What do you think?
Rate this book
A Declaration of the Rights of Human Beings: On the Sovereignty of Life as Surpassing the Rights of Man
Sometimes playful or poetic, always provocative, Raoul Vaneigem reviews the history of bills of rights before offering his own call, with commentary, for fifty-seven rights yet to be won in a world where the “freedoms accorded to Man” are no longer merely “the freedoms accorded by man to the economy.” Readers of Vaneigem's now-classic work The Revolution of Everyday Life , which as one of the main contributions of the Situationist International was a harbinger of May 1968 in France, will find much to savor in these pages written in the highest idiom of subversive utopianism.
- GenresPoliticsPhilosophy
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
5 people are currently reading
182 people want to read
About the author
Raoul Vaneigem
110 books159 followersRaoul Vaneigem (born 1934) is a Belgian writer and philosopher. He was born in Lessines (Hainaut, Belgium). After studying romance philology at the Free University of Brussels (now split into the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel) from 1952 to 1956, he participated in the Situationist International from 1961 to 1970. He currently resides in Belgium and is the father of four children.
Vaneigem and Guy Debord were the two principal theoreticians of the Situationist movement. Although Debord was the more disciplined thinker, Vaneigem's slogans frequently made it onto the walls of Paris during the May 1968 uprisings. His most famous book, and the one that contains the famous slogans, is The Revolution of Everyday Life (in French the title was more elaborate: Traité du savoir-vivre à l'usage des jeunes générations).
After leaving the Situationist movement Vaneigem wrote a series of polemical books defending the idea of a free and self-regulating social order. He frequently made use of pseudonyms, including "Julienne de Cherisy," "Robert Desessarts," "Jules-François Dupuis," "Tristan Hannaniel," "Anne de Launay," "Ratgeb," and "Michel Thorgal." Recently he has been an advocate of a new type of strike, in which service and transportation workers provide services for free and refuse to collect payment or fares.
From www.nothingness.org: "Along with Guy Debord, the voice of Raoul Vaneigem was one of the strongest of the Situationists. Counterpoised to Debord's political and polemic style, Vaneigem offered a more poetic and spirited prose. The Revolution of Everyday Life (Traité de savoir-vivre à l'usage des jeunes générations), published in the same year as The Society of the Spectacle, helped broaden and balance the presentation of the SI's theories and practices. One of the longest SI members, and frequent editor of the journal Internationale Situationniste, Vaneigem finally left the SI in November of 1970, citing their failures as well as his own in his letter of resignation. Soon after, Debord issued a typically scathing response denouncing both Vaneigem and his critique of the Situationist International."
Further biographical information can be found at www.nothingness.org and www.notbored.org.
Vaneigem and Guy Debord were the two principal theoreticians of the Situationist movement. Although Debord was the more disciplined thinker, Vaneigem's slogans frequently made it onto the walls of Paris during the May 1968 uprisings. His most famous book, and the one that contains the famous slogans, is The Revolution of Everyday Life (in French the title was more elaborate: Traité du savoir-vivre à l'usage des jeunes générations).
After leaving the Situationist movement Vaneigem wrote a series of polemical books defending the idea of a free and self-regulating social order. He frequently made use of pseudonyms, including "Julienne de Cherisy," "Robert Desessarts," "Jules-François Dupuis," "Tristan Hannaniel," "Anne de Launay," "Ratgeb," and "Michel Thorgal." Recently he has been an advocate of a new type of strike, in which service and transportation workers provide services for free and refuse to collect payment or fares.
From www.nothingness.org: "Along with Guy Debord, the voice of Raoul Vaneigem was one of the strongest of the Situationists. Counterpoised to Debord's political and polemic style, Vaneigem offered a more poetic and spirited prose. The Revolution of Everyday Life (Traité de savoir-vivre à l'usage des jeunes générations), published in the same year as The Society of the Spectacle, helped broaden and balance the presentation of the SI's theories and practices. One of the longest SI members, and frequent editor of the journal Internationale Situationniste, Vaneigem finally left the SI in November of 1970, citing their failures as well as his own in his letter of resignation. Soon after, Debord issued a typically scathing response denouncing both Vaneigem and his critique of the Situationist International."
Further biographical information can be found at www.nothingness.org and www.notbored.org.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 7, 2007
A fantastic response to the enormity of anxiety, loneliness, alienation, finitude, and meaninglessness that society imposes upon us.
"human rights are a de facto sanctioning of the oppressive nature of a community whose interests injure or oppose those of its members. It is time to promote a society which will have no need of tutelary guarantees, because it will have obliterated the very conditions which give rise to violence, rape and oppression, and which alienate protest against them."
"The only way of fighting against the worst is to be tenacious about wishing for the best."
"Men and women have no value by virtue of their birth, nor by their power, nor by their possessions. Their only value lies in their humanity."
"For the development of a society preoccupied with happiness, nothing is more fundamental than the will to emancipation, stimulated by the natural birth of love relationships, by education through affection for constant progress in knowledge, by play and the appeal of pleasure in creating one's personal destiny."
"A fatalism anchored in attitudes of mind and perpetuated by those who put their trust in God, in some prince or master or employer, in some mysterious and impenetrable Fate, persists in prohibiting human beings from finding in their pleasures the raw material which fashions their lives in order to build their happiness."
"Anyone with less than ninety per cent of their time at their disposal is a slave."
"With the concern to cease tolerating a power against which we must protect ourselves, we wish to oppose the principle of defence by encouraging the impulse for everyone to feel at home wherever they are."
"Claiming one's own singularity means wishing to be a fully human subject. This resolution is the only one capable of breaking the process of reification inherent in the economy."
"Only individuals who aspire to create their own destiny are equipped to found a society that stands together in solidarity, to make real the old dream of fraternity, and to consign once and for all to the past the dichotomies that split exploiters and exploited, egoism and altruism, rebellion and the herd mentality."
"Inhumanity is not a matter for discussion, but for rejection."
"What has become plain in relation to the rejection of despotic regimes today begins to be true for the construction of situations favourable to the refinement and the flowering of living beings."
"Behind contempt for animals lies contempt for human beings,"
"Ever since childhood, the existential adventure has owed the sureness and firmness of its first steps to an impulse of life which can be protected against old reflex of inversion only by love and human awareness."
"Taking the time to live is the first victory over death."
"everything is beautiful in whoever loves or is loved."
"under the reign of barbarism, the freedoms authorised by life were most usually no more than a license to oppress."
"that insensitivity to life, which has always encouraged the logic of profit and exploitability...."
"The best critique of a deplorable state of affairs consists in creating the situation which remedies it.... The way to have done with a world which enacts its own destruction is not to anathematise it but to clear away its debris and build a brand new civilization."
"We have been subjugated to a process of evolution whereby inhumanity varied in its form, but not in its content. Real change begins where self-exile comes to an end. It marks the passage from survival to life."
"every instant should be a stage lived so intensely that is has no necessary preoccupation with a future and is felicitously rooted in the present."
"Desiring, for and against everything, the most joyous things that love of life has to give, offers without doubt the best prevention against the ever-threatening storms of unforeseen misfortune."
"human rights are a de facto sanctioning of the oppressive nature of a community whose interests injure or oppose those of its members. It is time to promote a society which will have no need of tutelary guarantees, because it will have obliterated the very conditions which give rise to violence, rape and oppression, and which alienate protest against them."
"The only way of fighting against the worst is to be tenacious about wishing for the best."
"Men and women have no value by virtue of their birth, nor by their power, nor by their possessions. Their only value lies in their humanity."
"For the development of a society preoccupied with happiness, nothing is more fundamental than the will to emancipation, stimulated by the natural birth of love relationships, by education through affection for constant progress in knowledge, by play and the appeal of pleasure in creating one's personal destiny."
"A fatalism anchored in attitudes of mind and perpetuated by those who put their trust in God, in some prince or master or employer, in some mysterious and impenetrable Fate, persists in prohibiting human beings from finding in their pleasures the raw material which fashions their lives in order to build their happiness."
"Anyone with less than ninety per cent of their time at their disposal is a slave."
"With the concern to cease tolerating a power against which we must protect ourselves, we wish to oppose the principle of defence by encouraging the impulse for everyone to feel at home wherever they are."
"Claiming one's own singularity means wishing to be a fully human subject. This resolution is the only one capable of breaking the process of reification inherent in the economy."
"Only individuals who aspire to create their own destiny are equipped to found a society that stands together in solidarity, to make real the old dream of fraternity, and to consign once and for all to the past the dichotomies that split exploiters and exploited, egoism and altruism, rebellion and the herd mentality."
"Inhumanity is not a matter for discussion, but for rejection."
"What has become plain in relation to the rejection of despotic regimes today begins to be true for the construction of situations favourable to the refinement and the flowering of living beings."
"Behind contempt for animals lies contempt for human beings,"
"Ever since childhood, the existential adventure has owed the sureness and firmness of its first steps to an impulse of life which can be protected against old reflex of inversion only by love and human awareness."
"Taking the time to live is the first victory over death."
"everything is beautiful in whoever loves or is loved."
"under the reign of barbarism, the freedoms authorised by life were most usually no more than a license to oppress."
"that insensitivity to life, which has always encouraged the logic of profit and exploitability...."
"The best critique of a deplorable state of affairs consists in creating the situation which remedies it.... The way to have done with a world which enacts its own destruction is not to anathematise it but to clear away its debris and build a brand new civilization."
"We have been subjugated to a process of evolution whereby inhumanity varied in its form, but not in its content. Real change begins where self-exile comes to an end. It marks the passage from survival to life."
"every instant should be a stage lived so intensely that is has no necessary preoccupation with a future and is felicitously rooted in the present."
"Desiring, for and against everything, the most joyous things that love of life has to give, offers without doubt the best prevention against the ever-threatening storms of unforeseen misfortune."
December 25, 2017
58 άρθρα μνημειώδους πνευματικής διαύγειας και διαλεκτικής από έναν θεωρητικό κλάσης όπως ο Ραούλ Βάνεγκεμ.
Ο Ραούλ ο οποίος υπήρξε και το μεγαλύτερο σε διάρκεια μέλος της καταστασιακής διεθνούς, πλάι στον πνευματικό ηγέτη της Γκυ Ντεμπόρ (γνωστή και η ρήξη τους με τον δεύτερο να αποζητά μια πιο μαρξιστική στροφή), ο οποίος έγραψε το εξαιρετικό έργο που μνημονεύεται κατά κόρον "η επανάσταση της καθημερινής ζωής" που εκδόθηκε τον ίδιο χρόνο με την βίβλο και κυριότερο έργο που εκφράζει τον καταστασιασμό την "κοινωνία του θεάματος".
Ο Ραούλ που επέλεγε πάντοτε μια πιο λυρική έκφραση και μια πρόζα σε αυτό το βιβλίο καταφέρνει μέσα από προτροπές μέσω των κατανεμημένων άρθρων να εντρυφήσει στο αυτονόητο που θα έπρεπε να ισχύει. Κάθε παράγραφος και κάθε πρόταση του είναι μια ωδή στην πρωτοποριακή σκέψη και μια γλυκόπικρη αύρα από τα γεγονότα του Μάη του 68 στα οποία μέσω των συνθημάτων του υπήρξε και πρωτεργάτης.
Μέσα από την οξυδέρκεια του αποδομεί,επαναδομεί,οριοθετεί και ερμηνεύει κάθε παναθρώπινη αξία μέσα από ένα ηθικό και μή πρίσμα από τη βούληση και την εναρμόνιση του είναι του υποκειμένου.
Μια διορατική ματιά του επερχόμενου μέλλοντος και μια καυστική κοινωνιολογική κριτική του κοινωνικού οικοδομήματος του υπάρχοντος.
Ένα βιβλίο κόλαφος, στάση ζωής και απαραίτητο εργαλείο σκέψης και πράξης.
Από τα βιβλία που αντέχουν πάντοτε στο χρόνο
Ο Ραούλ ο οποίος υπήρξε και το μεγαλύτερο σε διάρκεια μέλος της καταστασιακής διεθνούς, πλάι στον πνευματικό ηγέτη της Γκυ Ντεμπόρ (γνωστή και η ρήξη τους με τον δεύτερο να αποζητά μια πιο μαρξιστική στροφή), ο οποίος έγραψε το εξαιρετικό έργο που μνημονεύεται κατά κόρον "η επανάσταση της καθημερινής ζωής" που εκδόθηκε τον ίδιο χρόνο με την βίβλο και κυριότερο έργο που εκφράζει τον καταστασιασμό την "κοινωνία του θεάματος".
Ο Ραούλ που επέλεγε πάντοτε μια πιο λυρική έκφραση και μια πρόζα σε αυτό το βιβλίο καταφέρνει μέσα από προτροπές μέσω των κατανεμημένων άρθρων να εντρυφήσει στο αυτονόητο που θα έπρεπε να ισχύει. Κάθε παράγραφος και κάθε πρόταση του είναι μια ωδή στην πρωτοποριακή σκέψη και μια γλυκόπικρη αύρα από τα γεγονότα του Μάη του 68 στα οποία μέσω των συνθημάτων του υπήρξε και πρωτεργάτης.
Μέσα από την οξυδέρκεια του αποδομεί,επαναδομεί,οριοθετεί και ερμηνεύει κάθε παναθρώπινη αξία μέσα από ένα ηθικό και μή πρίσμα από τη βούληση και την εναρμόνιση του είναι του υποκειμένου.
Μια διορατική ματιά του επερχόμενου μέλλοντος και μια καυστική κοινωνιολογική κριτική του κοινωνικού οικοδομήματος του υπάρχοντος.
Ένα βιβλίο κόλαφος, στάση ζωής και απαραίτητο εργαλείο σκέψης και πράξης.
Από τα βιβλία που αντέχουν πάντοτε στο χρόνο
December 15, 2022
There's been a huge difference with the treatment of human rights activism and then this exposure from this book. Solid and practical, visionary and down to earth, good vocabulary and syntax, and much more virtues we can review from this interesting work.
April 29, 2024
I only thought this book was gonna be a 2 or 3 when I first started but it started getting better
February 25, 2008
I love this book.
July 8, 2011
"Anyone with less than ninety per cent of their time at their disposal is a slave."
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews