by Justin Mueller
Presented at WPSA 2012
Political theory (even radical theory) has had an ambivalent relationship with Max Stirner. His The Ego and Its Own... more
Political theory (even radical theory) has had an ambivalent relationship with Max Stirner. His The Ego and Its Own has been regarded as one of the most thoroughly radical and biting works of political theory to ever exist, and is at the same time largely unknown... or more frequently, known about and misunderstood. Stirner's dismantling critiques of a host of ubiquitous abstractions of modern philosophy, including God, Society, Authority, Freedom, Obligation, Morality, and Man, among others, have earned him few friends amidst the theoretical rubble. Nonetheless, Stirner's work provides a powerful and unique conception of political agency that, in some ways, has even greater relevance today.
In the face of recent theoretical attempts to define the new “revolutionary subjects” of the 21st century, Stirner's ideas regarding agency, anti-representationalism, “Ownness,” and insurrection provide a distinct contrast and warning. Rather than ontologically privileging and granting value to a particular abstracted social group (the proletariat, the Multitude, etc.) as the newest primary “revolutionary subjects” of history (implying an ontological subordination or devaluation in others), Stirner firmly situates the value and possibility of rebellion in the hands of every “flesh and blood” person. In this sense, Stirner takes the “pluralist” approach to revolutionary subjectivities to its logical limits, and constructs a unique set of conceptual tools that enable both critique and action.
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