DEATH AND JUSTICE FOR ALL OR SOME(?)
I am Xenoboy. I am the Political Savant.
Last week, nomos empsuchon Philip Yeo executed blogo sacer Acidflask. Silenced.
In two days, a Singaporean will die by the death penalty for peddling drugs. Silenced.
On 15 May 1525, in the German town of Frankenhausen, bastion of the first peasant movement against the feudal lords, the Princes, the clergy of Europe, a massacre of the peasants begins. This was the true Reformation.
I am Xenoboy. I am the Political Savant.
I leave you with the receipt of Augustin, known as Awe, the Executioner of the rebel peasants of Frankenhausen :
So the sum total is 80 beheaded, 69 of whom had their eyes put out and their fingers cut off, which comes to 114 florins and two cents. From this should be deducted: 10 florins, received from the citizens of Rothenburg; 2 florins received by Ludwig von Hutten; leaving: 102 florins. To this should be added 2 months' pay; for each month 8 florins = 16 florins, which makes: 118 florins and two cents.
I am Xenoboy. I am Acidflask. I am He who will be hanged tomorrow.
Are there no survivors?
posted by xenoboysg at 2:40 PM
8 Comments:
Do you see a re-spectacalization of the death penalty?
Molly
The candlelight vigil and all is fine and hunky dory but i think getting Chee to spearhead the thing is quite sucky. I wonder what Think Centre and the Artist community is doing to let Chee the Clown hijack this????????
We might as well invite X to lead the vigil.
"CANDLE LIT"
"NOOSE TIGHTENED"
"STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN"
"WE STAY IN HELL"
Dear Molly,
I believe what the ArtsCommunity people are doing is the step in the right direction. They definitely have to re-spectacalize this issue into the mainstream.
The Singapore Government does not want any spectacle associated with the death penalty. It links to my previous post on killing a man but without sacrifice. It wants the act of killing by the sovereign as a fact of life, the conflation of biopolitics and thanatopolitics.
What we witness on 6 May by ArtsCommunity is a gentle step in the right direction.
As for who leads (reference to 2nd anon), it is irrelevant.
XenoBoy
Yes, Xenoboy. That's what Molly is thinking too, with regards to Foucault's take on the history of the death penalty--how it evolved from a public spectacle to something that must be concealed. If the de-spectacalization of the death penalty is evidence of the intensification of power, perhaps re-spectacalization is a means of undermining the power.
Oh dear, Molly is very worried. How could anyone be allowed to undermine power?
Molly
Mollie ah, u are very smart leh, how come people say you bimbo?????????????????????
lurker
Aye aye Molly,
For one moment, I thought Molly was stepping outside of her own spectacle production extraordinaire.
But to answer your comment, one of the critiques of Foucault is that he died before he could address the logical implications of his theories. there cannot be a reversal of the State's de-spectacalization through re-spectacalization simply because the latter is a simultaneous process as the former is carried out by the State.
The crux of Foucault lies in his notion of State biopolitics, how the State assumes the role of guardian of the "body" politic.
Enmeshed into this is the evolution of a juridical process that today determines whether you live or die. For example, what do "brain death" and the term "legally dead" mean?
There are yet no answers I see for power in Singapore politics. but what I do see are the seeds of a possibly brighter future for the country in all the le enfant terribles of Sg blogosphere.
To the last anonymous person, Molly very smart meh? For once, Molly is not called a bimbo.
To Xenoboy: So, thankfully, re-spectacalization is not a reversal of de-spectacalization.
As for Foucault's own death (whether legal or not), tsk tsk ... Molly's tempted to bring up her brand of Balajism...
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