Just finished reading Carl Schmitt’s Political Theology, and now reading Giorgio Agamben‘s State of Exception. Both of which, when paired together form an interesting philosophical analysis of sovereign power in “emergency” or austere circumstances of the state. Agamben’s analysis reviews a post 9/11 legal framework of the state as a state of exception to the normative state’s authority. IOW, emergencies can form the basis for condensing power of the state to usher in a form of government that is more authoritarian in design and law. This is to say, never let a good crisis go to waste in the event we (royal we) assume power, because once power is ceded through force, or democratic mechanisms—which would present a state of exception to ZOG, then a new normative state may be constructed.
