On the conditions of living/dying together in the Middle East

• Published date: 01 May 2021
• Author: Barış Aydın
• Date: 01 May 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2197

ACADEMIC PAPER

On the conditions of living/dying together in the Middle East

Barıs¸ Aydın

Department of Political Science and Public

Administration, Istanbul Medeniyet University,

Istanbul, Turkey

Correspondence

Barıs¸ Aydın, PhD, Department of Political

Science and Public Administration, Istanbul

Medeniyet University, Istanbul, Turkey.

Email: barisaydin@gmail.com

The idea of a “community of death”theorized by Maurice Blanchot with reference to

George Bataille, and the discussion he pursued assuming Acéphale and May 68 as its

concrete forms provides an important conceptual framework for the idea of emanci-

pation-oriented social movement. The thinkers discussed in here deliberated society

or community as rather than being a platform of immanence that sacrificed the its

singularity and the absolute otherness to an organic social ideal, connoting its singu-

larity as the medium of revealing and sharing in a way that corresponds to a surplus

within the community. Even if the most prominent aspect of the Arab Spring and

Gezi Movement, storming through the Middle East, was the subsequent strengthen-

ing of the forces leading to blood and tears in these ancient lands, it is possible to

answer questions about these phenomena such as “Are there any small sparks, glows

or flares in the dust that can give lifeblood to the co-existence of the inhabitants of

these lands? What are the conditions?”by way of conceptual ammunition. Despite

the subsequent antidemocratic pushbacks, this wave of social movements has now

irreversibly placed new forms of individuality and subjectivity based on social and

political freedom on the agenda of the masses in the Middle East. For the Arab Spring

and the Gezi movement, the plurality of the public that emerged during the demon-

strations, which could not be reduced to any identity or class, points to both the

chances and the saddening misfortune of the social movements here, as

Blanchot said.

“When you wept it was just over yourself and not

because of the marvelous impossibility of reaching her

through the difference that separates you …Even so

you have managed to live that love in the only way

possible for you. Losing it before it happened.”

(Duras, 1986, pp. 54–55)

1|INTRODUCTION: MAIN QUESTIONS

Today, is it possible to estimate the loss in being an anti-individual

community, if it might be? If the “loss”in May 68 and Acéphale

1

were

still a loss experienced in present all the time and if transferable expe-

rience were that of not being a community, would it always be a nega-

tive experience, a failure? Also, is it the impossibility of being a

community that is the ultimate subject of being a community? Is the

main ground of heterogeneous communities, carrying the inspiring

loads of May 68, the simultaneous death of individual and commu-

nity? Following the example of Derridaʼs theory; is the May 68ʼs con-

dition of possibility also its condition of impossibility, its necessity of

death? To put it differently, does the complete disunity between the

pragmatist demands of workers and the students' unconcerned

demands of freedom lie behind what renders the May 68 events and

the “unavowable community”“powerful”(and also “fail”them)?

Analyzing these questions, the article will firstly focus on the idea

of a “community of death”theorized by Maurice Blanchot with refer-

ence to George Bataille, and the discussion he pursued assuming

Acéphale and May 68 as its concrete forms. Afterwards, even if the

most prominent aspect of the Arab Spring and Gezi Movement,

storming through the Middle East and Islamic lands, was the subse-

quent strengthening of the forces leading to blood and tears in these

ancient lands, the article aims to find answers to the question, “Are

Received: 10 May 2020 Revised: 18 May 2020 Accepted: 19 May 2020

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2197

J Public Affairs. 2021;21:e2197. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 1of7

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2197