Ivakhiv on Revolution in the Middle East

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From Adrian Ivakhiv:

revolutionary democracy

Here are a few thoughts after watching Frontline’s Revolution in Cairo, which is a very good 24-minute summary of how this particular democratic moment occurred, and after reading Badiou‘s, Hardt & Negri’s, Hallward‘s, Amit Rai‘s, and some other takes on the events.

(1) The recipe: Tools + Techniques + Events + Vision = The revolution(s) we’ve been witnessing.

The first two require a lot of work. The third requires preparedness, but the events themselves unfold somewhat on their own. (I wouldn’t recommend self-immolation, but there are alternative ways of bringing attention to things.) The fourth ingredient, “Vision,” is less identifiable… (excerpt)

(2) Where things may go.

As a moment of self-empowerment, the revolution is what it is, a genuine Event. It is, as Badiou, Hallward, et al., argue, worth celebrating, learning from, and perhaps emulating. But it will pass, and the time of “assuming new tasks,” including the task of building a society, “the common creation of a collective destiny,” as Badiou puts it, will be upon the Egyptians. Badiou calls that task “communism,” but that term is both too old and too late, and maybe too new and too early, since the last set of efforts cast an awfully long shadow. Building communism, as we know, has been tried and failed, because the institutions of the “common creation of a collective destiny” will inevitably fail unless they’re tempered by the recognition of that inevitability… (excerpt)

(3) Social media are not enough.

The current attack on public media in this country, and on public sector unions and all they represent (collective bargaining and the gains it has made for working people over the last century), is a frontline of social struggle today... (excerpt)

There is much more in the post, so go read the full post @ immanence.