Power of an impotence. Desertion from yesterday to today

Abstract

The article focuses on desertion as an existential and political practice of evading the friend/foe opposition, hence the very logic of conflict. The aim of the text is to show that deser-tion is again taking shape as a power, as ‘‘the negative power of shirking’’, capable of revitalizing the anti-war struggle by the anti-militarist movements. Indeed, in the catastrophe we are experi-encing, as Céline says, «there’s nothing to be done, all you can do is clear out».