The Art of Revolt: Snowden, Assange, Manning

Geoffroy de Lagasnerie, Professor at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Arts de Paris-Cergy, is a French philosopher and sociologist who has been called one of the most influential thinkers in contemporary French culture.

In the process, he pays homage to the actions and lives of these three figures.. Yet we can hardly dismiss them as acts of cowardice. Consciously or not, they have inaugurated a new form of political action and a new identity for the political subject.Anonymity as practiced by WikiLeaks and the flight and requests for asylum of Snowden and Assange break with traditional forms of democratic protest. When not decried as traitors, they are seen as whistle-blowers whose crucial revelations are meant to denounce a problem or correct an injustice. Yet, for Geoffroy de Lagasnerie, they are much more than that. Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, and Chelsea Manning are key figures in the struggles playing out in our democracies over internet use, state secrets, and mass surveillance in the age of terror. Rather, as Lagasnerie suggests, such solitary choices challenge us to question classic modes of collective action, calling old conceptions of the state and citizenship into question and inviting us to reformulate the language of critical philosophy. Snowden, Assange, and Manning are exemplars who have reinvented an art of revolt

Lagasnerie brings ideas to the table that even I, an insider, had never considered. Whether you agree or disagree with the actions of his protagonists, this book is a must-read for grasping the significance and innovation of their work. A manifesto of sorts, The Art of Revolt makes an argument friendly to specialists and non-specialists alike and offers a challenge for everyone concerned with today's new forms of political protest and alliance." (Judith Butler, University of California Berkeley)"Geoffroy de Lagasnerie is arguably one of the most talented of the new wave of French theory. Its compelling ideas will inspire all readers to reflect on how they can