Mbembe

Taken on their own, the transformations of the capitalist mode of production during the second half of the twentieth century cannot explain the reappearance and various metamorphoses of the Beast. But they — along with major discoveries in technology, biology, and genetics—do undeniably constitute its background. A new political economy of life is emerging, one irrigated by international flows of knowledge about cells, tissues, organs, pathologies, and therapies as well as about intellectual property. The reactivation of the logic of race also goes hand in hand with the increasing power of the ideology of security and the installation of mechanisms aimed at calculating and minimizing risk and turning protection into the currency of citizenship.

     ACHILLE MBEMBE