Care of the State (of Exception): Political Parrhesia in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld

• In Event: The Rhetorical Character of Political Theory

Abstract

This analysis focuses upon the discourse of Lt. Cmdr. Swift in his defense of suspected terrorist Salim Hamdan. The use of parrhesia (frank truth-telling) by Swift functions to illuminate what Agamben has called the ‘state of exception.’ I attempt to theorize how Foucault’s work on the ‘care of the self’ can be expanded to what I will call the ‘care of the state’ by closely examining his lectures on parrhesia and the discourse of Swift.

Author

• Daniel Mistich, Syracuse University