Conference Report: ‘On the Idea of Communism’
No Commentary
Perhaps for some it is entertaining to come up with grandiose proclamations about communism, as Badiou does, “Without the horizon of communism, without this Idea, there is nothing in the historical and political becoming of any interest to a philosopher”. But as Rancière himself argued, communism is not some dream you cling on to like a religion, but a mode of societal organisation which can only brought about by the concrete activity of real human beings. There is no particular danger posed by thinking up blueprints - after all, we should know what the purpose of our activism is - but it is also the case that the future society we want to see also has to be reflected in how we organise today, so that the means used will lead to the ends desired. An academic conference which refuses on principle to talk about communism as a political movement in the here and now will therefore do nothing to re-establish anyone’s belief in a viable alternative to capitalism.
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