Their believers reading their theory of 'empire' into some unstable concatenation of current events reminds me of Pat Robertson predicting the second coming. Still, I respect their right to try and convert me. And as Camus wrote, We shall not do battle against the shameless masters of our age by making fine distinctions among their slaves.
What I find interesting and agreeable in the Empire book largely follows from Gramsci, Deleuze, Guattari and Baudrillard, to name a few. What is supposed to be the original thesis I find a non-thesis that does not usefully characterize the world in which I live. In short the globalist capitalist empire has not transcended the American imperium in any world historical sense that I can conceive--certainly the book hasn't convinced me that it has.
Charles Jannuzi