The abstract human being stripped of political status loses fellow-recognition

Evidence

If a human being loses his political status, he should, according to the implications of the inborn and inalienable rights of man, come under exactly the situation for which the declarations of such general rights provided. Actually the opposite is the case. It seems that a man who is nothing but a man has lost the very qualities which make it possible for other people to treat him as a fellow-man. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 733

Categorization

Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims

• DEFINE: Core Arendtian paradox: human rights only secure humanity through political membership; bare humanity is precisely what disqualifies.
• XREF: Connects to the Foundation Module 1 toolkit on colonial/racialized selfhood and the ‘right to have rights’ that Agamben’s bare life builds upon.