Re: new immanence

On Sun, 16 Feb 2003, Threehegemons@aol.com wrote:

|What is the difference between 'the multitude' and 'the working class'?
|And what is the difference between 'a new plane of immanence' and 'socialist
|consciousness'? Seriously--I'm curious about how language changes and why.

IMHO, Hardt & Negri's concept of the 'multitude' allows west EUropean and
north American subjectivity to continue to play a dominant role in the way in
which putatively global "left" conversation addresses (the possibility of)
global change, without having to face some tough questions regarding issues
of privilege and global class location, complicity in invisible exclusion,
the abandonment of the requirement of a deep, racially undivided, radical
sense of solidarity, and concealing a host of tacit, neverthe less all too
real, personal stakes in a politics of the status quo. 'Multitude' allows the
west European and north American "left" identity location to cover up its
material investment in the maintenance of the global order. It is
"solidarity" on white, northern, privileged "left" terms. In this sense, it
is an old hat, the oldest in fact.

József Böröcz