Empire

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Summary: returnio ad absurdum
Review: Never doubt the staying power of stupidity. Dig up an old Italian murderer (no euphamisms here) and some washed up academic slob with elbow patches and dress up the the same old swill with a nice touch of French post-structuralism and watch the idiots come running.
If this is the best the left has got, they are in a lot of trouble.

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Summary: Innovative and Timely Work of Radical Theory
Review: If you are interested in theories of globalisation, imperialism, or in radical and/or marxist theory this is an essential book. A deleuzian reconception of marxist theory it might be disorienting for those unfamiliar with their work, but it deserves a close and serious reading. It is one of the most inspiring works of theory that i have read in a long time. I have to say that i am amazed by how many reactionary nuts have bothered to review this book. Negri was connected with the autonomist movement in Italy, not with the maoists. It is well known that the criminal charges were were completely baseless from an evidential standpoint, he was convicted on the basis of his radical ideas. He is currently a political prisoner in Italy. This is an important work with an influence that can only grow. It gives the possibility for new directions in how we conceive the domination of capital and the struggle against it. Revolutionary regards to the authors, I hope there is a sequel on the way.

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Summary: Feverish and Half Baked
Review: In language that only can be described as delirious, the authors' argument is as interesting for what it deletes as what it states. Ignoring innovation brought about by capitalist competition, they argue that all innovation under capitalism is best understood as a response to the working class. Overlooking that resistance can be crushed as well as engendered, the authors make the claim that all innovations pave the way for further liberation. Finally, acknowledging the lack of a coherent program, the authors nevertheless call upon the 'multitude' to rise up against 'empire' under the leadership of the 'social worker' to establish a new world 'republican' order in order to preserve 'biopower.' Food for academics perhaps but definitely not a Manifesto.

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Summary: Hmmm...is there anything new here? No.
Review: This tome is simply propaganda for a "dressed up" new-fangled, 21st century version of communism, by golly. You remember communism -- that failed, awful, murderous system of government that killed millions. It's not surprising that one of Empire's authors (Antonio "Toni" Negri) was considered by many to be the brains behind the Red Brigades (the radically left-wing Italian terrorist group in the 1970s) and, according to press reports, was suspected by Italian authorities to be responsible for the kidnapping and murder of Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro. In fact, he was charged with armed insurrection against the state. Ultimately, he skidaddled off to France (where he wrote several books, including "Communists Like Us")and returned to Italy a few years ago to face substantially lesser charges. He is currently serving out his sentence for "membership in an armed band." Class struggle is a big theme in Empire, and globalilization, led by the internet explosion, is the catalyst for the latest struggle. In a nutshell, the authors believe that capitalism, democracy and the nation-state are evil. Yada, yada, yada. We've heard it all before, boys. Something original, please? There's nothing new here. This is an awful book -- if for no other reason than its stylistic approach; it reads like a dry, boring polisci textbook with words like"tertiarization," "rhizomatic," and "massified subjectivities" interspersed throughout. Pretentious is not too strong a word to describe Empire, and the authors' observations seem nothing more than the hackneyed (and pathetically desperate) wishful thinking of a generation whose time has past. And so...

Rating:
Summary: The vocabulary we adopt
Review: I was naturally drawn to this book due to my own peculiar background: an undergraduate degree in theology, a graduate degree in literature, and a career in international treasury management with a rather large bank bent on global expansion. In part, it is my job to shape the way people think. So I am fascinated by the authors' distinctive approach to the issues of globalization and the professional and private roles that shape the debate.

The breadth and depth of the work is astonishing. The incredible range that the authors survey is uneven, as are the conclusions they draw. But I can vouch for their accuracy on one point. The vocabulary we adopt greatly determines the way we think about the issues. The debate will mature when all sides begin to use language that is simple and true and wise rather than incendiary and manipulative.

Readers who like Hardt and Negri's approach of filtering a broad vista of literature through a single passionate lens may also appreciate Heroism and the Christian Life by Brian Hook and Russ Reno.

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Summary: Seminal Work
Review: Empire has been called the new Communist Manifesto, when it should be considered in a class by itself. It is the recontextualization of capitalism within the new paradigm of globalization, modernity and technocracy. Hardt and Negri have effectively re-evaluated the fluxes of the neo-imperialist and post-industrial millenial era and given us a new way to resist the ur-corporate state within a context of indigenous/oppressed underclass living in the superstate.

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Summary: The New New Communism
Review: First things first: The authors are unashamed communists. Don't believe it, just ask them. From the closing oration of the book: "This is a revolution that no power will control--because biopower and communism, cooperation and revolution remain together, in love, simplicity, and also innocence. This is the irrepressible lightness and joy of being a communist."

As former head of Worker's Autonomy, co-author Antonio Negri was the intellectual head of the Italian terrorist group the Red Brigade. Not only is Negri a communist, he is likely a murderer as well. In 1979 Negri was arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced (in absentia, as he had fled to Paris) for 17 murders by the Red Brigade, including that of Italian prime minister Aldo Moro. Just before Moro was shot dead by his kidnappers, someone telephoned his distraught wife to taunt her. That person was widely believed to be Negri.

Negri's co-author, Michael Hardt is a professor at Duke University, where he teaches courses on Marxism.

Rarely will one encounter a book so detached from reality. While this books attacks everything about capitalism, it never mentions the atrocities of communism. Of course Stalin's communism just didn't get it quite right, did it? What's a few million murdered citizens in the course of "Revolution?"

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Summary: Scary indoctrination of conspiracy theories and communism
Review: This book is flat out scary. Period. I bought this book hoping that the authors could share some unique perspectives on economic globalization. Instead, they haul out the same tired old Marxist and Communist beliefs that have been proven to fail time and time again.

I'm scared that people who read this book will think the authors have stumbled upon a new insight. Understand this: they haven't. This is old stuff, it's tired and it doesn't work. I beg you: remember how people and the environment suffered greatly in the Soviet Union and in East Germany under a system of communist rule. Remember that India is just beginning to crawl out from an incredibly inefficient centrally-planned government when it took 2 years to get a permit to remodel one's own house.

Marxists everywhere will say "Yes, those were failures, but they weren't the RIGHT kind of communism." They will have a bunch of excuses for you, but don't buy it--you only have to travel around today's world to see the devastating effects of the communist system.

I know that it can seem like there are scary forces out there at work in the world. But I beg you--do not give up your brain to people like the authors of this book. They will tell you that you need to rise up against a vauge external enemy, and that forces across the world are conspiring against you. It is extremely seductive to believe that one has such a central role in the grand plot of the world. But it is not true, I promise.

You DO have THE central role in determining the path of your own life--go make it whatever you want it to be. Live your life with integrity, not the lies these authors tell you. You do a disservice to everybody who has suffered under communism if you buy this book's lies for one second.

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Summary: The Book Explains Looking For The Elite Just Became Harder!
Review: The book was interesting because it reviews how a quiet but powerful new world order of alliances have taken over in this time of globalization.

The authors explain how a group of multicultural corporate fraternal associations along with the influence of individual media magnates are working together. This combination of the merchant princes induce the various governmental understructure's shadowing the decision making process of global actions, responses and planned policies.

The book only sets out the elements of the foundations of this new society. It is quite forthright in explaining that future contributions will actually come from the populace who grasps this concept. The fate of all will be with those who choose to either work with it, or give birth to ways to go around it, and of course the anarchists seeking to destroy and replace it.

I cannot help but take a few exception to many of the theories and consensus of the book. For example, man himself like bees is selfish in nature. We have learned from bees that they are connected by one genetic code. Bees actually sacrifice themselves for the sake of the hive is in fact a selfish act and not sacrificial as it appears. If the hive goes on, so does the bees from the Queen that created them, so the bee dies to save his genetic related bees out of selfishness knowing they are one.

At the same time, recent genetic DNA discoveries have shown all humans are far more similar than our outward appearances making us look so different. And we know our great original sin roots is in selfishness as well. Thus, capitalism that permits individuals to excel, exceed and accumulate great wealth for the few directly conflicts with communism that seeks to redistribute all wealth to all. This dichotomy of views and practices has produce conflict that has stunted the growth of all human development. In contrasts to the book, I believe capitalism will supply the very foundations that will lead to a better world far more free than anything communism can ever mandate.

The undeniable fact of fate for all men is death. History shows that once any man usually achieves great wealth he eventually enters into Maslow's self actualization phase of life. Here such men seeks just to achieve helping others and society not exploiting them.

Only capitalism permits the individual to find new ways to increase production without increasing pollution, new ways to feed people without destroying the land and water. Capitalism selfishness actually leads to a better world by promoting rewards to a person who comes up with new ways to improve old systems. Expanded markets are dependent upon individual expansions of their wealth, needs and desires. Capitalism is the system that does more with less, create new innovations that solve world problems and even in the end those who benefit most from it give what they earn away. Only the most callous and egotistical person dies with great wealth.

Communism talks a good game, has great goals for human development but smacks of hypocrisy by crushing individual freedom, thought and innovations. Worse, all must stand and walk in one line and those objecting get a hammer to the head as example to all, to share and bear with it for the benefit of all.

Unlike communism, capitalism will lead to more wealth for more individuals whom upon achieving this wealth will distribute it, plus come up with new ways to benefit far more people because of the need of expanding markets and customers. In the end, capitalism will provide the means of wealth that will meet the needs of all, communism will never accomplish that feat.

Many praise the book as the second coming of the Communists Manifesto, that few know even Marx did not finish and none after him. This is not a true depiction of the book. What I am more happy about is that we now can discuss communism and some of its goals, ideas and plans without being label a communists. It is refreshing to see such an enlighten view of the new world order and let the debate begin. But those in control before the great communism capitalism clash still influence where our world is going. They have done a fine job I might add as well.

The book will soon appear in dining room conversations, school room discussions and be used a fodder for media propagandists, but it is not as great as some proclaim it! Yet, it will required reading for those seeking a brave new world.

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Summary: DEMOCRACY NOT RIOTOUS MOBS
Review: Negri-Hardt's analysis of what has become Genova, Seattle, et al reminds me of a couple of Berkeley professors spawned in the sixties. They pedantically submit that protest movements are an integral part of a democratic society, when all that's been demonstrated for everyone to see are riotous mobs not unlike Bolsheviks in pre-1918 Russia. To eliminate through riot the inequalities between rich and poor and the powerful and the powerless is socialist anarchy at its very worst. It could devolve into a Reign of Terror with roving bands of people taking your home and burning the car you earned. The solution is to become gainfully employed and not to feloniously run around the streets with rocks and clubs. The authors are in a liberalistic nether world decorated with hammers and sickles.