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In blurring the distinction between Man and his naturalized others, Braidotti draws
attention to the dynamics of power that exist in society. Power, understood in the
Foucauldian sense, functions on a grid that the posthuman subject can
experimentally resist. As Braidotti observes: power is not a static given, but a
complex strategic flow of effects which call for pragmatic politics of intervention and
the quest for sustainable alternatives (99).
As Braidotti explains: [b]ecause genetic informationis unevenly distributed, this
system is not only inherently discriminatory, but also racist at some basic level of
the term (117). In this way, the political policy is designed specifically to promote
the sustained life of those who are deemed to be the healthy normative core of
society and implicitly necessitates the death of those deemed unhealthy. The necro-
political aspect of this model inherently embeds the corpse within the embodied
self, as individuals come to understand nonconformity to normative societal values
as synonymous with their own death. For this reason, a central insight of Foucaults
bio-power remains valid in todays technologically bio-mediated society: bio-power
also involves the management of dying (119).
Achille Mbembes observation that Bio-power and necro-politics are two sides of
the same coin (122).
Braidotti observes, [m]any contemporary wars, led by Western coalitions under the
cover of humanitarian aid are often neo-colonial exercises aimed at protecting
mineral extraction and other essential geo-physical resources needed by the global
economy (123)
The death of the individual, then, cannot be seen as the teleological end of life,
because life is not an inherent property of the individual, but rather the opposite:
the mortal individual is best understood as a kind of temporary echo chamber for
zoe, the temporality of which inherently means that death has always already
occurred. That is to say, because the individual is tethered to her mortality, death is
not a limit that she approaches, but rather a threshold that she transgresses. For
this reason, death as a constitutive event is behind us; it has already taken place
as a virtual potential that constructs everything we are (132).
For this reason, Death is the becoming-imperceptible of the posthuman subject and
as such it is part of the cycles of becoming, yet another form of interconnectedness,
a vital relationship that links one with other, multiple forces (137). That is to say,
both life and death are impersonal, generic expressions of zoe, and understanding
them as such has the potential to, ultimately, transgress ego and dissolve the
boundaries between subjective individuals, such that the primary focus of each
individual becomes the sustained existence of Zoe.
As Braidotti opines: Sustainability does assume faith in a future, and also a sense
of responsibility for passing on to future generations a world that is liveable and
worth living in (138).