A Modest Proposal for The Empire

Thomas Seay entheogens at yahoo.com
Mon Dec 24 15:37:29 PST 2001


--- Alec Ramsdell <aramsdell at yahoo.com> wrote: Alec, quoting Empire you wrote:


>
> ". . . Empire itself is not a positive reality. In
> the very moment it rises up, it falls. Each
> imperial
> action is a rebound of the resistance of the
> multitude
> that poses a new obstacle for the multitude to
> overcome.
> . . . Imperial power is the negative residue, the
> fallback of the operation of the multitude; it is a
> parasite that draws its vitality from the
> multitude's
> capacity to create ever new sources of energy and
> value. A parasite that saps the strength of its
> host,
> however, can endanger its own existence" (p. 361)

Indeed. And apropos of national liberation, let us keep in mind that Negri, in line with autonomism, argues that capitalism sought out this new form (Empire) as a reaction to workers struggles and national liberation. One of the key points in autonomist thinking is that capital has to take on new strategies in reaction to the forces of liberation. This is in contrast to many schools of thought which see the relation as vice-versa (workers always reacting to capital).

Thomas

===== "The tradition of all the dead generations

weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living"

-Karl Marx

__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send your FREE holiday greetings online! http://greetings.yahoo.com



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list