Since I can't compare the work in question to the critique, I can't speak to the accuracy of the criticisms made.
Even so, what a sprawling, often messy yet still terribly compelling piece.
As I said, I don't know (yet) whether or not the analysis is a fair criticism of Hardt and Negri – a reading will hopefully fill in the gap. “Empire” aside, there are intriguing passages in the essay that reflect my own view of many of the 'liberal' criticisms of such overtly imperial projects as the invasion of Iraq.
'If only we can turn a bloody and inept occupation into a reconstruction project' the critics say, 'then we'll be living up to our obligations.' To which the essay, inadvertently (though perhaps not since its scope is wide) offers this:
“Biting observations with regard to the Empire always fascinate the quarrelsome subjects who are drawn into a fictitious complicity by these emissaries and therefore don’t realize that the critique of imperfection is functional to the achievement of perfection, transforming the Empire from something we need to get rid of into something we need to correct but that we cannot do without.”
Which sums up the problem nicely, if not succinctly.
And then there's the following gem, which echoes the words of Baudrillard (who himself has been criticized and dismissed as little more than a word smith fancy pants) in his essay “The Spirit of Terrorism”. Baudrillard insists that, geopolitical cause and effect notwithstanding, the international terrorism we're seeing is the result, in part, of the fact that global capital insists upon holding “all the cards” forcing “the other” into violent resistance.
Crisso and Odoteo present a similar idea this way:
“In order to take root the Empire has imposed the religion of money everywhere. But how could anyone think that the transcendence of the rites and traditions of thousands of years, which have saturated every sphere of social life and given meaning to the existence of millions of devotees, could abandon its place to the immanence of the commodity without rousing rebellions? The sacred book of Christianity itself, the Bible, records the fury of Christ before the presence of merchants in the temple and their violent removal: “It is written: My house will be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves” (Matthew 21:13). Thus, in the moment of its triumph, the Empire rouses religious fundamentalism. “
Yes, there's a lot of material there.
Spot-on critique of Hardt and Negri? I don't know but a fascinating read in any event.
DRM
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