment are hardly oosites, but form t7o modalities of an

economy of 4engeance# .hen the state 1ills, and usti=es doing so, it

enacts 4engeance through its reasoning rocess; legal 4iolence

becomes no di:erent from nonlegal 4iolence, e


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e


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eole of colour are deri4ed of citi/enshi# he fact that the death

enalty is disroortionately alied to eole of colour imlies that it

is a 7ay of regulating citi/enshi by other means and, in the case of

the death enalty, concentrating state o7er o4er questions of life

and death that di:erentially a:ect minority oulations# Xet thiso7er is not simly or e

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