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3.0 out of 5 stars
A disappointing follow-up, Aug 8 2008
Hardt and Negri are probably the most celebrated political philosophers living today. Their previous book, Empire (2000), was a sometimes convincing, always provocative analysis of the global socio-economic and political system, which had the merit of remaining largely "high level" and theoretical, where the authors are most competent.
Unfortunately Multitude does not share the same merit. Hardt and Negri make a few interesting observations, for example on the current hegemony of immaterial labour (rendering the traditional notion of "proletariat" obsolete), and they provide an elementary yet useful application of Deleuze and Guattari's notion of "body without organs" to the political realm.
However, these modest accomplishments are outweighed considerably by rambling passages in which the authors discuss international finance (derivatives, etc.), lay anachronistic guilt trips on their readers over inequities between the North and South, and warmed-over analyses of the relationship between identity politics and social pluralism. Conspicuously absent is any consideration of ecology, which is looming ever larger as an issue in the 21st century.
Perhaps Hardt and Negri's most blinding oversight is a tendency to take globalization, and the world's evolution (or revolution) towards a "global democracy" for granted. Following September 11, 2001, this is a far from obvious prognosis. In fact, one could more plausibly argue, as John Ralston Saul did in the March 2004 issue of Harper's, that globalization is in the process of collapse, for better and/ or for worse.
It is very possible that certain regions of the world, such as Western Europe, continue to progress toward more "postmaterialistic" values (cf. Jeremy Rifkin's the European Dream), while America and the Muslim world duke it out in a low-level perpetual war (with attendant perpetual fear), which Benjamin Barber presciently labelled "Jihad vs. McWorld".
Readers who were stimulated by the high theory of Hardt and Negri's previous book, Empire, would be well-advised to take a pass on Multitude, perhaps in favour of Hardt's earlier theoretical work Gilles Deleuze: An Apprenticeship in Philosophy. Those who are interested in a more down-to-earth leftist reading of our post-9/11 world might want to check out Emmanuel Todd's After the Empire (Après L'Empire).
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3.0 out of 5 stars
A disappointing follow-up, Sep 12 2004
Hardt and Negri are probably the most celebrated political philosophers living today. Their previous book, Empire (2000), was a sometimes convincing, always provocative analysis of the global socio-economic and political system, which had the merit of remaining largely "high level" and theoretical, where the authors are most competent.Unfortunately Multitude does not share the same merit. Hardt and Negri make a few interesting observations, for example on the current hegemony of immaterial labour (rendering the traditional notion of "proletariat" obsolete), and they provide an elementary yet useful application of Deleuze and Guattari's notion of "body without organs" to the political realm. However, these modest accomplishments are outweighed considerably by rambling passages in which the authors discuss international finance (derivatives, etc.), lay anachronistic guilt trips on their readers over inequities between the North and South, and warmed-over analyses of the relationship between identity politics and social pluralism. Conspicuously absent is any consideration of ecology, which is looming ever larger as an issue in the 21st century. Perhaps Hardt and Negri's most blinding oversight is a tendency to take globalization, and the world's evolution (or revolution) towards a "global democracy" for granted. Following September 11, 2001, this is a far from obvious prognosis. In fact, one could more plausibly argue, as John Ralston Saul did in the March 2004 issue of Harper's, that globalization is in the process of collapse, for better and/ or for worse. It is very possible that certain regions of the world, such as Western Europe, continue to progress toward more "postmaterialistic" values (cf. Jeremy Rifkin's the European Dream), while America and the Muslim world duke it out in a low-level perpetual war (with attendant perpetual fear), which Benjamin Barber presciently labelled "Jihad vs. McWorld". Readers who were stimulated by the high theory of Hardt and Negri's previous book, Empire, would be well-advised to take a pass on Multitude, perhaps in favour of Hardt's earlier theoretical work Gilles Deleuze: An Apprenticeship in Philosophy. Those who are interested in a more down-to-earth leftist reading of our post-9/11 world might want to check out Emmanuel Todd's After the Empire (Après L'Empire).
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