Only Violence Reigns

Or, "Why a Nazi Took Interest in a Jewish Philosopher"

Abstract

In Critique of Violence – Critique of Power, Walter Benjamin suggests that violence, often stigmatized, was expropriated during Modernity. Like Labor, it is an essential part of the human condition that capitalism has seized, disguising it in the fetishized form of Law, the “legitimate violence.” This diagnosis made the text one of the most debated works of the 20th century and, I argue, also unsettled Carl Schmitt, the “crown jurist of the Third Reich.” Schmitt’s engagement with Benjamin became central to the evolution of his theory of sovereignty, as the “divine violence” described by Benjamin proposes an alternative relationship with sovereign power: not as oppression, but as emancipation. To explore this hypothesis, I analyze Benjamin’s essay in light of Derrida and Graeber, as well as the Schmitt-Benjamin debate. Finally, I delve into Benjamin’s theory of sovereignty, suggesting a connection with Elsa Dorlin’s philosophy of self-defense. This movement points to a radical political horizon, where the “tradition of the oppressed” becomes the foundation for a new sovereignty, one that liberates rather than subjugates.