Arendt’s vision of political action is based primarily on Athens of 5th century BC. She begins from the Aristotelian definition of the ancient polis as the opposition between bare life (zēn) and politically qualified life (eu zēn):

“The human capacity for a political organization is not only different but in direct opposition to that natural association whose centre is home and family…No activity that served only the purpose of making a living, of sustaining only the life process was permitted to enter the political realm.” (Hanna Arendt The Human Condition).

Male citizens make the passage from the private darkness to the illuminated public scene.They speak and show off who they are; their speech articulates and interrogates the inspiring principles of justice and democracy. The space of appearance is not only an architectural given; it is also constituted by the performative power of the action itself.

“Action and speech create a space between the participants which can find its proper location almost anywhere and anytime.” The action-in-concert emerges simultaneously with the manifestation of freedom, so that “to be free and to act are the same.”

For Butler, rethinking Arendt’s account on action within today’s politics, it is crucial to overcome the gender, social, and civic divisions and demarcations as the primary premises of the political: “The sphere of appearance is not simple since it seems to arise only on the condition of a certain intersubjective facing off…Who we are, bodily, is already a way of being “for” other, appearing in ways that we can neither see nor hear, nor fully participate or control. I am, as a body, not primarily for myself, but I am constituted and dispossessed by the perspective of others. So, for political action, I must appear to others in ways I cannot know so that my body is established by perspectives that I cannot inhabit, but that, inevitably, inhabit me.” (Judith Butler Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly.)

While taking part in an action, we do not necessarily expose our authentic identities. We may not be able to articulate verbally expressed clear principles. The non-discursive concerted bodily performances could be more effective than the speech act enactments. “The political meanings, the plural forms of performativity, enacted by embodied actions of various kinds, signify in ways that are neither discursive nor pre-discursive.” The gap between bare life of “a private body” and politically qualified life of “ a public body” has ultimately bridged. We can create an acting group while being dispossessed of an appropriate legal status. “The powerful unknown other,” which is not just the re-emergence of the intersubjective crowd effect, has inhabited the space of appearance: “the people (the collective subject of action) are not just produced by their vocalized claims, but also by the conditions of possibility of their appearance. Technological, digital, virtual, etc. means and platforms facilitate the various ways of a gathering, a coming together. If the people are constituted through a complex interplay of performance, image, acoustics, and the various technologies engaged in those productions, then “media” is not just reporting who the people claim to be, but media has entered to the very definition of the people.

”Despite tremendous differences, Butler shares with Arendt the central assertion that "a group of people, unpredictably and transitory taking up space and obdurately living" is a primary subject of political action, able to reconfigure public space and the field of politics. Nowadays, George Floyd's death sparked national outrage against aggressive police practices. The open digital space and various media platforms have created the sphere of appearance for the protest movement. Since "the media has entered the very definition of the people," it brings advantages of the swift mobilization and the spread of the experience of solidarity. Yet, the ongoing civil unrest is hampered by the lack of an organized structure, the elaborated political program, and recognizable leaders. The current political agenda could probably not be stable and durable. Can the aleatory media environment become the engine for the constitution of explicit political subjectivity?