Emptying Conflicts: Expropriation of the Common and Commonality of the Void

Abstract

Conflicts can only be solved if the conflicting parties find common ground, and making peace achieved only by stressing what these parties have in common. And yet every conflict always already implies that there is something “in common”: the fight takes place on a common ground and the opponents are united by the same will to possess, by a common object around which their opposed needs come to clash. It might therefore be rather through the absolute elimination of everything held “in common” that conflicts can be overcome, or rather put to work in a constructive manner. Through the works of Rancière, Glissant, Blanchot, and Esposito, the idea emerges that conflicts can be transformed into a positive occurrence through a common struggle to invalidate the logic that determines the nature of the object up for dispute, the existence of the place from which to fight for it, and the role that opponents play in a common political arena. But this perspective ultimately demands that those who fight this logic renounce having anything “in common,” save for the constant work of destroying their common identity.