Interregnum

7:03 – the other possibility was simply that we are in a state of Disorder and here uh from here any in in this condition everything can happen and doesn't can be really done. Now when I'm looking 50 years later on the on what I remember from uh debates and discussions and doubt 15 years old I come to conclusion and which I would like to suggest to you ladies and gentlemen that we live in a period of interrengum, interregnum.

7:42 – Interregnum is a very old notion invented by Tito Olivio uh the author of Ab Urbe Condita page the first story of Rome and uh his partly leg legendary story uh there was the um biography of Robulus who was the first king of Rome. Robulus was king of Rome 36 years 36 years and 36 years mind you ladies and gentlemen that was the average length of Life of average citizen of Rome which means that when uh Robulus died there were very few people in Rome who remember times without Robulus and uh there was a panic in Rome there was a panic in Rome called Interregnum why because the only of source of authority of binding laws of binding rules which was Robulus disappeared and there was nothing inside to replace.

uh it was clear that once Authority disappeared vanished allegedly according to the religion uh Robulus didn't die he went directly to heaven so he just evaporated once that evaporated there is no one uh to trust no one to look for uh it lasted until uh until Robulus was replaced by Duba the second king of Rome. In 20th century already the idea of interregnum was uh updated to the present condition and I am following partly uh Antonio Gramsci's reformulation of the meaning of interregnum separating it from succession of Kings or dynasties and putting it in the contemporary context and what he said was that interregnum is a state in which the old way way of doing things don't work any longer but the new ways of doing things have not been invented yet. And we are precisely in condition of Interregnum we know that the when we fall back on our memories and our routines on things which were tested before and seem to be working we are expecting a uh uh defeat we are taking enormous risks we are just playing a a a hazardous game we are in a sense groping in the dark.

uh ladies and gentlemen again I'm terribly sorry for uh following the habit of old people that reing about my young years but when I was young the basic question of about which we quarreled was the question what is to be done uh the only question uh once we have decided what is to be done what is the image the model of some good society which ought to create a system Society a self equilibrating society as the dominant um sociologist of the time Talcott Parsons used to say once we have this model the there's no problem no doubt who will put it in place of course the nation state of course the state like Italy Germany France you know Britain they have all the means needed to put things in place

I suggest to you ladies and gentlemen that the main question today is not any longer uh what is to be done I think that what is to be done is the easiest part of the problem we can come together debate discuss and come to some sort of agreement uh the real question is Who Is Going To Do It? Who is going to do it? Where is the agency powerful enough to put it in place?

I'm terribly sorry for this uh allegory so to speak but remember about the hot days when uh leaders of the most powerful economies in the world like uh Germany and France Madame merceli came together on Friday uh to decide what to do to quiet down the rampant financial markets to save Euro to save Spain to save Italy to save Greece to save Ireland to save uh Iceland um they made some decisions on Friday and I I suspect that they spent Sleepless Saturday and uh Sunday waiting for Monday opening of stock exchanges uh to decide whether what they have done have made any sense or not that is the problem which I unpack as uh uh Divorce for the time being separation but uh leading towards the wars between power and politics.

⇒ Macht