Alain Badiou on the French riots (via Steve of the “Lyotard, Badiou, Event” email list):
What makes a country is not where one comes from but what one does together within it and what one wants to do with it. It is the present and the future that unite, not the past. When one does something, it is not enough to say what one is against, who one is addressing and why. One must not just have a vision of the adversary, but also a vision of oneself, otherwise one traces what one is from the adversary and one remains in his game, in his space. A political capacity at a distance from the state is therefore more than ever the crucial question. These questions have been put on the agenda for everyone today by the youth riots.