What is it about?
Henri Bergson contrasts an open society of creators to closed societies based on the exclusion of the Other. This influences Deleuze and Guattari's conception of revolutionary becoming and "minor" politics. "Major" politics is based on norms that are meant to apply to everyone; "minor" politics respects differences and allows for spontaneous alliances and encounters.
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Why is it important?
In an age when new tribalisms have taken hold (white-race "nationalism," the "class of civilizations"), Bergson, Deleuze and Guattari propose a society based on openness to differences and to the Other. Democracy is not the imposition of a "general will" or "consensus" on anyone, but a system in which individuals and groups can devise their own practices to most enhance their ability to realize their potentials.
Perspectives
Deleuze and Guattari remain important political thinkers. They propose a politics of difference based on power and potentialities, grounded in reality, rather than on abstract and ineffective conceptions of "rights." When people are cut off from their power and potential, they are oppressed; liberation consists in removing the impediments to the oppressed coming into possession of their own powers of acting and living.
Prof. Bruce Baugh
Thompson Rivers University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Open Society and the Democracy to Come: Bergson, Deleuze and Guattari, Deleuze Studies, August 2016, Edinburgh University Press,
DOI: 10.3366/dls.2016.0231.
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