#ichida

[andrmew]

are you coming back?

[gacougnol]

Sayuri ichida

[yama-bato]

Sayuri Ichida

Absentee #190, 2021

[nobrashfestivity]

Sayuri Ichida

[henk-heijmans]

Trinidad, Cuba, 2018 - by Sayuri Ichida (1985), Japanese/English

[thinkingimages]

Sayuri Ichida

[les-larmes-d-eros]

Photo par Sayuri Ichida

[kiki-de-la-petite-flaque]

Ph Sayuri Ichida

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"In the Phenomenology of Spirit, [Hegel] provided the formula "Ich, das Wir, und Wir, das Ich ist" [the we as I, the I as we]." However, as we have already seen, Hegel saw this as an opportunity to introduce spirit. In other words, for Hegel, the I and the we are already split and awaiting sublimation [Aufheben]. Hegel saw Rousseau's individual will and general will in a similar manner, and he substituted spirit for general will. In contrast, in Nagasaki's The Phenomenology of Politics, the general will is formed first in the midst of rebellion, so to speak-and experienced without a contract. Only later does individual consciousness become aware of itself as a shared part of the general will ("I was not alone!"). The pilgrimage of the I-which does not end in the sublimation of the self-begins at this point.

The first step in the pilgrimage is becoming an "agitator." This newly formed agitator is not yet the leader of a group. The agitator is the self as viewed from the eyes of the other, with whom the self exchanges actions. In the midst of the rebellion, the I sees his or her own exchange value form in the other. In other words, the self sees in the other his or her own equivalent value form. From the perspective of the I, the other just happens to be a person with whom the self shares an action. However, the same thing happens from the perspective of the other: I am the equivalent value form of the other. In other words, I make the other, with whom I just happen to have shared an activity, into an equivalent form of myself. When seen from the perspective of the other who does the same to me, the I is the equivalent form of he or she. The agitator is none other than the self who has come to this realization. Agitators intuitively understand that they express and represent the other. When the self realizes that its equivalent form is not only a single other, but that all others with whom it shares activity in the midst of the rebellion are also in this equivalent form, the self becomes a true agitator. The I becomes aware of this: 

Through my actions as an individual, as a flesh and blood human being, and by expressing the meaning of the style of our action in concentrated form and through the mediation of my action, others can mutually transact as equals. Through the medium of the self which functions just like money, others carry out a mutual exchange of actions."

In other words, there are many of these selves. Each one is an equivalent form of the many, which amounts to being an agitator. The state in which each individual rebel takes the form of the general value-form C (general equivalence) in Marx's argument in the chapter on value in Capital is, according to Nagasaki, the self's first step in its pilgrimage. One could say that Nagasaki's version of Rousseau's general will is formed by every rebel becoming an agitator. To repeat, in contrast to the usual interpretation of the word, here the concept of "rebellion" is overflowing with agitators. Rather than single agitator, each rebel group is internally full of agitators. Every rebel group and every rebel member is an agitator. Within these groups, being an agitator has nothing to do with a member's personality or charisma. Each agitator is precisely equivalent in the sense that each is simply a member of the group."

- Yoshihiko Ichida, "The Ethics of the Agitator: On Hiroshi Nagasaki's The Phenomenology of Politics," in Gavin Walker, ed., The Red Years: Theory, Politics and Aesthetics in the Japanese '68. London and New York: Verso, 2020. p. 45-46.

[megutime]

thinking abt how sakura and gumi have the same va's

[moradadabeleza]

Sayuri Ichida

[andrmew]

Best Friends

[gacougnol]

Sayuri Ichida

[yama-bato]

Sayuri Ichida

Absentee #263, 2021

[ojo-rojo]

Sayuri Ichida: from the “Absentee” series.

https://www.sayuriichida.com

[hellohaters]

Sayuri Ichida