THE AGE OF VIOLENCE
The Crisis of Political Action and the End of Utopia
by Alain Bertho
Translated by David Broder
https://www.versobooks.com/books/2843-the-age-of-violence
—————
Exploring the fury of the young in a world of crisis that seems to
offer no alternatives
“Only martyrs know neither pity nor fear. Believe me, the day when the
martyrs are victorious will be the day of universal conflagration.”
Jacques Lacan made this gloomy prophesy back in 1959: but doesn’t it
also apply to our own time? Faced with a rise in attacks around the
world, can we really just blame the “radicalisation of Islam’? What
hope is there for the alienated youth, as the wars that have ravaged
the Middle East spill out across the globe? For Alain Bertho, the
mounting chaos we see today is, above all, driven by the weakening of
states’ legitimacy under the pressure of globalisation. Add to this
the hypocrisy of the elites who beat the drum of “security measures,”
even as they sow the seeds of violence around the world. This disorder
is the swamp of despair which can only produce fresh atrocities.
Today’s youth are the lost children of neoliberal globalisation, the
inheritors of the political and human chaos it produces. When they
find it easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of
capitalism, their revolt tends to take the paths of martyrdom and
despair. The closing of the revolutionary hypothesis allows only fury.
The answer, Bertho argues, is a new radicalism, able to inspire a
collective hope in the future.
—————
Paperback: October 2018 / 9781786637475 / £12.99 / $26.95 / $32.00 (CAN)
THE AGE OF VIOLENCE is available to buy on the Verso website at 30% off:
https://www.versobooks.com/books/2843-the-age-of-violence
—————
Visit Verso’s website for information on our upcoming events, new
reviews and publications and special offers: http://www.versobooks.com
Sign up for the Verso mailing list:
https://www.versobooks.com/users/sign_up
