Post-anarchism and the economy of divine love: toward an ethics of annihilation

In this article, I argue for the role Marguerite Porete’s conceptualization of divine love can play, as part of a post-anarchist insurrectionary politics, in the contestation and construction of prefigurative alternatives to neoliberalism and emerging forms of neofascism. My first claim is that, by staging an encounter between Porete’s mystical theology and Lacanian psychoanalysis, it is possible to conceive an economy of divine love that opens up the possibility of a more enduring alternative to the phallic economy of desire through which contemporary capitalism is configured than Lacan, on his own, allows. The second claim I make is that a Poretean ethics of annihilation, derived from an economy of divine love, can realize its contemporary political potential most fully as part of the post-anarchist insurrection. More specifically, I argue that, within this framework, it can contribute to the creation, or transformation, of political communities that, as part of an anarchist confederalist politics, can prefigure enduring alternatives to neoliberal and neofascist forms of political and social life.