"The world is not dialectical - it is sworn to extremes, not to equilibrium, sworn to radical antagonism, not to reconciliation or synthesis. This is also the principle of evil"
About this Quote
The subtext is a warning about the modern habit of translating antagonism into manageable debate. Baudrillard’s late-20th-century context matters: consumer society, media spectacle, and the rise of “systems” that claim to absorb dissent by representing it. For him, the dialectic becomes part of the machinery of domestication: if every conflict can be “integrated,” then nothing is truly opposed. Calling radical antagonism “the principle of evil” is deliberately inflammatory, but it’s not a sermon about morality. “Evil” here is the irreducible remainder - what refuses assimilation, what disrupts the smooth functioning of consensus, markets, and meaning.
It works because it flips the usual ethical script: reconciliation is not automatically good, extremity not automatically bad. Baudrillard is insisting that the world’s most consequential forces don’t negotiate; they collide.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Baudrillard, Jean. (2026, January 15). The world is not dialectical - it is sworn to extremes, not to equilibrium, sworn to radical antagonism, not to reconciliation or synthesis. This is also the principle of evil. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-world-is-not-dialectical-it-is-sworn-to-21591/
Chicago Style
Baudrillard, Jean. "The world is not dialectical - it is sworn to extremes, not to equilibrium, sworn to radical antagonism, not to reconciliation or synthesis. This is also the principle of evil." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-world-is-not-dialectical-it-is-sworn-to-21591/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The world is not dialectical - it is sworn to extremes, not to equilibrium, sworn to radical antagonism, not to reconciliation or synthesis. This is also the principle of evil." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-world-is-not-dialectical-it-is-sworn-to-21591/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.







