This essay explores a particular relationship that is constantly expanding and reshaping itself on a global scale: the relationship of hostility. Revisiting some of the themes already addressed in his previous works, the author diagnoses the presence of an original violence, one that democracies cannot rid themselves of, while simultaneously corrupting the very fabric of freedom and inexorably dragging it toward decay. Thus, drawing in part on the psychiatric and political work of Frantz Fanon, the author shows how, in the wake of a 20th-century decolonization conflict, war—in the guise of conquest and occupation, terror, and the suppression of insurrection—has become the defining characteristic of our time. This highly relevant book, accessible to readers interested in politics and the social sciences, compels us to examine the relationships between violence and legality, the state o...read more
