Giorgio Agamben “The fact that it goes on like this is itself the catastrophe”

Interview with Giorgio Agamben by Arno Widmann for Frankfurter Rundschau, June 30, 2019

English translation by Lena Bloch, original publication in German here.

Crisis as a permanent state: “We live in a permanent state of emergency declared by the state,” said Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben.

Mr. Agamben, what does your name mean?

Philologists explained to me that it comes from Armenian: Agambenian, child of Agamben. But I don’t know what Agamben means. When I told my family, my mother said I was crazy. But: Armenians have existed in Italy since the 18th century. Near the Lido of Venice there is the island “San Lazzaro of Armenians”. Armenian monks who fled from the Turks built a monastery there at that time. It became one of the centers of Armenian culture.

Are we living in apocalyptic times?

The idea of an end to history is one of the foundations of the Christian tradition. Theologians, however, have long since closed the “last judgment” window. The scientists have opened it again. Today, it is they who supply us apocalyptic expectations.