A philosopher in times of emergency Olgária Matos and the State of Exception

Abstract

The essay aims to present Olgária Matos' reflections on the state of exception. It begins by discussing the origin of the concept of modernity, first coined by Charles Baudelaire, and how it explains the emergence of bourgeois society and social relations in nascent capitalism. In the meantime, we see the dark side of the first prototype of modernity, Enlightenment, represented by the image of the Enlightenment. In this respect, the secondary (military) meaning of the concept of enlightenment, as "recognition of the enemy", allows us to reach the remnants of the past considered barbaric and overcome by the very civilizational process carried out by modernity. The will of the king in absolutism is overcome by the abstract concept of sovereignty and the state of exception. In a process typical of modernity, what was concrete is broken down into pure abstraction, but this abstraction is capable of producing concrete results that are even worse than those perpetrated before by the king's commands and disgraces. Modernity understood as a permanent state of exception results in the fierce struggle of a capitalism of prey, in which individuals fight over the booty and spoils of carnage. This is society's general state of exception, which in fact, according to Benjamin, is no more than the rule. The only way out is to remember the moments when the real state of exception began to be unleashed, because through remembrance, the hope of establishing it is rekindled.