> I can't understand why people write like this,
> unless they want to be sure
> nobody will read them.
Well, perhaps it's better in German translation!
Postone is sort of a required reading for many. "National Socialism and Anti-Semitism" is already a classic, and this text seems on its way to becoming one.
The other interesting this is that Postone is also appreciated across different tendencies. Generally not in the Leninist left or leftists who situate themselves broadly in the tradition of the Bolsheviks, but definitely among more emancipatory tendencies.
> The content isn't bad. I liked the bits on
> anti-semitism, leftists fighting
> the last war (hi, Yoshie!)
Yes, it's too bad Yoshie is not around to read and respond to the piece. Towards the time of her departure, she only responded to me polemically and with ridicule, but I'm curious how she would answer Postone's substantive arguments.
>but I think it goes off
> the rails at the end,
> proposing the EU as some kind of new imperialist
> rival to the U.S.
Why is this "off the rails?" Probably not a direct "imperialist" rival in terms of military power or direct confrontation, but I think the differences between Washington and the Berlin-Paris axis concerning the war in Iraq were more than just a minor schism. This is obscured somewhat now that Merkel is chancellor, but I don't think this has disappeared from the stage permanently.
Incidentally, one day I would like to post a translation of an article by Michael Heinrich outlining the problem with "imperialism" as a concept, at least as far as the original Leninist usage of the term goes, which is based upon a false, historicist understanding of the first volume of Capital.
I realize "imperialist" is used in more everyday left circles as a synonym for "militarist," but I think this is even more a reason to criticize it, and not just regard it as historically superseded, like Hardt & Negri do. The question is actually whether the "theory of imperialism" was ever correct in the first place.
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