The Art of Revolt: Snowden, Assange, Manning

by Geoffroy de Lagasnerie

Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, and Chelsea Manning are key figures in the struggles playing out in our democracies over internet use, state secrets, and mass surveillance in the age of terror. When not decried as traitors, they are seen as whistle-blowers whose crucial revelations are meant to denounce a problem or correct an injustice. Yet, for Geoffroy de Lagasnerie, they are much more than that. Snowden, Assange, and Manning are exemplars who have reinvented an art of revolt. Consciously or not, they have inaugurated a new form of political action and a new identity for the political subject. Anonymity as practiced by WikiLeaks and the flight and requests for asylum of Snowden and Assange break with traditional forms of democratic protest. Yet we can hardly dismiss them as acts of cowardice. Rather, as Lagasnerie suggests, such solitary choices challenge us to question classic modes of collective action, calling old conceptions of the state and citizenship into question and inviting us to reformulate the language of critical philosophy. In the process, he pays homage to the actions and lives of these three figures.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, History, Philosophy, France, Theory, Social Issues

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 14, 2015

Reviews

[Randall Wallace · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had such high hopes for this book given the great subject matter. But it was filled with lots of French intellectual highfalutin bits such as “Cohabitation is not an ontological given.” The author even tells us what we know, “As we know, Gabriel Tarde, in a crucial polemic, faulted Emile Durkheim for opposing ‘homogeneous society’ to heterogeneous society’.” If you don’t know that polemic, or if you don’t know it is “crucial”, you are an idiot. Boy, would I like to say I learned something from reading this turgid prose. Maybe, don’t judge a book by its cover? Aside from a half page citing Noam Chomsky, you would be FAR better served by reading any Glenn Greenwald articles on Snowden, Assange, and Manning than this elegant drivel. The thesis is supposed to be that Snowden, Assange, and Manning have redefined revolt, in some small ways I agree, however this book has also refined boring. Why not include outsiders Daniel Ellsberg, Noam Chomsky, or Muhammad Ali, who reinvented the Art of Revolt in the 60’s by getting involved? Why not include Oscar Romero et al with their Liberation Theology revolution that reinvented revolt in the 70’s? Why not add that everyone, not just Snowden, Assange, and Manning, who truly revolts, has their own story and so redefines what revolt is. And anyone could easily make the opposite case from this book, that Snowden, Assange and Manning merely revolted the same way David did against Goliath (knowing the great odds). Reviewer Judith Butler liked this book I see – maybe she’s a friend or owes him money?

[Matthias · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lagasnerie betrachtet Snowden, Assange und Manning als Protagonisten einer neuen Form des politischen Widerstands. Mit ihren Aktionen entstehe ein neuer Modus, wie sich politisches Subjektsein formieren könne: nicht durch öffentliche, sichtbare Aktionen, sondern durch Leaken, Anonymität, Flucht, Asyl. So würde die Beziehung zwischen Bürger und Staat als etwas Unfreiwilliges – etwas, das nicht gewählt, sondern zugewiesen wurde – hervorgehoben. Alle drei verweigerten sich also nicht in erster Linie einem bestimmten Gesetz, sondern dem ganzen Regime der Geheimhaltung, Überwachung und Staatsgewalt. Seine Perspektive zwingt die Leser:innen, das Verhältnis von Staat, Geheimnis, Kontrolle und Offenheit (im digitalen Zeitalter) neu zu denken.

[heyyonicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5/5. Un texte plutôt court mais assez plaisant sur un supposé nouveau mode de contestation illustré par les actions de trois figures contestataires. Je n'ai sans doute pas encore toutes les clés de compréhension des domaines politiques et sociologiques car l'auteur s'enfonce un peu trop souvent dans des analyses aux termes spécialisés et, problème plus grand encore : le côté extrêmement universitaire de l'argumentation. Cela passe entre autre par une construction prenant la forme d'une rédaction (plan détaillé, conclusion...) et par les trop nombreuses citations qui dépersonnalisent quasi totalement ce texte. On nous expose les theories de trop de sociologues en essayant de les mettre en relation, pour finalement revenir au theme principal ce qui crée une sorte de gymnastique intellectuelle assez indigeste et qui efface assez l'auteur. Mais quand même, l'ensemble ne me paraît pas impertinent.

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Placing the actions and lives of Edward Snowden, Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning in a larger context, Geoffroy de Lagasnerie posits a theory wherein these three figures represent the vanguard of a new art of revolt in defense of civil liberties. Concise, yet erudite and complex.

[Stefano Rigon · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Senza dubbio non è facile immaginare quale forma potrebbe assumere uno Stato assolutamente trasparente - senza segreti, senza scatole nere, senza dissimulazioni, etc. Siamo talmente abituati ad associare lo Stato al segreto che la trasparenza della sfera politica e decisionale ci appare come un qualcosa d'irrealizzabile. E tuttavia, si potrebbe percepire, all'inverso, la trasparenza totale come condizione naturale di ogni regime democratico. D'altronde, è strano e degno di riflessione il fatto che siamo disposti ad ammettere con tanta facilità che l'instaurazione di un regime democratico esige, nonostante tutto, il mantenimento di una sfera non democratica - come se la realizzazione della promessa democratica dovesse necessariamente rimanere incompleta ed essere limitata e ostacolata.”

[José · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book framing the protest of Snowden/Assange/Manning and other anonymous or decentralised forms of dissidence and how these can allow us to inspect novel ways of questioning the powers that be. I do think that de Lagasnerie is a bit too hand-wavy with some motivations for his claims but I don't think that doing so impacts any of the analysis and conclusions in a major way. Mostly the book acts nicely as a way of opening an important discussion - how can we theorise new forms of protest (particularly those tied with the internet, decentralised identities and attacks and anonymity) without relying on older terminology and obfuscating their potential for change.

[Lysda Smythe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essai très intéressant sur les "révoltes" modernes que constituent les informations fuitées par Snowden, Manning et Assange. L'auteur s'intéresse longuement au principe d'anonymat et à la redéfinition de l'action politique. Il est très documenté en ce qui concerne les penseurs de philosophie politique. J'ai trouvé par contre certaines longueurs sur des passages "introductifs" à des théories politiques

[Lu dans le cadre de mes révisions pour le concours de conservateur de bibliothèques]

[Shiqi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have this very assumption to question: what does political liberty (or freedom itself) mean, why we defend it (and to what degree), and at what cost?