**Links to**: [[Dissent]], [[Walter Benjamin]], [[Domination]], [[Class interest]], [[Control]], [[Problems]]. ### [[Question]]: Is it possible to enunciate anything without oppressing? %% ### Il mio papa The _Dum Diversas_ of 1452. ### Capitalism Why does someone, who is not democratically elected,^[It is not that we champion democracy here as the (only) way things should be, but it is a phenomenon we observe in a lot of contexts as “the way” rulers should be elected. ] get to decide how much time you spend on the toilet? ### Sara Ahmed ### [[Walter Benjamin]], _Theses on the Philosophy of History / On the concept of history_. "VIII The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the ‘state of emergency’ in which we live is not the exception but the rule. We must attain to a conception of history that is in keeping with this insight. Then we shall clearly realize that it is our task to bring about a real state of emergency, and this will improve our position in the struggle against Fascism. One reason why Fascism has a chance is that in the name of progress its opponents treat it as a historical norm. The current amazement that the things we are experiencing are ‘still’ possible in the twentieth century is not philosophical. This amazement is not the beginning of knowledge—unless it is the knowledge that the view of history which gives rise to it is untenable. ... XII >We need history, but not the way a spoiled loafer in the garden of knowledge needs it. ### [[Nietzsche]], _Of the Use and Abuse of History_ Not man or men but the struggling, oppressed class itself is the depository of historical knowledge." Even the dead quote facade of cultural treasures Historical materialism is present, in this present moment ### The [[Noise]] of the Oppressed referred to by Cecile: https://pure.roehampton.ac.uk/portal/en/studentTheses/the-noise-of-the-oppressed %% ### Footnotes