A radical Deleuze for South Africa

A radical Deleuze for South African politics

Deleuze’s philosophy aims to radicalize the way in how we think instigating a revolution in thought. Deleuze’s concept ‘difference’ does not rely on a relationship with sameness and it also challenges the western philosophical representational model of thought. For Deleuze difference-in-itself liberates ‘difference’ from domination by identity and sameness. For Deleuze and Guattari ‘politics precedes being’ and they proclaim ‘everything is political’. Difference in terms of their concept ‘political’ therefore implies rejecting universalisation/representation in defense of an unrepresented singularity. Deleuze addresses the question of ‘life’ or the force that endures over time and the transformations that succeed as an experimental, spontaneous, and open process of transformation. ‘Life’ therefore has a radical meaning for Deleuzian concepts. Radicalizing difference about life and politics is especially relevant in the South African context where these themes are extremely polarized. South Africa is one of the most inegalitarian societies in the world and the gap between rich and poor is still strongly correlated with differences of race. One of the consequences of neoliberal capitalism is the escalating incidence of social protests in South Africa. The structural and everyday violence imposed on impoverished individual and collective bodies is also a result of spatial and structural living conditions. Impoverished individuals and groups originate from the outside borders of urban societies, neglected, and dilapidated inner city dwellings and transit camps and remote rural area. Furthermore neoliberal governance in neocolonies requires states to create complex legal systems as part of its bureaucratic functions to manage the population. Adjudicatory and other legal measures often become the default mode of solving differences, protecting interests and demanding rights. This coincides with complex legal organization.