‘The camp’ and ‘the lesser evil’: humanitarianism in Sri Lanka
‘The camp’ and ‘the lesser evil’: humanitarianism in Sri Lanka
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“集中营”与“两害相权取其轻”：斯里兰卡的人道主义
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发表时间：
2014
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通讯作者：
D. Keen
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作者：
D. Keen
本文通过当时进行的实地考察以及阿伦特、福柯和阿甘本提供的理论视角，考察了2009年斯里兰卡的人道主义灾难。这篇文章认为，这场灾难是一个有益的例子，说明了在政府助长的人权灾难背景下促进“较小的邪恶”的后果。与阿伦特对“较小的邪恶”的批评一致，这个案例说明了优先考虑妥协、平静和“进入”的局限性。与此同时，虽然“民主”和“恐怖”经常被视为对立的东西，但这场悲剧表明，民主力量，在国内甚至国际上，可以接受类似阿甘本“营地”的东西，即一种紧急状态，在这种状态下，整个群体的人失去了他们的权利，在极端情况下，可以不受惩罚地被杀害。与此同时，“关怀”和“人道主义”（对应于福柯的“生命”政治）的普遍官方语言不仅被证明与种族清洗和大规模杀害平民完全一致;它还积极协助这一努力，创造了一个烟幕，在其背后可以进行大屠杀。
This article examines the 2009 humanitarian disaster in Sri Lanka through fieldwork conducted at the time and through theoretical lenses supplied by Arendt, Foucault and Agamben. The article suggests that this catastrophe represents a salutary example of the consequences of promoting a ‘lesser evil’ in the context of a government-fuelled human rights disaster. In line with Arendt's critique of the ‘lesser evil’, the case illustrates the limits to prioritising compromise, quietude and ‘access’. At the same time, while ‘democracy’ and ‘terror’ have frequently been posed as opposites, this tragedy shows how democratic forces, nationally and even internationally, can embrace something that approximates to Agamben's ‘camp’, a state of emergency in which entire groups of people lose their rights and can, at the extreme, be killed with impunity. Meanwhile, a pervasive official language of ‘care’ and ‘humanitarianism’ (corresponding to Foucault's politics of ‘life’) not only proved entirely consistent with ethnic cleansing and the large-scale killing of civilians; it also actively assisted in this endeavour by creating a smokescreen behind which massacres could be carried out.