Santos,B. Epist.south (1)

8/12/2019 Santos,B. Epist.south (1)

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Tr . 1r,plstemologlesof theSouthJust iceagainstEpistemicide

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BoevExruRAoE SousASnxros

Paradigm PublisbersBoulder.London

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Preface

HREEBASIC DEASunderlie his book. First, the understandingof theworld by far exceeds he \Testern understanding of the world. Second,there is no global social ustice without global cognitive justice. Third,

the emancipatory ransformations n the world may foilow grammarsand scriptsother than thosedevelopedby Western-centriccritical theory, and such diversityshould be valorized.

A critical theory is premised upon the idea that there is no way of knowingthe world better than by anticipating a better world. Such anticipation providesboth the intellectual nsrruments o unmask the instirutionalized, armful liesthat sustain and legitimate social njustice and the political impulse to struggleagainst hem. Critical theory is thereforemeaninglesswithout a search or truthand healing, even f in the end there is no final truth or definitive cure. Historyshows hat the most entrenchedsocial ies havebeen imited in scopeand dura-tion, even l while in force and dominant, they apPear o be the very sourceoftruth and healing.

Viewed from the perspectiveof the excludedand discriminated against, thehistorical record of global capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy is fuii of insti-tutionalized, harmful lies. t is a record of socialregulation in the name of socialemancipation, appropriation in the name of liberation, violence n the name ofpeace, he destruction of life in the name of the sanctityof life, violation of humanrights in the name of human rights, societal fascism n the name of politicaldemocracy, llegal plundering in the name of the rule of law, assimilation n thename of diversity, ndividual vulnerability in the name of individual autonomy,constitution of subhumanities n the name of humanity', putting price tags onconvictions in the name of pricelessvalues, commodification in the name ofredemption, standardization in the name of choice, massification in the nameof freedom, racism n the name of tolerance, onstitutional wrongs n the name ofconstitutional rights, ontologiesof inferiority in the name of Immanuel Kant'sWas stdie AffilArung?, inequalities after the law in the name of equalitl' [s6...the law, compulsive consumption in the name of happiness,and hypocrisf inproclaiming principles (St. Thomas's habitusprincipiorum) in order to cover upfor the most hideous negationsof rectauita.

Given the peculiar pervasivenessnd intensity of the institutionalized, harm-ful lies running our contemporary world, the adequate ecognition of injustice

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PREFACE xand the possibleovercoming of oppressioncan only be achievedby meansof anepistemologicalbreak. The focus on such an epistemologicalbreak is what bestdistinguishes he theory expounded n this book from the \Testern-centriccriti-cal tradition. The latter, of which the most brilliant exempiar s the FrankfurtSchool' has failed to account for the emancipatory rt..rggl.i of our time, in partat leastbecauset shareswith the bourgeois hinking it criticizes he sameepiste-mological foundations that suppresshe cognitive dimension of social njustice,and thus rendersuniversal he \(/esternunderstandingand transformation of theworld. Moreover, t seestself asa vanguard theory that excelsn knowing abour,explaining, and guiding rather than knowing with, understanding, faciiitating,sharing, and walking alongside.

This book aims to depart from this Eurocentric critical tradition. It proposesa teortaPouerL,a reargvard heory basedon the experiences flarge, margin"l-izedminorities and majorities hat struggleagainstunjustly imposej marginalityand inferiority, with the purpose of strengthening their resisrance. he criticaltheorizing laid out in this book seeks o be non-Eurocentric becauset preparesthe ground for both valorizing non-Eurocentric conceptions of emancipationor liberation and for proposing counterhegemonicunderstandingsand usesofEurocentric concepts,such as human rights, the ruie of law, democracy,andsocialism. This book stands on its own but it will benefit from a readine inconjunction with my forthcoming Epistemologies f theSouth: ReinuentingSicialEmancipation. The wager of this latter book is that vast political land,scapesfemancipationand liberation will emergeonce rhe epistemologicalwork proposedin the current book is accomolished.This volume starrs wirh a preamble presented n a counrerpoint mode, acounterpoinr betweenan imagined manifesto for good livingl bien uiuir and.aminifesto thus designated n order to challenge he grandios. .r.po.., underly-ing moderni., -".rif.rros. The manifesto p..l.n,, th. i-"gin"d voicesof socialmovements with which I have been working over the years. The minifestopresentsmy own response,highlighting the limitations of writing at a time ofimpossible adicalism,as his book intends to show. n order best Jvisualize thecounterpoint structure, the manifesto sprinted on the evenpages, he minifestoon the odd pages.In the introduction I defend the need for creating a distance in relation to

\Testern-centricpolitical imagination and critical theory. I showthe reasonswhythe \Testern-centriccritical tradition (Marxism included) fails to accounr br theforms of struggle,socialacrors,and grammars of liberation that havedevelopedin the last rwenry years. n rhe pastdecade he \x/orld SocialForum hasprovideda dramatic illusrration of this failure.The book is divided into two parts. In the first part, I show that in orderto be solid and convincing the critique of \Testern modernity must take intoaccount the complexity and internal diversity of this social,politicai, and cul-tural paradigm. \what is usually cailed \Testern modernity i, " ,r.ry complex


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X PREFACEset of phenomena in which dominant and subaltern persPectives oexist andconstitute rival modernit ies. Critiques of predominant \Testern modernity tendto ignore this fact. To that extent they run the risk of becoming reductionistand of being like the very conceptionsof modernity they criticize, that is, merecaricatures. n Chapter 1, drawing on a famous essay y the nineteenth-centuryCuban intellectual-activist JosdMarti, I identify some Calibanesqueviews onAmerica and \(/estern modernity. In Chapter 2, I resort to \Talter Benjamin'sAngelusNouus n order to analvze he turbulence that is currently shaking oneof the grounding metaphors hat underliesmodern identities (or, rather, modernprocessesf identification): the doublemetaphor of roots and options. In Chapter3, I ask n'hether a non-Occidentalist \fest is possible.Resorting to two earlymodern philosophers,Nicholas of Cusa and Blaise Pascal, show how alterna-tive understandingsof \Testern modernity were set asidebecause hey failed tofit the capitalist-colonialenterprise.

In the secondpart, by means of various approximations, I expound my criti-cisms of the dominant epistemologiesNorthern epistemologies) nd Presentmy own epistemologicalproposal,which I havebeen calling epistemologies fthe South, a set of inquiries into the construction and validation of knowledgeborn in struggle, of ways of knowing developedby social grouPsasPart of theirresistance gainst he systematicnjustices nd oppressionsaused y capitalism,colonialism, and patriarchy In Chapter 4, the central chapterof my postcolonialor decolonialapproach, analyze he abyssalines drarvnby the dominant abyssalthinking of our time through which both human and nonhuman realitiesexist-ing on the other side of the line are made invisibie or evenactively produced asnonexistent.This results n the most radical forms of socialexclusion. n Chapter5, I approach invisibility from another angle, which I call the epistemology fblind.ness.aking the epistemological oundations of modern economicsas anexrremeexample, show the different mechanisms hrough which the immenselot of the unseen s generated. n Chapter 6, and still from another perspective,which I term the sociologyof absences nd the sociology'ofemergences, showhow the lazinessof dominant modern forms of reason eads to an enormouswaste of social experience hat othern isemight be useful to identify emancipa-tory possibilities. n Chapter Z I focus on ecologiesof knowledges; I presentthe outline of the epistemologiesof the South b)' showing how the sociologyof absences nd the sociology of emergences pen up the possibility both forecologiesof knowledgesand for intercultural translation. Finally', n Chapter 8,I deal with intercultural translation that I conceiveof as he alternativeboth tothe abstractuniversalismgrounding \Testern-centricgeneral heoriesand to theidea of incommensurability betweencultures.

This is a book soaked n tragicoptimism, neither adicalpessimism or radi-cal hope. Nothing is so oppressive s to eliminate the senseof a nonoppressivealternative.But, on the other hand, no such alternative s strong or convincingenough to avoid running the risk of somehowconflating itselfwith oppression.


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PREFACE iIf the human condition were slavery, here would be no need for the institutionof slavery.Conversely, f the human condition were freedom, therewould be noneedfor constitutions and human rights. The human condition is the conditionof humans carrying a heavy ioad of histor,von their shouldersand half-blindlychoosingways of making the load easier o carry.

I have worked on this book for many years. am indebted to much precioussupport from many colleagues nd collaborators ver he courseof that time. I amafraid I will not be able o mention them ail. This book owesa lot to Maria IreneRamalho, to our many stimulating dialogues nd challenging nterdisciplinaryexchanges, nd to her nspiration regardingmy incursions nto literary theory.Shehasalsohelpedon occasiono rendersomeof my ideas nto English.My committedresearch ssistant fmany years,MargaridaGomes,hasonceagainbroughtcompe-tenceand professionalism o support my researchand to prepare he manuscript forpublication. Over the yearsmy books in English have benefitedfrom the invaluabiesupport of Mark Streeterasan outsranding copy editor.The invisiblehand of mydevotedsecretary, assalete im5es,makes tself present,directly or indirectly, ineverything I havewritten for the pasr wenry years.My colleaguesJolo ArriscadoNunes and Maria PaulaMeneseswere preciouscollaborators n crucial momentsof my research.Over the years,my doctoraland postdoctoralstudentsat the Uni-versities f Coimbra, \Tisconsin-Madison, \7arwick, and London werea consrantsourceof inspiration for me to embark on novei topics and perspectives. t differentmomentsof my research, could alwayscounr on the unfailing supportof col-laborators, olleagues, nd friends:Agustin Grijalva,Alison Phipps,Allan Hunter,Ana Cristina Santos, nt6nio Casimiro Ferreira,Antdnio SousaRibeiro,ArmandoMuylema, Bill \Whitford, Carlos Lema, CesarBaldi, Cdsar Rodriguez-Garavito,Claire Cutler, ConceigSoGomes,Cristiano Gianolla, David Larraz,David Schnei-derman,Diane Soles, fua Prah,Elida Lauris,Emilios Christodoulidis,Erik O.\Wright,Gavin Anderson,Heinz Klug, Immanuel \Tallerstein, van Nunes,JamesTuliy, JavierCouso,Jeremy Webber,JoSoPedroso,Joaquin Herrera Flores,JohnHarrington, JosdLuis Exeni,JosdManuel Mendes,JosephThome, Juan CarlosMonedero,JuanJosdTamayo,Len Kaplan, Liliana Obreg6n,Luis CariosArenas,Marc Calanter,MargaridaCalafateRibeiro, MariaJosdCanelo,Mario Melo, MaryLayoun, Michael Burawoy, Michaei Wall, Neil Komesar,Raul Llasag,RazaSaeed,RebeccaJohnson,SaraAraiijo, Silvia Ferreira,Tiago Ribeiro, and Upendra Baxi.My heartfelt thanks to all of them, and I just hope the end result will not disap-point them. Lastbut not leasr, very specialword of gratitude o Dean Birkenkampof Paradigm Publishers or the extraordinary incentive he gaveme for the swiFtcompletionof this book and its timely publication.l

l This book was completed in the framer'vork of the researchproject 'ALICE-strangeMirrors, UnsuspectedLessons (al ice.ces.uc.pt), oordinated br- me at the centre for SocialStudies (CES) of the Universitv of Coimbra, Portugal. The project has receir.ed unding fromthe European ResearchCouncil under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme(F P 20 07 -2013) ERC Grant Aqreement n. 269807.

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Manifestoor GoodLiving/BuenViuir'I f fS TIME to change the conversation.The past had better be large andI d.- .,d little. The f.rt,r.. had better come closer.Let'senlarge he presentandI th. .o .. of rhe ,n,orld.Ler's move on. Let's travel with crude maps. Betweentheory and action there may be correspondence, ut there is no sequence' 7ewill not necessarily each the sameplace, and many of us will not even reachany recognizablepiace,but we share he samestarting point, and that's enough'\7e are not all h. ded to the sameaddress,but we believewe can walk togetherfor a very long time. A few of us speakcolonial anguages;-the_largeajorityof us speak oih., l r'tg.t ges.Since only a small number of us have voice' we..ro., L ventriloquisti, whom we call rearguard intellectuals, because hey goon doing what they have always done well: iooking back. But.they have nowreceiveda new mission from us: ro care for those of us who lag behind andbring them back into the fight and to identify whoever keepsbetraying us atthe back and help us find out whY.

\7e know Marx, even hough Marx may not know us' The grand theory is arecipebook for famished people. (/e are neither universal nor eternai' \7e dis-.a.i ll the philosophies hat do not value what we are. 7e know Gandhi, andGandhi knows us. \7e know Fanon, and Fanon knor,l'sus. \(/e know ToussaintLOuverture and ToussaintL'Ouverture knows us. 7e know PatriceLumumba,and Patrice Lumumba knows us. \7e know Bartolina Sisa,and Bartolina Sisaknows us. we know catarina Eu{tmia, and catarina Eufemia knows us' \7eknow RosaParks,and RosaParksknows us.But the largemajority of thosewhoknow us are not well known. we are revolutionarieswith no Papers.

We haveheard that there are many accredited ntellectualswho specialize ncertifying ideas hat supposedlyconcernus.They dwell on what.for them is thissideof tte line, that it-to t y, in inaccessible eighborhoodsand fortified insti-tutions they call universities.They are erudite libertines and cherish mpunity'

who are we? weare the global South, that largesetof creationsand creatufesthat hasbeensacrificedo the nfinite l'oracityof capitalism, olonialism,patriarchy,--

t. Th..oncept ofgood li vingl buen uiuir derivesfrom the Quechua word sumak kawsayan dis central to the conception ofsocial emancipation whose epistemological oundations are aid outin this book. The political implications of this concept are analYzed n detail in m1'forthcomingEpistemologiesof the South: Reinuentittg Social Enancipation


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4 MANIFESTO ORCOOD LIVINC/BUEN /Y/R

andall their satellite-oppressions.e arepresent t everycardinalpoint because urgeography s the geographyofinjustice and^oppression'7e arenot everyone;we areit or. -lro do norresignthemselves

o sacrificeand therefore esist'we havedignity'We areall indigenouspeoplesbecausewe arewherewe havealwaysbeen' beforewe had owners'

-"rrarr,o, bottt', or becausewe arewherewe rn'ereaken against

our will and whereowners,masters,or bosseswere mposedon us' They want toimposeon us the fearof having a bossand the fearof not havinga boss'so hat wemay not imagine ourselves iihot" fear'We resist' fle arewidely diversehumanb.i.g, .r.,it.iby the idea hat the understandingof the world is much larger hanthe\(/esternund"erstandingf theworld.'we believe hat the transformationof theworld may alsooccur lr, *iy, not foreseenby the globalNorth' We areanimals andplants,biodiversityandwater,earth and Pachamama, ncestors nd future genera-,ior.r-*hore sufferingappearsessn the news han the sufferingof humansbut iscloselyinked to theirs,even hough they may be unawareof it '

The most fbrtunate of us are"aiive oday but afraid of being killed tomor-row; they have ood today but areafraid of having none tomorrow; they

till thei".,j ,n.y inherited fro-ih.i, ancestorsoday but fear est they be expropriated.o-o,,o*,theytalkwiththeirfr iendsinthestreetstodaybutareafraidthatromorrow therewill be only wreckage; hey care or their families today but areafraid of being raped o-ot'o*, thtf h*"" jobs toda,vbut areafraid of being laidofftomorrow;theyarehumanbeirrgstodaybutareafraidofbeingtreatedl ikeanimals tomorrow; they drink pr."t *"tt' and enjoyvirgin forests oday but fearlest tomorrow there *ill b. ,,.itht' water nor forests'The least fortunate of usare thosewhosefearshave ong sincebecomereality'

Someof uswereabie o p"rrtip",e in the meetingsof the worid social Forumin the first decadeof the third millennium. \7e aresolidarywith the participants'eventhoughtheyhavenotsaideverythingaboutus,letalonethemostimportantthings. ln any case' hey haveshown that we are many more than our enemiesthinf,, that we think bett.. tha' they d6 about their world and ours, and thatwe arebold enough to act under the conviction that, in certain circumstances, tis possible o figh"taircraft-carrier-ideas ith kite-ideas'eventhough an aircr:aftcarrier is an aircraft carrier and a kite is a kite. This is exactlywhat someof ushavebeendemonstratingwhile venting our outrageat the beginning of the seconddecadeof the millen.,i.,ir, i., the stree"tsf Cairo and Tunis, Madrid and Athens'NewYorkandJohannesburg-inaword,inthestreetsoftheworldwhereithasrecentlybeendiscoveredhaithe wealthycountriesaremerely he countriesof the*""lthy people(whereas he 99 Percent, he poor and their families, ive outsidethe neofeudalenclaveshat belong o the 1 Percent, he superrich arnilies)'Manyofthoseoutragedatindignity",-. . ,o,, l ikeus,ontheothersideofthei ine,butwe hope to be able o build allianceswith them'rwherearewegoing? Someof usareheaded oward socialemancipation,othersto socialism f th" t-?nty-first century,, uenuiuir socialism, thers o communism'others o sumakkawsay.or umabqamaiia,others o Pachamamaof ummA, otherc

to ackacknois left negligtrar)',rvell-ding crreptone\Ypnew \acknor. ' i l l b

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I l t,'earibeenratioconcx'as feelirhe u..oulleti o)uch.^ ,1l rqtheirand in rhbi inbett

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o:recai le:bse^r-^rracori:r-c. ' i : nca


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6 MANIFESTO ORCOOD LIVINC/BUEN /V1R

Io ubuntu,still others o human rights, others o realand true democracy.othersto dignity and respect,others o piurinationality' others o interculturalit'v' oth-ers o social ustice, others o sw)deshi'others c demokaraasi'others o minzhu'others o food sovereigrl,fotnt" to solidaryeconomy'others o ecosocialism ndthe fight against}"rg. d"m' and megaprojects'We havebeenwarned that every.o.r.."p,,"id, ,o b.--t " tot'ttpt""1 monster' 7e arenot afraid'\rhat we all have n .o--on is thar we all have o fight againstmany obstaclesin order to live with dignitl'-that is to say, o live weli. There aremanlr obstacles'il"i,G'iirr"". " r"riry,.semblance:apitalismmong umans ndbetweenhumansand nature,."f."ti"iit-, p"t'i"rthy' fetishismof commodities' monocul-turesofknowledge, the linear timi of progress, aturaiized nequalities, he domi-nanr scale,and the productivism of economicgrowthand capitalistdevelopment'The obstacleso a life with dignity arevery diiferent, but they all havesomethingin common: to wit, the infinitleaccumuiationof unequaldifferences n the unjustbehalf of very f.*. \r. ;;tnt Ji'po"t'sed of the t""h btt"ttte we areconsideredign.r"n,, inferior, ocal,particulat,batk*"td' unproductive'or lazy'The immen-surable ufferingwe g.. fro- this and thewasteoi*orld experiencet bringsaboutareunjust, but they are not historical fatalities'We fight against hem under theconviction that theycan be eliminated'But our struggledependsess n our obiec-tives han on the q,r"iitf of o"r actionsand emotions n striving to attain them'

what do wewttnt? h. *o.ld is full of opportunities o livervell,both regardingourselves nd mother earth. we want to h",r. th. opportunity to take advantageofthem.weknowbetterrn,hatwedonot*" , ' t th" . 'whatwewant.Thosel iv-inginwhattheythemselvescal l . . th issideof thel ine' , th inkalotaboutus.Forthe most fortunate ;i;t, &ty organize fairs in our villageswith many bazaarsand stalls or counseling. n.y dilpl"y transgenic oodstuffs, bibles, ntellectual..pyrigt,r, certi6ed .on"tlt"t'tt, emPowermentrecipes'structural adiustments'human rights, private ProPerty'nicely wrapped democ.racy' ottled water' andenvironment"l .orr.."-tl' \i" ""d o"tt th"t Sotrates'walking through

the squareand seeing "ny d.t*tt products' remarked' "So many things in the world thatIdonotwanrr , 'so.r" t . r ' *o.r ldbetodayaral l ier forgoodl iv ingl_buenuiuir .vedonotwanttobespokenabout.wewanttospeakfor .ourselves' . -Wedonotwantto be seenon the other sideof the line' We want to eliminate the iine'

Whered'owe liue? \7e live in Chiapas' in the Andes' in Amazonia' in thesquatterset t lementsofbigci t ies ' inthelandscovetedbynewandoldcolonizersin Africa and Asia, t;;h: ghettos of global cities,on the banks of riverswherethey want to build d"-' *id on the hillt *httt they want to-mine for ore andminerals "r,d d.rtrof life, in the new piantations

using slave abor in the UnitedStates,Brazil,".rd d".gl"desh, in the world's maquiladoras'whe-rewe produce'with sweat"rrd

.or-*,"rhe consumeristpleasureof th"-"tttrs'

We actually livewhere touris,, .r.,r., go ot, if they do' *ht" they would never.deign o live' Theworld is divided Uy riro kinds oiborders: thosewe accePtwith.reservationsandthosewe refu,ewitho,,, ,.,.,.,".ion. The former are he national borderswherein


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B MANIFESTO ORCOOD LIVINC/BUEN /Y/Rwe were born or raised.We accept hem to save ur energies nd becausewe thinkthey are a esser bstacle ompared o the other borders.The othersare he walls,trenches,ditches,barbwire fences, ordonsofpolice cars,and checkpoints;aboveall, they are rhe maps rhat have raced the abyssal ines in people'sminds, Iaws,and politics and banishedus ro rhe other sideof the line. The worst borders arethe borders hat cannot be seen, ead, heard, or felt on this side ofthe line, thatis to say, n Kakania, whose capital is Excrementia. 7e live on the other side ofthe line that someone racedwhile thinking of us but aiming at not thinkingof us anymore. we are invisible, inaudible, and illegible because he success foreviousrevolutions decided not to include us. If our here s invisible, our nowis evenmore so.According to those revolutions,we have,at most, a Past,but nofuture. \7e were neverallowed to write the history books.

How do we iue? Alw4ygat rlsk.g_f ying for causes ther than illness,of beingwounded or killed 5it .ro, in friendlligames; on the vergeof losing home, land,water,sacred erritories,children, gr .rdp ...,,t; fl* yt 1 .l9k of being displacedlong distances o fleewar or of being confined in our barrios or in concentrationcamps; St rill. of finding that our popular, solidary,cooperarivesavingsmay beworth nothing because hey do not count toward the GDP; at risk of seeingourrivers contaminated and our forests deforested n the name of what they calldevelopment;at risk of being humiliated, without the power to respondbecause*. r. of an inferi& g.nd.i race,class,or castet-at isk-of being the target ofwealthy kids' tricks, *tri.fr may prove fatal to .tt; it risL of impoverishment, ofbeing helped aspoor without giving a bad consciehc. oihor. helping us; at riskof being considered errorists for wanting to defend our mother earth; at risk'indeed, for acing so many risks, of ending up conformigg.': What eindofpassion rges s?The most subjectiveand diversepassionbecausegrounded in the most intensely and diversely ived truth: that we deservea lifewith dignity, a free ife because ree from the fear of violenceand dispossession'a life to which we are entitled, and that fighting for it is possibleand that wemight succeed.7e are the children of a passionateruth and a truthful passion'We passionately now that reality is not reduced o what existsand that most ofwhat doesnot existcould and deserveso exist.Time doesnot allay our passion.Our brother Evo Morales had to wait five centuries to become presidentafterPope Paul III stated nhis 1537bull that Indians had souls. t was a cunning

: bull from which we started to arrive at where we are now.Against whom do wefght? on this sideof the line everything is seductive;onthe other side of the line everything is scary.We are the only ones who know,

from experience, hat there are two sides o the line, the only oneswho knowhow to imagine what they do not iive. Our context is the urgency of a life withdignity as a condition for everything else o be possible. 7e do know that onlya civilizational changecan guarantee t, but we alsoknow that our urgency canbring about such change. (/e must live today in order to live a ong time, andvice rrersalwe have o live a ong time in order to live today. Our rluriesand times


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{,t,,

1O MANIFESTO ORCOOD LIVINC/BUFN /Y/R

only stresswhat is useful for our struggles.Our times are not flat or concentric;they are passages etween the No Longer and the Not Yet'

To a certain extent, the age of our side of the line coincideswith the age oftheir sideof the line, but the tlvo agesafe not to be confused.We

and they arecontemporaneousn distinct ways,Our age s potentiallymore revolutionary hanail the i..,rion. ones.Never was so much unjust suffering caused o human andnonhuman beings; never were the sourcesof power and oppressionso diverseand so powerfui. Never as oday was it possibie or human beingson this planetto have any idea,howevervague and distorted, of what is happening'

This is a time of reckoning at a planetary evel, nvolving humans and motherearth. It is a time of reckoning asyet without any rules.on the one side,capital-ism, colonialism, patriarchy, and all their satellite-oppressions-his is what wecall the global North, a political, not geographicai, ocation, increasinglymore,p..ihlir.d in the transnationalization of suffering: workers losing their jobs iniispl".ed plants; peasanrsn India, Africa, and Latin America expropriatedbythe megaprojects, gribusiness, nd the mining industry; indigenouspeoplesofthe Americas andAustralia who survivedgenocide;wolnen murdered in ciudadJuLrez;gaysand lesbiansof Uganda and Malawi; peopleof Darfur, who are sopoo, ".,i yet so rich; Afro-descendentsmurdered and dispiaced o_theconfinesof ,h. colo*bian Pacific;morher earrh struck in her vital cycles; hoseaccusedof being rerrorisrs, ortured in secretpfisons all over the world; undocumentedimmigr"ants acing deportation;Palestinians, raqis,

Afghans, and Pakistanis*ho lirr., *o.k, ".rd ..leb."t. under constant bombardments; the impoverishedNorth Americans,shockedby the fact that capitalismand colonialism treat themwith exactly the samecontempt and arbitrarinesswith which they have reatedall the other peoplesof the world; the retired, unemployed, and unemPloyablewho areprev to the law of pillaging of the financial pirates'

o.r the other sid,e, ur time is the time of the return of the humiliated anddegraded.This is what we call the global South. \7e are not victimsi we are,ri.ii-lr"d-ind offer resistance.7e are many, and we useour new learning invery differenr ways. 7e do not alwaysagree,and we evensusPect hat there aretraitorsamong us.We are exPerts t exposing hem'

Despite everything elr., *i haveproblems n common with our enemies'andoui destinies ",r. .o-. affinities.The suffering hey nfict on usand have ecentlyincreased ,ill end up turning against hem. The sanest f them havealready eal-ized asmuch. As the sage oltaire used o say, he causeof all wars s theft. Nowthosewho learnedhow to stealoutside he housearesteaiing rom the peopleinside t. If suffering,murder,humiliation, and destruction ontinue o escalate,the survival of the planet may be at stake.could our enemiesbe aiready hinkingof colonizinganotherplanetwhere heywon't needclosed ondominiums?

\7e know that the first of our struggles s against ourselves.The sageMarxsaid that after the philosophers .r" do.r. rvith interpreting the world, the worldwould have to be changei. But there is no changewithout self-change, or the

" t,

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12 MANIFESTO ORCOOD LIVINC/8UEN /Y/Robstacleso life with dignitl', or to livingwell, reside n ourselves,o the extent harwe conform to indignity and deny that the differencebetweenwhat is imposedon us and what we desire s much smaller than we think.r[/hat certainti es o we haue?As ali human and nonhuman animals, wespecialize n possibilities, passages etween the No Longer and the Not Yet.The only certainti es we have concern possibil ity and the wager. All othercertainties are paralyzing. We have partial knowledge of the conditions thatallow us to proceed and believe that such conditions are partial themselves.We follow the sageFanon, according to whom each generation must find itsown mission from within relative opacitl' and then go on to fulfill or betrayit. Our possibilities are far from being infinite, and they only become definiteaccording to how we move. \7e reflect as we run. Our way is semi-invisibleandsemiblind. The very certainty concerning the shackles rom which we wish tofree ourselves s treacherousbecause,with time, the shacklesmay feei comfort-able and turn into ornaments. And they may also induce us to put shackleson those close o us.

Wbat kinds of knowledgeare auailable to us? Our knowledge is intuitive; itgoes straight to what is urgent and necessary.t is made of words and silences-with-actions, reasons-with-emotions.Our life doesnot allow us to distinguishlife from thought. AII our .,r.ryd"yt.s, is thought of every day in detail. \Wethink of our tomorrow as f it were today. Wehaveno important questions,onlyproductive questions.

Our knowledge fies at low altitude because t is stuck to the body. We feel-think and feeiact.To think without passion s to make coffins for ideas; o actwithout passion s to fill the coffins. \7e are voracious n getting the diversityof the knowledgeswe are nterested n. There are many knowledges ooking forpeople eager o know them. 'Wesquanderno knowledges hat might help us inour struggle to live well. \7e mix knowledges and combine them according tologics hat are not limited to them. -Wedo not want authors'copyrights;we want

'" to be authorsof rights.. Our kind of knowledge is existential and experiential; it is therefore bothresilient and flexible, disturbed by all that happens o us. Unlike what goesonin Kakania, hereamong us, ideasare people; hey have weight and pay fines forexcessweight; they wear clothesand may be incarcerated or indecent exposure;they make appealsand get killed for that.

How do weget educated?Weare the educatorswith the fewest credentials nthe worid. Our bodies and otir iives are the squanderedknowledgeof the world,the knowledge that is objective vis-)-vis ourseivesand subjectivevis-I-vis ourenemies.All we know of them is theirs and ours; all they know of us is theirs.Universities avea full inventoryof departments,books,careers, omputers, eamsof papers,uniforms, privileges,erudite discourses, hancellors,and off icials; yetthey do not educateat all. Their mission is to tutn us into ignorants so that wemay be treated as gnorants n conscience. t most, they teach us how to choose


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11 MANIFESTO ORCOOD LIVINC/BUfNY/Y/R

between wo eviis.We educateourselves y learning how not to choosebetweeneither. fhen someday we entef the universit)'-that is to say'when we occuPyand decolonize t-we will not merely oPenthe doors and redecorate he walls.We will destroyboth so that we may ali fit in '

wbat are our weaponsiAli weapons of life, none of death. In truth, onlythoseweaponswith proper names in our own languagesbelong to us. AII theothers are taken from our enemiesas war trophies or unintended heirlooms:democrac,v, uman rights, science, hilosophy,theology' aw, the universit,V,hestate,civil societ,v, onstiturionalism, and so on. \7e learn that, when we wieldthem autonomously, hey frighten the enemy.However' borrowed weaponsareefficaciousonly when usedtogetherwith our own weapons' 7e are competentrebels.We follow sageSubcomandante nsurgenteMarcos, according to whomtop politicians do not understand anythingt aboveall, they do not understandthe essent ial :har their t ime is over.

Joy and celebrationare what the victims feel when they stop being victims,when their suffering is turned into resistance nd fight' \7e are artistsembodiedin life, and ascendant s our aft. The only ugly and sad ruths are those mposedon us. The rruths with which we offer resistance re beautiful and joyous.

on which hinds of alliescan we count?Even if we are a large majority, thereare very few of us. f. -rrr, get togetherbeforeothers ry to come

togetherwithus. We ask for help but use t only to become ndependentof it. As we free our-selvesrom help, we free help itself.We askdemocracyfor help in order to freedemocracy.Democracy was inventedout of fear of us, and we havealwaysbeenafraid of it. Today we are not afraid, but neither do we have any illusions. Veknow that when we take possession f democfacy' our enemieswill go back totheir old inventions: dictatorship,violence, heft, the arbitrary manipulation oflegalityand illegality.We will fight for the democratizationof democracyuntil itfrees tself frorrlthe fraud into which they have urned it. \7e will ask he help ofhuman rights in order to renderthem unnecessary. hey turned us into a globalmultitude of objectsof human rights discourses.7hen we ail becomesubjectsof human rights, who will remember the concept of human rights?

could thehuman contain the nonhuman? -Weask for the help of liberation theology tofree us from theologl'.

Our allies are all those who are solidary with us and have a voice becausethey are not on our sideof the line. \Weknow that solidarity is a trap wor.d.To decide unilaterally with whom one is solidary and how one is solidary is tobe solidary with oneselfalone. Unlike what has beenthe caseuP until noq weput conditions on solidarity. Alliance with us is demanding becauseour alliesi-r ,r. o fight against three kinds of enemies:our enemies, heir enemies,andthe commonsensicalview that there is no connection at all between the twoprevious kinds of enemies.Specific enemies nclude comfort and discomfortonce certified by the same ndifference-producingfactory; lazinessand its oldersister. he lazinessof whoevercommands acrion; temporary apathy and equally


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16 MANIFESTOORCOOD LIVINC/BUEN IY|R

temporary enthusiasm; he paradoxof running risks ust in order not to run risksli .k of rg.r-..t,, .rd .*..r, of arguments to justify both action

and inaction;abstract f,ought without body or p rsion; catalogues f principles o readratherthan to li re; understanding .rd ,.p..r..rtations geared o statisticalhomogene-ity; criticism without i.oni , ti..,'or comedy; the belief that it is normal to be,(o.tgft, of asa whoie and only act individually; the desire :.ql: tt thosewhod..pi. us while despisinge,'erybodyelse;a preference or still life and dread ofliving nat.,re; the twin o 6r..rion, of being a client or having clients; the twinfears of osing wealth or loosing poverty; the twin uncertainties of whether theworst is over or about to .o-.-; ih. obsessionof obsession, he uncertainty ofuncertainty, the fear of fear. only later come our enemies, hoseagainstrn homwe must rebei together.

In part, the enemiesagainstwhom our allieshave o fight are hemselves' ow,h.y. *. to be what thJy .. and have o stoPbeingthemselves f they want

tobe our honest allies.As o,r. .o-r d. Amiicar cabral once said, they will haveto commit suicideas a class,which cannot be easy'

How do we builcl \ur allianceslThe world is oversized or human beings andnature.The oppressive orld is oversizedor the oppressed'Ng.T :t; how manythe oppressed r., th.y will alwal'sb1 f1w and fewer they

will be if they are not,rni,# Unity make, ,rr.rrg,h, bt't tht best strength is the strength that buildsunit' \7e have neither lt;-dt nor followers' We organize ourselves'mobilizeourseives,refect,andact 'Wearenomult i tude'butwedoaspiretobeamult i -tude of organizationsand movements.we follow the sageSpinoza,but only tothe extent that he doesnot contradict the

sagesGandhi and RosaLuxemburg:spontaneity diro.g .rJ., the statusqt'o ottlyio the extent that it organizes tseifin order not to turn itself into a nelv statusquo'

\Testartfrompurposeandaction'Ourproble-msarePractical 'ourques-tions productire. V.,h ..,*o premises:our suffering s not reduced o theword i,suffering,,'and we do nor acceptunjust suffering and instead fight forthe something-b.,r.. to which we are entitled. Ambiguity doesnot paralyzeus'.we do not have o coincide; we haveto converge. we do not have o unify; wemust generalize.We translate nto one another eciprocaliy and a'e very carefullestsomeengagemore in translation than others. t is not important to agreeonwhat it means to change the rn'orld. t is enough to be in agfeementabout theactionsthatcontr ibute tochangingi t.Tosuchanagfeementmanyemotionsand sensations ontribute, *hi.i arr.rt and criticize without words.Translationhelpsus define the limits and possibiiitiesof collectiveaction. \7e communicatedir..tly and ind,irectlyby m. ' of smiles-andaffects'by the warmth of hands .d r-r, and by d .t.ing, untii we reach he threshold

of joint action' The deci-sion is always rr,ono-ol.; different reasonsmay lead to convergent

decisions'Nothine is irreversible,excePt he riskswe run'


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IrMinifesto for Intellefiual-Activists

Hls BooK BECINS y acknowledgingts imitedcapacityo contributero the successf all those allying"fotlood Iivinglb)en ;rir-if f", ;;other easonhanbecauset is vritte' on thisside f rhe ine.To besure.rsthinking ison theorhersideof the ine.but its ife,asa book,cannorbut be on thissideof the ine. t wil l be readby rhosewho leastneed r. Thosewho, in my iudg-ment,.mightbenefit rom ir wil l not be able o read r. If they could, th.1*ouidprobably haveno inrerest n doing so,and if they did, they would most probablynot understandt. This book is h'.rr,"t best.a ,.lu.,"n, ^l iy,.u.n if the solidarityit expressess not reluctantat all. In any case, n ally s. armosr,a relarive.The second easonor irsscantycontriburion srhar,unlike in othereras-forinstance' he extraordinary eventeenthnd eighreenth enruriesn Europe-inthe.globalNorth ofour rime radical deasare nJr ,rur,rl"r.d into radicalpractices,and viceversa; adicalpractices o not recognizehemselvesn availabie adicalideas.This doubleopacity s due to several easonshat wil l be analyzed n rhebook. One of the most important is no doubt the facr that rheestablisledDowerstoday haveefficient meanswirh which ro prevenrthe encounte, b.t*..r, id.",and.practicesbeyond what be6ts the geneticcodeof the srarusquo. Radicalismhasbecomeantinarure,aberratio ntis.h hasbeena long rime since1677.whenthe Europeanpowersmobil ized (for example,by hiring spies) o find our if, inhis last living moments, spinoza had renounc.j hi, "p"nniheisti. arheism,,andconverted o Christianiry; the mpact of Spinoza's apiiulation o ,h. '..r, id.r,.. l ithat human beingsarenaruralb.l i .u.r, *", ."g.rly .xpecred.In our time, genuine adicalism eems o longerpossiblen the elobalNorth.Those*ho proclaim hemselvess adical hink'ers reeirher ooli ie ,h.-r.l r. i Ior fooling someoneelse,since heir practicesare bound to conrradiJt their theo* iries.Mo*st_ofhem work in insrirutions uchasuniversitieshatrequireprorectivehats and gloves o deal with reality.one of rhe tricks thar rwesternmoderniivplays. n inrellectualss to allow them only ro producerevolurionary d.", inreactionary.insritutions. n the orher hand, thosewho r.t i"J;."l ly seem obe,silent.Eirhei they hi,re nothing intell igible o say,or if rhey were ro ,p."k,nobodywould undersrand hem ourside heir circleof acrion.or they mighi errenbe thrown in jail or ki l led. '

Given the abovecircumstances, ow is one ro wrire abour socialemancipa-tion? To avoidmisleadinganyoneand being misled n turn, it would be berter


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MINIFESTOOR NTELLECTUAL-ACTIVISTSto acknowledgerhe impossibility of being radical and to write from such anacknowledgment. The radical acknowledgment of said impossibility is all rhatis left over from rhe radicalismof Westernmodernity. 7hat is lefr over s nornegligibleand thereforemusr not be viewedwith nostalgia. t is, on the con-trary, the soleway of imagining the new. Before us there are more ruins thanwell-definedplans.But ruins may be creative oo. starting anew means ender-ing creativity and interruption possible under hostile conditions that promorereproduction and repetition. The point is not so much to imagine new iheories,new practices,and new relationsamong them. The point is mainly to imaginenew ways-of theorizing and of generating transformative collective a.tio.,l Byacknowledginghow powerful rhe constituted impossibility of radicalism is, wewill be betterequipped o imaginenew consrituentpossibil iries.

To u'rire from the perspective f the impossibil iryof radicalism meansrostart by acknowledginj ,*o impossibil iries nd ,o go on writing a;;;..; r;.;,the impossibiliryof communicating rhe unsayableand rhe impossibiliryof collectiueauthorship.The,impossibility of communicaring the unsayable.For rhe lasr two hundredyears, the relation between knowing and acdng has lost its general character andbeenreduced o rherelationbetweenknowledgevalidaredby modern science ndrational socialengineering Santos2007b). As a resulr,all rhat was arbitrarily 'conceived f as being outside his highly intellectualized nd rarionalized ieldwas ignored or stigmatized,outside was rh dark world of passions,ntuitions,feelings.emorions,affections,beliefs. airhs.values,myths, and the world ofthe unsayable,which cannor be communicatedsave ndirectly.as Kierkegaard.would say.Variouskinds of positivismmanaged o demonsrratehat wh i * ,left out either did not exist (was an illusion) or was unimpartant o, d. ngerous. 'Such reductionismsallowed for geomerricalcorrespond.n.e.bet*ee.r th.oryand practice.However,as both theory and practicebecamedisembodied romtheir unsayable halves. t became mpossible o accounr or the complexirvand conringency f rhe relarionships etween hem.Being magined , ,.h..,.din the same mirror, both theory and practice became reciprocally blind. Now,blind peopleguided by blind people are nor doubly blind, but they do nor seeberrereither

Theoreticiansand intellectuals n generalare nor prepared or eirher oys orsortows, or eithermourning or the celebration hat the iall iers or good living/buen uiuir talk about. The former know how ro name theseaffectionr, asSpinoiacalled hem, b:r 1: not live rhem; moreover, heyare ncapable f making rheabsence f such affections nro a problem for rhoughr or r.rron. They arJnotpreparedo integrarehar which thotrghrh ...par id, meaning ife itself. Flifecould makedistinctions, t would makemany,bur certainlynot this oneberweenaFfectionsnd reason,est t deny tselfas ife. This is particularly rue oFrhe ifeof transformative acrion in which the reality consistsof giving life to what does


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MINIFESTO OR NTELLECTUAL_ACTIVISTSreasons.The concern of intellectuals is the life of thought, and that has littleto do with the life of life. Liued life-as much as spinozl's narura ,orrroroJ,supposed o be less han thought,bur liuing life and natura naturansare surelymore rhan thought.

By callingmyselfan intellectual-activistwish to suggesr possible ay ofliv-ing the impossibility ofcommunicating the unsayablen aproductive way, h...bycreating new possibilities.This book resorts requently to indirect communica-tion; it was tself thought through on rhe basisof much indirect communication.. .1^1*ltiyibility of colllctiueaurhorshig.As far as authorship goes, his bookhas diffuse limirs. In recenty""ir t hanebeen an acrivisr n ihe world SocialForum pt^o_...:nd havebeendeeply nvolved n the struggres f rhe ndigenouspeoples f Larin America. am unable o determine o *h", exrenrmy rh"oughts]areparr oFacollectivewirhout a nameand wirhout clearourliner.Of rnu own isonly whar is expressedndividuallyand wirh full awarenesof " doubl.lur.^..,the absenceof that which could be formulated only collecrively,were t suscep-tible to rational formulation, and the absence f that which carnot be .ationallyformulated,either ndividuallyor collectively. alf this book will forever emainunwritten. I wrire what I am able o wrire wirh rhis in mind. t ,rn p"r, or" .ollecrive by being aware of how I separatemyself from it in order ro *rit.. "jTo write From he perspective .[the mpossibil ityof radicalism s today morepromising than beforeowing ro rhree facrors: he end of thegameof dogmasi hemissionof the rearguard theory with which the ralliers ir",r. lnrr,rrred ihe i.rtel-lecruals; and the nexhaustible iuersityof the world andwhat ir shows,or what irIetsbe seen, egardless f the possibility of its being rpot.r.The end of the game of dogmas.For the prr, ,*o'hundred years rhe socialstrugglesagainst the old dogmashavealmost al*ays beenfought on behalf ofnewdogmas.As a consequence, ocialemancipation becamea n# social regulation,and the old orrhodoxywasreplaced y the new one. x/hatwas" -."nr- b.."-.an end;what was ebellionbecame onformity.Now the socialmovements ally-ing.for go.od iving/ buenuiuir show hat ir is possibre " figh;;g;i;r;;iJ;;g;1,without doing it in the nameof new dog*"i.. According ro such.movemenrs,ocialemanciparion resupposesocial egula- t

:iont.:: emancipated ociety hat is nor regulated s nor concei.,able. ur ihereis a differenceberween egularingemancipationand emanciparing egulation.Regula^ringmancipation.onri.riof "pplii.rg o ,h. n.* .;il;;, il;;;Iogicof regulation iFnot necessarilyhe samekind of regulation) hat presidedover.theold conditions,now overcomer mancipating eg,rlation. ' t 'h. o,h.,hand, consists f establishing sa new kind of regulationlhe condition for tharwhicht aimso regulate.?.h.purpo..i,..fu .-"n.];^;;il; iltil ;democracy-wirhout-end,mancipating egulation nvolves eepening nd diver-sifying democratic solutions as transforma-tivepracticescreate.h. n..i for them.only rhis will prevent lneans rom becoming ends;new idols from replacingoldonesand demandingof citizens he samekind ofsubmissionasbefore;n.* ful.,


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MINIFESIO OR NTELLECTUAL-ACTIVISTSfrom being naturalizedasnecessities f life, aswas he casewith the old rules; thestruggles gainst heelimination of alternatives rom eading o a societywithoutalternatives;political actions adoprcd to restorepolitics vis-i-vis technical solu-tions from becoming a soiution of political technique; imits to freedomof actionand creativity from becoming exactly the same as the old ones; nonconformity,which made changepossible, rom turning into change-hindering conformiry;the emorions, anrasies, nd aspirationsnvesred n social change rom beingcondemned for what they are; the new functions that broke with the old oneifrom becoming structuresblocking new functions: rhe historicizationof thatwhich wasconsidered hisrorical rom turning into a new ahistorical ruth; rhenecessarilyelative nconsciousnessf all rhor.".rrg"g"d n change nvolving isksfrom becoming the maximum possibleconsciousness f those benefiting fromthe change.The aim is, in sum, ro prevenr he weaponsof the onceoppressedfrom becoming the weaponsof the new oppressors. believe hat, according tothe good-living rall iers, his is rhe only way ro rurn the journey toward the endin view nto a iourneywithour end.This newstance oses hugechallenge o inrellectual-activisrs.arricularlynrheglobalNorth, the protagonismof inrellecruals asbeen argelydue to gamesoFdogmasand orthodoxies. ogmas areas ntense oncerning ormulation (precisewords) as direction (precise nd binding instrucr ions or action and behavior).They areso ntensely irective hat they confuse he realityof direction with rhedirection of reality.They createautonomous orms o[ l ife. lntellecruals ivinginside and off such g;mes have no need of any other life. Th.v *.r. trained d,h", ,on of l ife, and"theirmission s to reproducer. Under these onditions, hechallengeposed to the intellectuals by the ralliers is almost dilemmatic: eitherthey must untrain and reinvent hemselves,r theywill conrinue o be what theyalreadyare-irrelevanr. Before hey chooseuntraining, intellecruals o wonderabout rhe dilemma: how is ir possible o fighr againstdogmaswithout resortingto other and more porenrdogmas? Vould leavingeveryrhingopen nor be rhesameas etting the enemy oose?Can rhe attempt to integrate ife and thoughtnot bring about the disintegration of both? Is antidogma not another kind ofdogma after all?What is promisingat the beginningof the new millennium is that the ralliersfor good Iivingl buen uiuir have createdpossibiliries not previously foreseenordeemedadmissibleheoretically. hesenew possibil ir ieshow that irrationaliryis not the only alternarive o whar is currenrly considered arional, hat chaosis not the only alternarive o order,and that concernabout what is less hantrue (the messy easons nd affectionsunderlying the srruggles or uncertainresults)musr be balancedby concernabout what is more than true (rhehabitusof disprovedgrand rheoriesof claiming truthfulness n their explanations fprevious ailures).The new possibili ties merge rom new acrionsacredout bynew playerswith new discoursesand conceptions.They are actually not new;someof them are very old indeed; they are ancesrral.They becamemore visible


18/21

MINIFESTOOR NTELLECTUAL-ACTIVISTS1because he repertoireof socialemancipation that had been inrellecruallycerti-fied.has collapsed,.becauseh fashion show of rhe new, which actually is theold-in-new-forms, as ailed rotally.

The absence f dogmas s not easy o describe. ut it is Felrn rhe pulsean deasy o see. t can be seen n the urge nor ro squanderactions,energies,aspira-tions, or knowledges. t can be seen n the changes n conversationand in theagreedupon silence o facil irateoinr acrion.

To acknowledgehe rall iers'noveltydoesnor mean much. It is ust a solidarymanner of protectingrhem from being silenced.To be sure, he rall iersknowby their own e*periencehe exrent o *hi.h \Wesrernmoderniryhasspecializedin techniques or silencing nsurgent actions. According to dominant commonsense,heydeserve eingsilenced ecauseheyarebeingcarriedour by ignorant,inferior,backward, etrograde,ocal,unproductivepeople-in sum, by peoplewho aresupposedo be obsracleso progress nd developmenr. ow to counterth is powerful si lencingmachinewithout giving rise o an alternative ut alsosi lencingmxshing-5uch is the greater hal lenge acing ntel lecrual-activists.Herein lie rheir untraining and self-reinvention.

The rearguard heory.The second reasonwhy I consider rhar writing Fromthe perspective f the mpossibil ityoFradicalisms promisinghas o do with themission ascribed to intellectual-activists by ralliers for good livingl buen uiuir: tocontribute o the elaboration f rheories f the rearguard moreon this through-out t he book).This mission s almosr mpossible, irt to the extent hat it can beaccomplished,t constituteshe greatesr oveltyat the beginningof the millen-nium and s he bestpiece f news or rhosewho genuinely elieveihat apitalism,colonialism,parriarchy, nd all orhersatell ire-oppressionsan be overcome.Thesepolitical experiences itnessed y ralliers or good livinglbuenuiuir causesurprisebecausehey were nor conceived [ ler aloneForeseen,y the politicaltheories of \Testern moderniry, including Marxism and liberalism. Parricularlysignifrcant, mong many other examples, s the caseof rhe indigenousp.oples'movements n Latin America and their contribution to recenrpoliricalchangesin somecountries.The surprise s due to the facr hat both Marxism and lib er-alism have gnoredth. indig.r,ous peoples, oth associaland political acrors.The greatPeruvianMarxist JosdMaridteguiwasstigmatizedas 'romanric''an dpopulisc by the communist lnternarional for having ascribeda role to theIndians in the construcrionof Latin American socieries. ucha surpriseposesa_ ew quesrion o rheoreticians nd intellectualsn general-na-.1y, *h'.th..they areqreparld ro experience urpriseand wonder.This questionhasno easyanswer.Critical rheoreticiansreparticulariy rapped n rhisdifificultysince heyhavebeenrrained n vanguard heorizing.vanguard theory,by its nature,doesnot ler tselbe aken by surprise r feel ond.. rn.nt.'S7h t..r.. doesnot fir thevanguardists' revisions r propositions itherdoesnot exisror is not relevant.To answer positively to the challengeof allowing oneself o be surprisedpresupposeshat the process f unrraining and reinvenrion s in progress nd

i;.


19/21

MINIFESTO OR NTELLECTUAL-ACTIVISTSI3proceeds uccessfully.ntellectualswilring.to ler themserves e raken by sur-priseare thosewho are.no o-nger,rrpri..J by the imagined""".rrr.r, lr" '*.".,extravaganrand seductiv-e, fvanguard theories,havin reached he conclusion:1T,,n.

imeofvangurd heoriesrhe imeoFlneariry,l;il; ;;' ;,"#:andderermrnarion)sover. nce ntel lectuarsnter heunrraining -. .rr . r t .academicist,verintellectuarized,nd stagnateJ.h;;;;;;rr*u"ra theoriesbecomesraduallymoreobvious.I wrote hisbookhavingn m nd hecrearionf anaffecrive-inrellectualori-zon n wlif rearguard 1".:i., mayemergehrough their contrib;;;;;;;success,ofhe.strugglesf ralliersoi good iuingrbir, ,irir. R;;;su"ra ,n.orr..canonlyvalidatehemselvesy rheiipracricaliesults,y rhi.;"il;;;;;;cnanges adeby ail rheirprotagonisrs.mongwhom rhe ntellectual_activistit-il?-.j^.:lnor

hgure.That is.rosay, earguardheories re,borrowing rom.:l:j"lT""er, pdrev andparalipomena.minorpartsof nontheoretic"t"for_,lt"lllrl l:f .T. acrions,ofheoreticalnrervention oven nside ormsof life. :r neydo norwash heir. andsike pontius irare;norare heya creekchorus.They special izen skeletons,rawings,.gir,rrr ion" ;"; i l ; ; ; . ; iaddresses-imporranrhingsbut Far -m i,ipo.t"n, "nough.

-'--The ine hausib e exp ,i nce of rhe * r, i' h) ^,')ilii f,)'** u, irn, on. T hethird reason hy I consid.. h.'pr.r.r, -o*.n, p.;#; ;; writinq fromtheperspecrivef the mpossibirityf radicalisms roday'si.r""r.a'"*il.:that the cultural, cognitive,social,ethnic_racial, rodrr.rirr.,p"ilil:;;J;;il:

gious iversity f theworld s mmenser esidesrscapacity'i. i.r.riu;;;lrepresenred'uchdiversiry an beseen, hown, ert.and'po.ri."ilv .*;;;;.Many acrorsccounrorihir,andsome"r,n.- *iir;J;;.il ;""';i l:bur hemostimportant ne s therecenr isibility i;l#"c;ffi;t"jb.ueniuir nd he nternariversityhey evear"i ..r.il lr.. r"i ', i, a kindof1::'.lll l::lllt subverrshemonoculturaliversirotNo,;onlt'd)il|i,',oreco-erhno-currurarourism.r isdiversiryirh tsowncrireriao,di ,ri,rr.which,unlikemonoculruraliversiry,urr* in.r, r;"il;; t;;; JiliJ;:;TT.O":r::;1y,

Untitcehe ouristic r enrerrainingaze,hi.h .;.;;;;:.;;or slmuuane:rl 1-o.lg nonconremporaneous eople, he diversityof the ral_:.j:,:::*:l^ ttu.ngtbuen uiuir cre.aresncounrersamong differeni conrempo_ranelrres-rhar ls ro say.among difGrenr forms o[ being conrempor"'.orr. I ,:::::11,1. lolychromya,,dpo{,phony f the*.;l ;;;;'.;;

.;l";*them n o" ";:::i: t;,"-:.,1y _'n.o* men urable,adical eterogeneity.unrry rfes n no essence.t l ies. in.theaskof building good ivingr uenuiuir.Here.in eside he noveltyand the poti,i.rt';;;;;?.:;enlarse con_remporanerryeanso amplify he ieldof reciprociry.w.en lh.

;'::311:l:-:'oiJfi ; ;.; i'"'.?ld,;; il',i: :::ff#..:lT'j,i]:::l:: ..,p""1s n unsuspecredays. o the njustice.gr.dingwearrndrsrrrbu.on, basedon rhe convenrional onceptof socia.liurti.J, m"niorher imensionsf njusricereadded.""i;g;;;;;;;;ffii l;j

i


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\ \ l \ IFESTOFOR \TELLECTeL-\Cl l \ i : '> ' l

he ce aryin distnctmodesfcontemPoralT.JS:"If:;:tXi;;i'"'nffir,it:lt+dr,Til*Tx##t',:i':ffi+TL:nl'i"gairrir sustainable

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MINIFESTOOR NTELLECTUAL-ACTIVISTS17I hope hisbookwilr be eadby others esideshe ralliers. he artermaynotbe able.o buy t or, T ""I case, aveenough nreresr" i,. ar,rr."gh this bookrvaswrirren on this sideof rherine, t *", gJr..*r-d. on theothersideof therine.It will be ntelligibleandpromisingonlyFo. hor. *ho ."r, ;;il;il#i'theabvssaline I will bewriting "b"out;., h. fbil;i;;;;;.r."'t""

'L srlu(rrThe attempt to contrib^utel th. emergence f ,.J.gr;ra theoriescalls forrepeatedxercisesFselFrefexivirybour h."o.,going ;;:;;i;;;;';;tr;il,#.Thecontext ssimirar o, t.Augustine's roquenrraremenrshewaswriting hisi'{ il{t::;"3::,':,?^,*'nifacti'sum"1h"'u'".o.. ;".';;;;;r myserr").il*;il;;#fi .'f.'.:::::fl:?i";.ff;T5;:n'm*n*:::verbeingsurerhat p.asr rrorswill nor U"'..p."r"a "gr,; '*""""*'eaoers reno doubt aware har my wriring trom rheperspecrivef rhe mpos_sibility of radicalism is srill an ",r.rrrpr, "if.i, tr"p.r.ss or hoperessly onest, toretriwe, radicalism by ways th"t ."t.'h the established powers d.istracted or offguard' Ler meadd righraway: haveno way oFkno*ing ifl ;;;. ;;;..eded. I donotknow.herefore,f I amacomperenr.b.L,t,do,"iA.i ,n. pr*ili l_:::writewhat write,which.is ot troubl.some.zhat i, ,r"*bl.;;;;"i, ,rot o r..rtheneedo silence hatshourd esilenced.he ast .n,.rr.. ofsJ 'r;;;;:r;;;;,is terrifying:Sed mnia *uh,.r: tam lfficilia q;;;;;;"ihl ;#;;;;J;;are asdifficult as they are rare").This is why rhis book, ro a largeexrenr,will remain incomplete.

Santos,B. Epist.south (1)

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