Angst, Hass und Liebe als Affekte des Widerstandes

Bürgerwehren und exzessive Affektdynamiken im Sicherheitsdispositiv

Abstract

The article analyses the dynamics of affects in right-wing resistance. The increase of neighborhood watches, becoming part of the security dispositive, is highly topical today. In neoliberal governmentality the society is addressed as an actor who has to take care of security by itself. Neighborhood watches are collectives with the purpose of protecting their community and fighting what they define as danger or crime. Based on two case studies, I point out that they function primarily affective: 1. affects of fear constitute the neighborhood watches and empower their members to ensure security, 2. affects divide between the fearful and dangerous “others” and “outsiders”, like refugees or immigrants, and the loved ones inside their community, 3. affects could be modulated by the collective but not completely, so they are always potentially violent, and 4. because of affects neighborhood watches are excessive collectives in a permanent state of emergency (“civil war”).