> On Sat, Jul 25, 2009 at 11:25 AM, Jeffrey Fisher<jeff.jfisher at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > this is a misunderstanding. you would do better to do some more research
> on
> > badiou's background and role in/relationship with the OP. you may not
> like
> > this, either, but it is not at all the same as a bunch of academic
> > conferences for tenured white male radicals and cranks
>
> Actually, minus the crank part, that's a pretty good description of
> the Birbeck conference on the idea of communism earlier this year,
> organized by Zizek and Badiou, where 15 men, all white, and one woman
> spoke.
>
i didn't say there were no conferences involved. :-) although it's true i don't think they're bad or useless. i concede the point on race and gender.
i was just trying to say that the organisation politique, whatever you may think of its approach or strategies, is an attempt well beyond academic conferences. i will agree that manifestos and newspaper articles are not where political activity needs to end, but is not so exclusive or clubby as the academic conference.
is this so far out of line? maybe it just bugs me that the response was so dismissive knowing nothing of badiou. it is not that badiou is unsusceptible of criticism. it is that the ideas and questions he is putting forth seem to me worthy of serious consideration, rather than casual dismissal after a careless google.
the essay of peter hallward's i was thinking of is actually not in NLR and is fairly critical. http://culturemachine.tees.ac.uk/Cmach/Backissues/j004/Articles/hallward.htm
having said all this, i am not yet certain i am the man to champion badiou here. so i will demur when it comes to mounting some elaborate explanation or defense, at this point.