Abstract

This essay considers the question of sovereignty in relation to oil. First, in the conventional geo-strategic sense: control over oil resources is the sovereign right of a nation. But here national sovereignties conflict with each other, and sovereignty, supposedly absolute (it is by definition the unconditioned) turns out to be malleable, always qualified. Another, second sense involves sovereignty as the general will; here I propose that oil, and energy resources, have their own will, which enters into conflict with what is normally the general will of the people. Finally, a third sovereignty involves the radically unconditioned, in which energy is expended unconditionally, with no goal in sight or possible; this is the sovereignty of the sacred, or of erotism, and is the most basic aspect of energic ‘use.’