Empire by Michael Hardt / Antonio Negri
TL
reformulation ofthe Communist Manifesto for the present - "global" new
order, and as such probably belongs on this newsgroup as much as any other.
For those of you, like myself, dedicated to "Reading Everything", it can be
found at
http://www.zaratustra.it/empire.htm
among other places.
TL
Tim
Its not an easy read I've got halfway through it and come to a stop. Taking a
PoMo approach Empire like all texts is open to multiple readings. On one level I
have no idea what the authors are talking about and it is an obscure and
pretensions load of rubbish. However if I suspend my disbelief and engage with
the text then it can be read as an account of a possible new form of global
delocalised power that was emerging between the first American Gulf war and the
razing of the Two Towers. As Pax Americana is now re-establishing itself firmly
in the traditional role of traditional Imperialism the project that was Empire
now appears to be receding. On another level I read the text as a the account of
fellow travellers on a journey through these uncertain post-Marxist times. A
groping for meaning and a search for a theoretical justification for resistance
to the neo-liberal economics that dominate all our lives. On this level it fails
as all grand narratives fail on our presumption that their is a single "Truth"
and we can know it. I think the whisperings from the Chiapian jungle singing of
the individual personal truths that we all live with day to day provide a
glimpse of the possible theory and practice of resistance. Well that's my
pretentious and obscure take on Empire.
Tim
"TL" <Lec...@adelphia.net> wrote in message
news:GtAra.8151$Jf.40...@news1.news.adelphia.net...
G*rd*n
"TL" <Lec...@adelphia.net>:
> > Has anyone read it or care to discuss it? It's suppose to be a post-modern
> > reformulation ofthe Communist Manifesto for the present - "global" new
> > order, and as such probably belongs on this newsgroup as much as any other.
> >
> > For those of you, like myself, dedicated to "Reading Everything", it can be
> > found at
> >
> > http://www.zaratustra.it/empire.htm
> >
> > among other places.
"Tim" <jones200...@madasafish.com>:
> Hi,
> Its not an easy read I've got halfway through it and come to a stop. Taking a
> PoMo approach Empire like all texts is open to multiple readings. On one level I
> have no idea what the authors are talking about and it is an obscure and
> pretensions load of rubbish.
Well, it may simply be badly written.
> However if I suspend my disbelief and engage with
> the text then it can be read as an account of a possible new form of global
> delocalised power that was emerging between the first American Gulf war and the
> razing of the Two Towers. As Pax Americana is now re-establishing itself firmly
> in the traditional role of traditional Imperialism the project that was Empire
> now appears to be receding. On another level I read the text as a the account of
> fellow travellers on a journey through these uncertain post-Marxist times. A
> groping for meaning and a search for a theoretical justification for resistance
> to the neo-liberal economics that dominate all our lives. On this level it fails
> as all grand narratives fail on our presumption that their is a single "Truth"
> and we can know it. I think the whisperings from the Chiapian jungle singing of
> the individual personal truths that we all live with day to day provide a
> glimpse of the possible theory and practice of resistance. Well that's my
> pretentious and obscure take on Empire.
There's not necessarily any basic conflict between capitalist
global imperialism and short-term American hegemonism, nor
between either of these and a certain limited amount of
individualism, as experienced by, say, the better-off in the
United States today. The US may be merely an agent of history,
as they say, to be "used" and cast aside, like Napoleonic France
and Nazi Germany, to provide the creative destruction on which
capitalism thus far has thrived. If the American folk prefer
guns to butter, as they seem to, the Imperium will be glad to
let them serve its purposes.
--
(<><>) /*/
}"{ G*rd*n }"{ g...@panix.com }"{
{ http://www.etaoin.com | latest new material 1/19/03 <-adv't
Tim
"G*rd*n" <g...@panix.com> wrote in message news:b9j5to$kru$1...@panix1.panix.com...
A rather dull and conventional reading of resent events (apart from the
interesting thought that an Imperium could be sentient) but never the less one
of the many possible truths out there. However back to the text under
deconstruction "Empire" which could be read as describing the dialectic existing
between the emerging denationised global capitalism that began to appear at the
close of the 20th century and the now reemergent national but imperialistic
capitalism of the US military industrial complex.
Tim ;-p