Domination still had a strategy, which was to incorporate the negative as conflicts unfolded and in accordance with a dialectical perspective opened up by its adversaries themselves. By contrast, the hegemonic form tends quite simply to liquidate its opponents, regarding them as worthless eccentric and residual. A style not of oppression and alienation, but of excommunication of everything that doesn’t fall within this sphere of integral performance and exchange. A style of foreclosure of a delinquent minority–exactly parallel to the theological position which contends that Evil does not exist.

☛ Jean Baudrillard, Carnival and Cannibal, trans. Chris Turner, New York: Seagull Books p. 38

Original French version below:

La domination, elle, avait encore sa stratégie. Elle était d’intégrer le négatif au fil des conflits et selon une perspective dialectique ouverte par ses adversaires eux-mêmes. Tandis que la forme hégémonique tend tout simplement à les liquider, en les tenant pour nuls, excentriques et résiduels. Une manière, non plus d’oppression et d’aliénation, mais d’excommunication de tout ce qui ne rentrer pas dans cette sphère de l’échange et de la performance intégrale. Une manière de forclusion d’une minorité délinquante – exactement à l’image de la position théologique qui dit que le Mal n’existe pas. (Jean Baudrillard, «Le Mal ventriloque», in Carnaval et cannibale. éd. de L’Herne, Paris, p. 41-42)

Photo of a mannequin on sand dune to illustrate a quote by Baudrillard about hegemony
“USA, New Mexico, White Sands National Monument, mannequin on sand dune – stock photo by Andy Renolds (caption from Getty)

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