Giorgio Agamben: Neolithic conservative

Paul Goodman, one of the most radical anarchist thinkers of the twentieth century, once described himself as a “Neolithic conservative”. And Ivan Illich, who believed he had one foot in the Catholic tradition and the other in the mire of his own time, said that his orthodoxy was so ancient and complete as to be revolutionary. This means that to understand and perhaps even to undo the historical era in which we live, we must keep one foot in prehistory. This situation on the threshold or at the boundary between two incommensurable eras is precisely what our age proves incapable of. Not only does it think in a single dimension, but it has lost all connection with its own past, without which any access to the present is impossible. For this reason, it can only look towards a future which, in reality, is nothing but the consequence of a past of which it is totally unaware, and which pulls its strings like a marionette. Only those who stand on two legs between the past and the present can come to terms with both and not be unconsciously determined by them. Only a Neolithic conservative can be revolutionary enough to open up a new space for thought and action.

Quodlibet, 30/10/2026