Greece and the Reinvention of Politics

by Alain Badiou, David Broder (Translator)

One of the world’s leading radical philosophers analyses the failure of the Syriza experience in Greece

Over the last six years, Greece has provided the world with “an open-air political lesson.” The country’s deep economic and social crisis has exposed the fundamental contradictions of the European Union, and indeed the capitalist world as a whole. It has been a test case for movements seeking to put an end to the authoritarian anarchy of neoliberal capitalism. The Greek resistance to EU institutions and financial-market hegemony offered a beacon of hope. Yet the “movementist” politics of 2011 could not build anything lasting, and Syriza’s efforts as a party of government soon led to impasse. For Alain Badiou, it is not enough to mourn this defeat—we must understand why such a vigorous opposition could fail.

Greece and the Reinvention of Politics argues that an opposition of real consequence must revive the “communist hypothesis,” the vision of an alternative state structure. The “orienting maxims” that this hypothesis provides light the way for effective political action. Written in the storm of the crisis, the interventions collected in this book offer a path out of our contemporary powerlessness.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics

112 pages, Paperback

Published January 30, 2018

About the author

Alain Badiou, Ph.D., born in Rabat, Morocco in 1937, holds the Rene Descartes Chair at the European Graduate School EGS. Alain Badiou was a student at the École Normale Supérieure in the 1950s. He taught at the University of Paris VIII (Vincennes-Saint Denis) from 1969 until 1999, when he returned to ENS as the Chair of the philosophy department. He continues to teach a popular seminar at the Collège International de Philosophie, on topics ranging from the great 'antiphilosophers' (Saint-Paul, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Lacan) to the major conceptual innovations of the twentieth century. Much of Badiou's life has been shaped by his dedication to the consequences of the May 1968 revolt in Paris. Long a leading member of Union des jeunesses communistes de France (marxistes-léninistes), he remains with Sylvain Lazarus and Natacha Michel at the center of L'Organisation Politique, a post-party organization concerned with direct popular intervention in a wide range of issues (including immigration, labor, and housing). He is the author of several successful novels and plays as well as more than a dozen philosophical works.

Trained as a mathematician, Alain Badiou is one of the most original French philosophers today. Influenced by Plato, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Jacques Lacan and Gilles Deleuze, he is an outspoken critic of both the analytic as well as the postmodern schools of thoughts. His philosophy seeks to expose and make sense of the potential of radical innovation (revolution, invention, transfiguration) in every situation.

Reviews

[Nuno R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Badiou's call for a positive political cause (not just "down with X") makes a lot of sense. He explains in detail that such demands can only momentarily unite people, but once the negative goals are achieved (like the overthrow of Mubarak in Egipt) unless there are also positive causes, politics ends and old powers realign.

He ends with Plato and again carefull intensely meaningfull language. He says we should seek "a way out of capitalism", just like Plato proposed philosophy as a way out of the cavern. We should not, warns Alain Badiou, seek to overthrow capitalism but find the way out of it.

This inspired end makes me think of a clever tv ad. In an imperial palace, the people's army (or some other similar name) overthrew their rule. The rebels just had a taste of a brand of vodka, sat down in the big chair and continued to rule, corrupted by power since the start. Then another army comes along (the liberation army of something) and they too are corrupted. Power just changes hands, again and again.

Badiou proposes we search for a way out of this. And I see no reason why we shouldn't.

[Paul B. · Rating 1 out of 5]

There have to be better introductions to Badiou’s political thought. These talks and editorials from a decade ago are very accessible, but the events have grown stale. Or maybe just skip the first 72 pages and go right to “On politics today.”

[amelia]

read the e-book. kept having recurrent, violent flashbacks throughout, remembering that when i 'worked' at verso i pronouced badiou like bad-ee-ooh in front of sebastian budgen. a set of essays and articles, less about greece and more about the reinvention of politics.

thought-provoking bit on the theory of 'new imperial practises' i.e. the change from traditional colonialism of occupy and pillage, to the west's funding of armed bands and proxy wars, creating new zones and failed states

[Sveta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I regret only how late I am to this powerful manifesto that redefines the seemingly familiar notions of 'freedom', 'people', and 'politics.'
What? Freedom in the absence of private property and the specialisation of labour, and that isn't identified with the 'freedom' to buy stuff?! Can it be?!
A notion of 'people' who aren't synonymous either with the 'middle class' nor with consumption?? Unthinkable!
Finally, Badiou offers an argument for a politics that's focused on coherently affirming a socioeconomic vision rather than merely negating something -- 'down with Gaddafi/Assad/Putin/Insert-Your-Go-To-Authoritarian-Figure-Here' -- and why that vision *must* be an alternative to capitalism, ethnonationalism, and yes, even individualism.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

On sale via Verso, but glad I read it. Snapshot of several talks/columns from 2016, but they’re still very relevant. The last two, and especially the last one, “On Politics Today”, are wonderfully sharp. A good reminder that what sent me back to his tricky and very involved philosophy was precisely his ability to speak with clarity (and with humility when things turn out differently than he expected — which is on display in some of the earlier chapters here) about our various present and onrushing situations.

Check out the last piece if you want a nice call to arms for a future worth living.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of essays/speeches that somewhat loosely cohere around a rejection of contemporary democracy as non political and attempts to re-engage our political imagination towards a new communism. This occasionally means it repeats itself but there’s lots of really interesting stuff in here - I particularly like chapters 3 and 7, and there’s something strikingly Deleuzian (and/or Guattarian) about the discussion of multiple politics and movements failing as they try to unite over a single politics in the final chapter.

Importantly never a work of Euroskepticism, but always a skepticism of capitalist Europe…

[Victor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Admirably clear, concise, and politically nuanced, avoiding the shoals of philosophical meandering or getting trapped inside Badiou’s specific predilections.

Sure, there are a few obligatory Mao references, but it wouldn’t be a Badiou text without that.

[Elizabeth OH · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it thinking I'd get a bit more nuanced historical perspective on the situation in Greece and got Badiou's powerful manifesto instead. None of what he calls for is "new," per se, nor specific to Greece, but glad that it exists in the world for us to take away.