Do Not Be Afraid, Join Us, Come Back? On the "Idea of Communism" in Our Time
35 Pages
This article critically assesses the recent return of “communism” in contemporary political theory. The principal focus is Alain Badiou’s formulation of the “idea of communism” and its “sequences,” which are approached here in relation to the body of work collected in Douzinas and Žižek’s The Idea of Communism. Critical of Badiou, the article argues that communism should be understood as a “real movement” immanent to the mutating limits of capital, and not as a subjective “truth procedure.” In taking the latter route, Badiou not only produces a faulty philosophy of communism but also misdiagnoses its historical record, allowing Lenin and Mao, the spectacle of revolution, to stand as its genuine expressions. In this, Badiou contributes to the contemporary nostalgic image of a “real communism” that in practice was nothing of the sort.
The Nietzschean Communism of Alain Badiou
21 Pages
The main purpose of the essay is to claim that Badiou has developed a distinctive understanding of “communism” which is very different from the Marxist one. Several scholars have noticed the differences between Badiou and Marx, sometimes striking ones, but have generally failed to go beyond describing them. Here an attempt is made to trace these differences back to the—largely—Nietzschean footing of Badiou’s philosophy. I claim that we are dealing in fact not with different tactics, but with two different projects, envisioning distinct strategic goals. Marxist communism is about a dialectical overcoming of the capitalist present, in a way which transcends capitalism but which is predicated on the social, political and cultural transformation brought about by capitalism. Badiou’s project, by contrast, aims at achieving a clean break with history. Nietzsche is useful for Badiou inasmuch as he provides a critique of mass society and aims to create a new man, the Overman. The essay discusses the differences between these two projects, focusing on a number of topics, among them the nature of capitalism, the meaning of revolutionary subjectivity, and the attitude to history and to historical possibilities. Marx’s political project is vindicated vis-à-vis the elitism and anti-humanism, which vitiate Badiou’s alternative approach. A dialogue with Badiou’s position, however, is not foreclosed.
Badiou and the Subject of Dialectics
This is based on a talk given under the name ―Badiou and the Hegelian Dialectic in 1960s
French Philosophy,‖ at a seminar that took place at the Historical Materialism
Tenth Annual Conference in London, United Kingdom, November 7-10, 2013.
Tenth Annual Conference in London, United Kingdom, November 7-10, 2013.
In his article, ―Rational Kernel, Real Movement: Badiou and ThéorieCommuniste in the Age of Riots,‖ Nathan Brown presents a comparison between two contemporary tendencies in communist thought. While Alain Badiou extends the consequences of a life-long engagement largely inspired by Maoism, ThéorieCommuniste develop analyses initially rooted in the council communism inaugurated by Anton Pannekoek. While there are obvious and great political differences between these two tendencies, both Badiou and TC have each repudiated the role of the traditional Party and for this reason appear to converge in many of their arguments. Brown indicates that their remaining opposition might best be understood philosophically, and essentially in terms of the inheritance of the Althusserian legacy.
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