In regards to the question of new social movements (NSMs), one of the
biggest problems that I have had with the Badiou/Zizek axis has been
there inability to recognize anything other than liberal
multiculturalism within those movements. While it's true that large
sections of those movements were brought into that position, this
seemed to be a deliberate attempt to depoliticize those movements and
to an extent, their exhaustion, rather than some sort of logical end
to their goals. In a broader sense, my discomfort with this view is
that it seems to dismiss the contributions that those groups have
made in transforming what the class struggle is, particularly around
the question of reproductive labor.... robert wood
>
> Even though he's against state and party, his philosophy (both
> political and metaphysical) transforms state- and party-functions into
> nation and militant. He loudly proclaims to be a communist but you'd
> have to really squint to see any Marxist content in his work. He's
> openly hostile to both anarchism and political economy, ruling out any
> sort of syndicalist politics, which of course doesn't endear him to
> me. He's beyond skeptical of feminism, queer politics, etc, but his
> political group, OP, works primarily on migrant issues. He should be
> shot for his reading of Spinoza in Being and Event. His readings of
> Beckett are actually quite original and insightful. His proposal that
> France and Germany should form nation to combat US unilaterlism is
> ludicrous coming from an avowed communist. His writings on the
> anti-headscarf law in France are masterful <www.lacan.com/islbad.htm
>>. And so on.
>
> If you do read him I would suggest starting with Ethics and
> Metapolitics before moving on to Being and Event and Logics of Worlds
> (the latter of which I haven't read) and the other metaphysical books.
> I have to disagree with Dwayne about his politics books, which I think
> are pretty vapid. Recently, Voyou Desoeuvre wondered whether Badiou
> actually has a conception of politics. Given that his political
> writings alternate between whiny sloganeering and pointless
> abstraction, I'd say he doesn't. Anyway, you can read the seed version
> of the Sarkozy book here: <www.newleftreview.org/?view=2705>.
>
> So I don't know if you'd find him worth it. I tend to think no, but
> you can never tell with these things.
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