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From “living-dead” to “undead”: magical thinking, violence and insurgency in the present protests

ABSTRACT

This essay is based on the idea that a certain apolitical youth, the “living-dead” alienated by consumption, have risen from the darkness as “undead”, outraged in social movements that have spread in the last decade as a reaction to the exploitation and usurpation entrenched in the State. However, the objective violence of capital still remains invisible. The “violent acting out” based on a “magical thinking” is criticized because it cannot overthrow the system with skills that are not collectively structured. The insurgent youth ends up being punished, becoming a focus of repression based on the criminalization of “subjective violence”. From the blackblock movement to the occupation movement in schools, the indignant youths have been building new critical ways of breaking with the punitive logic to which they have been submitted.

Keywords:
magical thinking; insurgency; violence; living-dead; alienation; psychoanalysis and politics

Setor de Educação da Universidade Federal do Paraná Educar em Revista, Setor de Educação - Campus Rebouças - UFPR, Rua Rockefeller, nº 57, 2.º andar - Sala 202 , Rebouças - Curitiba - Paraná - Brasil, CEP 80230-130 - Curitiba - PR - Brazil
E-mail: educar@ufpr.br