What is the War Machine? | Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari | Keyword

In this episode, I present Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari's notion of the War Machine.
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[@xuvetynpygmalion3955]

Just a thought: Have you considered using a chalkboard or whiteboard, to help guide you viewers? I think something like this could help structure the video, without having to do more in the editing process

[@tiramisuvodka8353]

yess like jeffrey kaplan does

[@1293ST]

Just got and just read the book yesterday. Changed my entire societal outlook in a multitude of wars and compliments my own system wonderfully. Deleuze (and Guattari) have always - to me - been portrayed as some madness beyond understanding, but honestly, it's more enjoyable and a lot more reasonable and deeper than reading most contemporary philosophers. I remember being throughoutly confused the first time reading Mind and World by McDowell while Nomadology grabbed me in right away. I would love an introduction to Thousand Plateaus and Anti Oedipus (which I've tried reading but found quite dense as an introduction to their philosophy)!

[@TheoryPhilosophy]

I've covered them both on this channel :)

[@emmer4407]

Spot on! Treatise on Nomadology changed my life, and really isn't as difficult as people say. Also, love your GS!BE pic

[@fragments6758]

Hey, first time viewer - and since 19:53 ago a subscriber. Just wanted to say thank you for all the effort put into this channel and for your time to share. Browsing through your catalogue, virtually every video could be put on my watchlist. Once I get a real job I promise to Cryptograph you. I guess the algorithm directed me here, based on my previous searches. I started as a PhD student in 2017 with about 12 months left of working on my manuscript where I examine teleological and ontological interpretations of "desire".

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

I would love if you could potentially do a video for us aspiring professors like myself where you explain how you prepare notes if you use any, lecturing techniques, reading strategies, etc. Your videos are remarkably structured and follow a very logical order that I wish to replicate in my own lectures :)

[@picaweltschmerz6357]

Book. Shelf. Tour. (calls for group chant)

[@iammraat3059]

Book.Shelf.Tour

[@tomio8072]

Book shelf tour!

[@cyrus2857]

Book shelf tour

[@Iamwrongbut]

Board game tour! Wait what?

[@lilebit]

BOOK! SHELF! TOUR!

[@sebastianabascal4661]

Thanks for expanding on D&G. Truly helpful. Btw, will you be doing a review in the near future of Negarestani’s Intelligence and Spirit (please)?

[@picaweltschmerz6357]

I second this

[@tegan2mares]

I study the history of horsemanship in depth, and this is interesting, esp if we think of ancient nomadic horse peoples and what that brought to human experience

[@d.graemer1627]

This is indeed what D&G had in mind

[@tegan2mares]

@@d.graemer1627 thanks for the confirmation. Its very cool to have found other philosophers, finally, who seem to recognize the importance of the ancient nomadic horsepeople in our development, (if only on a very general level.) I'm attemping to describe what I learn by practicing the traditional training, amd coming into contact -- directly through the horse -- with more modern approaches to training. Since the late 19th century behaviorists, and the popularity of pop animal training in the later 20th century, the nature of this has significantly changed. Animal training is a microcosm of how control works on every level of society: for example, control through physical development/strengthening/growth vs psychological control through physical limitation/resitriction.

[@d.graemer1627]

@@tegan2mares all of history is massively shaped by the nomadic peoples. The permanent incursions from the steppe were an extremely important part of Chinese and Middle Eastern history (Indo-Europeans, Scythians/Saka, Turkish peoples, Mongols etc.). Many technologies were adapted from those peoples, especially warfare stuff. Bows, horses, lances. It all came from the steppe. With regard to D&G: Their theory is really cybernetic. It's about how nested organisms use their respective substratum and organise it in a way fitting their interests. The cell, for example, consists of organelles, and it organises flows of nutrients to guarantee its survival, exchanging flows with other cells. In the same sense, states consist of cities and regions, organising flows of people and resources, and exchanging flows with other states. The nomadic war machine serves as a means of de-stratification and de-territorialisation, breaking up states and allowing for the emergence of something new (for the humans living through this, it was very unpleasant of course).

[@tegan2mares]

@@d.graemer1627 yes, I know something about these ancient warriors through the archeologist Jeanine Davis Kimball. Their story can never really be told though ..... what horse people learn is how to live with chaos, without striving for control, rather to allow life energy to flow without inhibitions, without becoming fixed, without restrictions of any kind... to direct the other's energy without impinging on the other's freedom, in a basic way.

[@AdmiralXiphos]

Duginist version of Nick Land has entered the chat

[@Booer]

great! thank you sir, will contribute when i can! thank you again!

[@dionisossolon2335]

Hey there. First of all I gotta thank you for your effort. It's really hard to bring these subjects to explain them and develop the topics on a "normal" or in non-philosophical terms. I want to say that the elaboration on metalurgical formations and the association of those distributions is explained on Deleuzes classes. I read them in spanish so I'll just write the tittle and editorial of the book: "Derrames II", editorial: Cactus.

[@anupamdebnath1884]

Thank you so much for this.

[@chemytheory]

Thank you so much. I am a chemist, and I find Deuleuze using much scientific idea in his-or I should say their-work. 감사합니다. 제 생각을 누군가로부터 확인받는거 같아서, 많은 도움이 되었어요.

[@evanshulman107]

My friend just shared your video saying I'd be interested in the War Machine concept. Appreciate the summary and introduction! I did have a question about your opening statements: Is it de-territorializing for de-territorializing sake? Or is it to disrupt existing organizational structures to then re-territorialize in an economic neo-colonial imperialist fashion to amass power and wealth? Same with war - is it war for war sake? Or to use the fog of and outcomes of war to change existing organizational structures to amass power and wealth? To me it seems to have an end other than the means itself (compared to say the Joker character in Batman who seems to enjoy the means as the end in itself - not really trying to be the biggest criminal or gang boss). And I understand the Joker to be a characterization of Chaos (though not completely since he took uses power to organize destructive acts). And I got a lot of Chaos v Order aspects to this review of Nomad v State and the War Machine as their change enabler - perhaps the War Machine lives at the Edge of Chaos where possibility lies (from Complexity Science and Improvisation/Interaction theories). Thanks again!

[@aesop1451]

Capitalism is an inherently deterritorializing force. That’s why it’s ironic that traditionalists support capitalism when capitalism has single-handedly made traditional societies obsolete. The inherent logic of capitalism is tied up with technology and statism. The end result of capitalism is a surveillance state like China, which is why it’s interesting that Peter Thiel of Palantir backs Trump. The importance of nomadism is that they represent a different type of social order than what we have. Most people assume that if you’re anti-capitalist, a technology skeptic, and a libertarian (in the classical sense), that you’re in favor of chaos.

[@bb-wb8sb]

the "rooting up" happens because of profit, and competition for said profit, and not "for its own sake". war arises from state formations. nomand to sedentary agriculture, to needing guards, to having a territory, to forming a state, and to finally battling with other states -- war.

[@andrewthomas4562]

David, this was extremely useful. Thank you. Is it ever evident why D&G specifically call it the "war" machine? Is it based on a kind of Hobbesian "war of all against all"? Is that the assumption they are making about nomadic societies?

[@hahaha4625]

war arises when the State and Nomadism come into conflict. The interests of State and Nomads are diametrically opposed so they can't coexist in the same space. That is why Nomads either destroy States or conquer them like with Genghis Khan. On the other end, the Nomads sometimes assimilate themselves into a State when they take it over

[@mlem474]

I love you

[@muhammadabdullahhanif8860]

Helpful introduction to the concept. Thank you.

[@seemsran0411]

could you please suggest from where to start reading Deleuze and Guattari ...

[@matth464]

Is your bookshelf growing David? This was quite helpful and I'll refer back once I get deeper into D&G

[@gabepollack8382]

subscribed, easily. I have enjoyed reading chapters of Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus for their style before, but-- even with a background in a lot of other continental philosophy-- it's still not always certain to me *what* the structure and content of D+G's arguments are-- and it is hard to find substantive philosophical break-downs of Deleuze and Guattari in [near to] plain English... Have you found any approach to reading D+G or any secondary literature that been helpful to you in your comprehension of Deleuze and Guattari? Thanks for your work and any response that could be given here.

[@exlauslegale8534]

@Gabe Pollack Excellent secondary literature on D&G is a book by Anne Sauvagnargues _Artmachines,_ a compendium of her essays translated in English by Suzanne Verderber

[@gabepollack8382]

@@exlauslegale8534 thank you for the suggestion, I will find a copy.

[@feneenasmohamed4272]

Thanks..Good explanation

[@whereisawesomeness]

Minor note: you use the term ‘pre-state people’ once, which presupposes a certain problematic progression to history. Obviously we don’t have many nomadic peoples left, given all the genocides, but there are non-state peoples around currently, and certainly D+G wouldn’t use that progressive model of history.

[@jemford3281]

so good thank you

[@MaximSchoemaker]

Super interesting ✨✨✨

[@mattdragon333]

I do wonder if a better place to study the war machine's origins would be chimpanzee wars

[@Booer]

13:50 'becoming'? wait i thought Deleuze hated Hegel, what is this about (:

[@Sandra-hc4vo]

wow that is very interesting.

[@findbridge1790]

thank you, Langley, for this little clown. laughter is always good.

[@driehoogachter5729]

2:30 I wasn't paying attention. Sorry.

[@lalsurya2275]

Can u please do a video on desiring-machine????

[@florianfelix8295]

it’s mostly used for humans afaik. As Assemblages for the pursuit of desires.

[@florianfelix8295]

(Of course any group of people then can be an assemblage of desires as well, but I try to give a most basic expression first with their definitions^^)

[@Yash42189]

Lol but what is the war machine? :D

[@greenguy2372]

A machine that wages war. Easy peasy.

[@Yash42189]

@@greenguy2372 what's a machine though

[@1293ST]

@@Yash42189 all that stands against the state. it is the force of conflict which is the outside to the inside of statism. statism being generally the force of organized and distributed structures of powers. this is a grossly false and inaccurate reply concerning what Deleuze actually means, but I hope it illuminates some things. the book is quite short and quite cheap, so I'd just recommed buying and reading it. it presupposes nothing - really - but some light googling at points if you've never read anything by Deleuze before--and some knowledge on history - as well as basic political theory and political history - to really hit the nail of understanding what they're trying to say on its head

[@Yash42189]

@@1293ST you make a thousand plateus sound much easier than it is imho.

[@jamesderoc6717]

i dont understand . "the warmachine is opposed to the state and preceeds the state"? the war machine is the state . nomads are nonstate peolpe and have nothing to do with war making. see the "art of not being governed "

[@lucas3918]

You should know that war is not to be taken in the literal sense, nor the term nomad necessarily. And in fact, in conceiving of the state in essentialized, reified terms, you miss that the war machine is the activation of potentialities, including that of war. Civil war. If the Empiry as an entity is that which totalises, homogenised, or forcefully orders in territorialization, resistance is an act of civil war

[@Stephen-xw9fx]

Summary of this video: fascism is to blame

[@lalsurya2275]

Can u pls do a video on desiring-machine????

[@clumsydad7158]

i think this one is quite excellent, fyi: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n37PeJehq8Sgbrc