There’s a new wind blowing across this globalized world, from Tunisia to Egypt to Greece to Spain to Occupy Wall Street. How do the theoretical investigations of this site relate to this, to what’s new and emerging? This question of the emergence of novelty, of understanding this very changing world so as to help to [...]
Posts under ‘John Steele’
To what extent is revolutionary theory detachable?
John Steele We’ve had a continuing discussion on this site of the status, relevance, and use of Marxism (and other ‘-isms’ – Lenin, Mao, and anarch) today, in relation to revolutionary work or the possibilities of an emancipatory politics in today’s world. Most recently, we’ve had some debate and a series of contributions, beginning with [...]
How can communism come to be?
Bruno Bosteels is one of that group of Badiou translators (Peter Hallward, Oliver Feltham, Alberto Toscano, Jason Barker are some others) who have also written interpretively and critically on him. Bosteels’ latest writing in this vein is Badiou and Politics, a much anticipated book, literally just out, which readers can expect to see talked about [...]
Marxism or anarchism or —?
We need a politics we haven’t got John Steele In another context in which I’m involved the subject has come up, sometimes rather heatedly, of the critique of Marxism from an anarchist perspective. Now this is a debate I’ve heard for 40+ years, from both sides, and usually posed in the same rather abstract terms. [...]
John Steele: Why is Badiou of political value?
Following is the paper I gave yesterday at the Platypus convention in Chicago, as part of a panel titled Badiou and Post-Maoism: Marxism and Communism Today. Other panelists were Chris Cutrone of Platypus, Mike Ely of Kasama, and Joe Ramsey. Cutrone’s paper strongly attacked Badiou, whom he characterized as a typical ’60s new leftist, deeply [...]
John Steele: Marxism, Politics, and Evil
Is Marxism, or revolutionary politics generally, sufficient for human emancipation? In Ethical Marxism, Bill Martin argues that Marxism requires ethics as the necessary foundation of any politics which may actually be capable of leading to this goal. The following essay critically examines this book and this thesis. Khukuri features several essays by Bill Martin, and [...]
The crisis now, and possible futures
I was able to attend one session of the Global Crisis: Rethinking Economy and Society conference last weekend at the University of Chicago, and want to give a bit of a report on some some of the talks. The conference was hosted by the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory (3CT, as they style themselves), at [...]
Marxism, politics, and evil, part 3
This is the final portion of an examination of some principal themes in Bill Martin’s book, Ethical Marxism: The Categorical Imperative of Liberation. The first two parts of this essay have been published over the past two days and can be found below. Marxism, Politics, and Evil: A Critical Engagement with “Ethical Marxism” John Steele [...]
Marxism, politics, and evil, part 2
This is the second part of an essay on the book Ethical Marxism: The Categorical Imperative of Liberation, in which Bill Martin argues that Marxism requires morality in order to guide a revolutionary politics. Part I, which was posted yesterday, was principally concerned with exposition. Today’s post takes up the principal line of argument of [...]
Marxism, Politics, and Evil, part 1
Is Marxism, or revolutionary politics generally, sufficient for human emancipation? In Ethical Marxism, Bill Martin argues that Marxism requires ethics as the necessary foundation of any politics which may actually be capable of leading to this goal. Following is the first part of an essay critically examining this book and this thesis. The entire piece [...]
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