ABSTRACT
The conception of political aesthetics outlined in this chapter is based on three interconnected beliefs. First, I claim that the aesthetic plays a more fundamental role in politics than is usually recognized; second, the connection between them may be found in the concept of order which I consider constitutive both for aesthetics and politics; third, the aesthetic is central for politics due to the vital importance of the desire for recognition which necessarily involves the idea of visibility. In the presently emergent culture of visibility, with its ongoing spectacularization of the social life, the struggle for recognition becomes the struggle for the greatest possible visibility and is responsible for the spectacularization of the political itself. For this reason, political theory cannot disregard the aesthetic properties of human relationships in each sphere of the social life. Therefore, the spaces of human relationships should be understood as loci of exposition and rivalry for visibility which is the primary mode of the satisfaction of the human desire for recognition. The stress laid on the aesthetic attributes of the spaces of human life thus enables one to understand various forms of the struggle for recognition, particularly in the area of politics, in a novel way. The argument is supported by a series of claims concerning the role of the concept of order in aesthetics, formulated by many authors, starting from Antiphon, the neglected ancient Greek precursor of political aesthetics. In conclusion, an account of the dynamics responsible for the dislocation of the individual’s gaze serves as a critique of the atomist view of the individual.
