Who Are Our Nomads Today?: Deleuze's Political Ontology and the Revolutionary Problematic

Abstract

This paper will address the question of the revolution in Gilles Deleuze's political ontology. More specifically, it will explore what kind of person Deleuze believes is capable of bringing about genuine and practical transformation. Contrary to the belief that a Deleuzian program for change centres on the facilitation of 'absolute deterritorialisation' and pure 'lines of flight', I will demonstrate how Deleuze in fact advocates a more cautious and incremental if not conservative practice that promotes the ethic of prudence. This will be achieved in part through a critical analysis of the dualistic premises upon which much Deleuzian political philosophy is based, alongside the topological triads that can also be found in his work. In light of this critique, Deleuze's thoughts on what it is to be and become a revolutionary will be brought into relief, giving rise to the question of who really is Deleuze's nomad, his true revolutionary or figure of transformation?

Dissent

“…He has taken a position on the major issues of the time: calling for more democracy in the educational system, dealing with student protests, confronting those conservatives who considered it time to wash their hands of the Nazi past in the Historikerstreit, challenging the postmodernist advocates of relativism and experientialism, championing the contributions of the welfare state, opposing the deployment of nuclear missiles in Germany. 57 Critical theory must specify where and how it may be actualized in practice. We are not the only saviors of our society, but we are also its saviors.…”

“…Going back to the essay, "Who are Our Nomads Today?," Lundy claims that contrary to the general belief that Deleuze's political philosophy espouses the felicitation of absolute deterritorialization and pure lines of flight, his project is informed by an "ethics of prudence." 57 Lundy's discussion presupposes that when the molecular line metamorphoses as the governing principle of politics, political instability is of high possibility. The same is true with the molar line because the segmentarized majoritarian politics is the sphere of State philosophy and rigid molar codes-the nemesis of the nomad.…”

“…56 Samantalang ang consumerism ay tumutukoy sa mas kumplikadong paraan ng pamumuhay na sobra-sobrang nakatuon sa pagbili at paggamit ng produkto. 57 Sinabi pa ni Bauman na kung ang consumption ay katangian ng isang indibidwal na tao, ang konsumerismo ay katangian ng lipunan. 58 Sa kasalukuyang anyo ng lipunan na pinapangisawaan ng mga polisiyang nakabatay sa pinagpanibagong Kapitalismo, ang kultura ng konsumerismo ay higit pang bumabaon sa kaibuturan ng pagkatao ng mga kasapi nito.…”

A nomadic war machine in the metropolis

“…Guattari do not occupy the same 'revolutionary problematic' (Lundy 2013) as Hardt and Negri (see Tampio 2009). Whatever political differences there might be, the authorial pairs both give ontological primacy to becoming over being.…”

What’s my scene

“…Consequentially the music festival fan or musical nomad has a different relationship to the festival space to that of fans of the scene. Lundy (2013) suggests that the nomad "is largely predicated on their differing relations to space, and more precisely, their distribution of and in space" (p. 234). When approaching the festival fans as musical nomads, the primary focus is on not their capacity to move beyond a single festival space, but their ability to resist fixed identification with a particular scene.…”