"According to Hardt and Negri, it is a mistake to identify the expansionist core of the Empire wi... more "According to Hardt and Negri, it is a mistake to identify the expansionist core of the Empire with the United States of America and its Western allies. Hardt's and Negri's argument is that neither the United States nor any national state whatever “forms the centre of the imperialist project”. The authors see the coming of Empire and the imperial order as good news much like Karl Marx felt that capitalism was a needed stage for the true communist revolution. For them, both the imperial world and capitalism are oppressive forms of power that are parasitic upon labour power, but the very conditions that define empire will enable the possibility of its overthrow and the self-organisation of democracy.
In contrast, other authors such as Alain de Benoist and Aleksandr Dugin appeal to Carl Schmitt in order to legitimise an idea of empire which is diametrically opposed to American 'imperialism', said to be a supreme example of dehumanisation, vulgarity and stupidity. This essay will look at these two contrasting views, that of Negri's 'Empire' and Schmitt's 'great space' and will argue that the imperialism is currently represented both geographically and culturally by the United States."
In the 1950's a series of Congresses for Cultural Freedom where held around Europe, attended by i... more In the 1950's a series of Congresses for Cultural Freedom where held around Europe, attended by intellectuals with various liberal ideas. They defended liberalism on the assumption that it was non-ideological and that anti-liberal political thinkers were all ideologists. They said that liberalism was a natural evolution of human kind, that it was the ultimate Good while anything else was Evil and they went on professing a noble mission: the globalization of Democracy. As the Italian journalist Massimo Fini said in one of his books, “the liberals have now invented the Homo democraticus”.1 It was later discovered that this conferences were financed by the CIA and this, together with the renaissance of student ideology in the 1960s, contributed to the downfall of such ideas; indeed there is nothing “natural” about liberalism as it is only one ideology among others.2 Today's analysts reject the idea of liberalism being the Good tout court of humanity, but still this doesn't discourage the USA, the den of liberal thought, from trying to export democracy in those 'rude' enough countries that don't seem to be interested. We can truly talk in this sense, of a “totalitarian democracy”.
Was the French Revolution a good or a bad thing? On the bicentenary anniversary of the Revolution... more Was the French Revolution a good or a bad thing? On the bicentenary anniversary of the Revolution the French were still divided on the issue. Plaques have been erected in Brittany to the victims of the Reign of Terror, in the west of France the Souvenir Vendéen club is composed of over two thousands royalist members and right wing parties recall the Terror as the archetype of modern totalitarianism from Stalin, through Hitler and Pol Pot. At the end of the 2nd World War, the very same areas of France which had witnessed the counter-revolutionary armed risings and the most savage repressions of the Terror saw the ghost of Robespierre behind the armed clashes between the Vichy supporters and the Resistance as well as behind the great 'purge' and vengeance of the Left towards their wartime collaborationist enemies (Wright 1990). Nonetheless, the biggest intellectual debate on the issue was inevitably contemporary to the events.
"According to Hardt and Negri, it is a mistake to identify the expansionist core of the Empire wi... more "According to Hardt and Negri, it is a mistake to identify the expansionist core of the Empire with the United States of America and its Western allies. Hardt's and Negri's argument is that neither the United States nor any national state whatever “forms the centre of the imperialist project”. The authors see the coming of Empire and the imperial order as good news much like Karl Marx felt that capitalism was a needed stage for the true communist revolution. For them, both the imperial world and capitalism are oppressive forms of power that are parasitic upon labour power, but the very conditions that define empire will enable the possibility of its overthrow and the self-organisation of democracy.
In contrast, other authors such as Alain de Benoist and Aleksandr Dugin appeal to Carl Schmitt in order to legitimise an idea of empire which is diametrically opposed to American 'imperialism', said to be a supreme example of dehumanisation, vulgarity and stupidity. This essay will look at these two contrasting views, that of Negri's 'Empire' and Schmitt's 'great space' and will argue that the imperialism is currently represented both geographically and culturally by the United States."
In the 1950's a series of Congresses for Cultural Freedom where held around Europe, attended by i... more In the 1950's a series of Congresses for Cultural Freedom where held around Europe, attended by intellectuals with various liberal ideas. They defended liberalism on the assumption that it was non-ideological and that anti-liberal political thinkers were all ideologists. They said that liberalism was a natural evolution of human kind, that it was the ultimate Good while anything else was Evil and they went on professing a noble mission: the globalization of Democracy. As the Italian journalist Massimo Fini said in one of his books, “the liberals have now invented the Homo democraticus”.1 It was later discovered that this conferences were financed by the CIA and this, together with the renaissance of student ideology in the 1960s, contributed to the downfall of such ideas; indeed there is nothing “natural” about liberalism as it is only one ideology among others.2 Today's analysts reject the idea of liberalism being the Good tout court of humanity, but still this doesn't discourage the USA, the den of liberal thought, from trying to export democracy in those 'rude' enough countries that don't seem to be interested. We can truly talk in this sense, of a “totalitarian democracy”.
Was the French Revolution a good or a bad thing? On the bicentenary anniversary of the Revolution... more Was the French Revolution a good or a bad thing? On the bicentenary anniversary of the Revolution the French were still divided on the issue. Plaques have been erected in Brittany to the victims of the Reign of Terror, in the west of France the Souvenir Vendéen club is composed of over two thousands royalist members and right wing parties recall the Terror as the archetype of modern totalitarianism from Stalin, through Hitler and Pol Pot. At the end of the 2nd World War, the very same areas of France which had witnessed the counter-revolutionary armed risings and the most savage repressions of the Terror saw the ghost of Robespierre behind the armed clashes between the Vichy supporters and the Resistance as well as behind the great 'purge' and vengeance of the Left towards their wartime collaborationist enemies (Wright 1990). Nonetheless, the biggest intellectual debate on the issue was inevitably contemporary to the events.
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In contrast, other authors such as Alain de Benoist and Aleksandr Dugin appeal to Carl Schmitt in order to legitimise an idea of empire which is diametrically opposed to American 'imperialism', said to be a supreme example of dehumanisation, vulgarity and stupidity. This essay will look at these two contrasting views, that of Negri's 'Empire' and Schmitt's 'great space' and will argue that the imperialism is currently represented both geographically and culturally by the United States."
In contrast, other authors such as Alain de Benoist and Aleksandr Dugin appeal to Carl Schmitt in order to legitimise an idea of empire which is diametrically opposed to American 'imperialism', said to be a supreme example of dehumanisation, vulgarity and stupidity. This essay will look at these two contrasting views, that of Negri's 'Empire' and Schmitt's 'great space' and will argue that the imperialism is currently represented both geographically and culturally by the United States."