VARIATIONS ON THE SUICIDAL STATE

three possible interpretations of how fascism operates

Abstract

When Paul Virilio coined the expression Suicidal State in the 1970s, the term was soon used by other thinkers such as Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari, to refer to Nazi-fascism. The aim was to show that this kind of political system operates differently from other totalitarian regimes because of an intrinsic force of destruction. This force of destruction ends up, at the conclusion of the process, reaching the very nation that projected it. To defend this point, this article begins by showing the suicidal epidemic that plagued Germany at the end of the Second World War. Next it suggests a possible inspiration for Hitler's apocryphal communication that Virilio nicknamed telegram 71 and summed up in the phrase "If the war is lost, let the nation perish". This paper then suggests three possible interpretations for the Suicidal State concept: the first one is based on Foucault, who used the term in a class in 1976 when he first addressed biopolitics. The second follows Deleuze and Guattari, who borrow from Virilio the concept to speak about the destructive force of war machines when they assume the State format. The third, still seeking inspiration in Deleuze and Guattari, tries to demonstrate how fascism is the attempt to forge a notion of majority, even if such a proposal is a conceptual impossibility.