This study looks at Alian Badiou's excerpt from THE COMMUNIST HYPOTHESIS titled 'This crisis is the spectacle: Where is the real?'
As with many proponents of leftist politics this is not exactly a balanced piece of writing. It is however, more measured [certainly initially] in setting out its reasoning than many. Badiou argues the point of how absurd and unfair the Capitalist system is with it's lack of grounding in the real, tangible economy and its continued pursuit to widen the gap between rich an poor, powerful and insignificant, bourgeois and proletariat. Despite the subject matter this initially manages to steer clear of manifesto-esque ranting... initially.
If I may backtrack, I would like to draw some similarities with the previous piece by Meades. While the subject matter is very different, both authors employ tactics with which to push their specific agendas. Meades uses Zaha. Whereas Badiou uses metaphor. Badiou dreams of a different political system, one which is not widely supported and Zaha had also toiled for years remaining true to her ideals believing they are the 'right way' despite not fitting with the widely accepted norms.
The disaster movie metaphor is a clear vehicle for his ideas and presumably simple enough for all to follow. This credit crisis, 'the spectacle' is the starting point for Badiou's disaster movie, Europe's leaders the main characters and saving the banks is the objective, but all the time Badiou is suggesting an alternate ending; let the banks fail? what would that entail? Or more importantly, let the people wake up to his reality and realise they are trapped in an unreal system and merely have to look around and see the inequality... then, obviously revolt, switch political and economic systems and live happily ever after...nice idea.
This is the main problem. It just isn't going to happen. I would personally love to see a more equitable division of wealth and a political system devoid of self interest and actually socially responsible. However, while humans are animals, they will still have animal instincts. Badiou grimly highlights the predatory instincts of bankers. Unfortunately, greed is a powerful remnant of our survival instincts which have served us so well for the past million years or so, and served our ancestors pretty well for the preceding 100 million years, to ditch them now is not really an option. We have proven that we are supremely capable of adapting to changing conditions and doing what is necessary to ensure our survival and the survival of our family. So, to blame a few bankers for the worlds ill's seems crazy to me as they are doing what they can get away with in an imperfect system, but is there ever going to be a perfect system? Are humans infallible? NO. There could, for sure, be a better system, but what do you think these same people with a moral vacuum would be like in a Socialist state? I very much doubt they would be blindly towing the party line, they would more than likely be bending the rules to ensure the best for themselves. I also have severe reservations about a system which does not naturally encourage competition. Without competition we would never push ourselves to the absolute limit, never strive for unimaginable success, it would be sad and limited and un-aspirational.
This is a very simple piece of writing, skilled in its distillation of information and clarity of presenting an idea. Presenting economics in a digestible format is undoubtedly difficult but as a piece of writing, the craft is not really there. It does what you would expect from an essay of this type, it turns into a political rant of desires and visions of the future in the 'all we need to do' vein.
I am an idealist, I feel all designers should at least have a little bit of this in them; but I am also a realist. The current system is badly flawed but Marxism is not the answer. There is no perfect system. I have always seen myself as left-of-centre...and still do, but, given a choice of aspirational proletariat wanting to change the world, or, socialist working for my equal share no matter what, I would choose the former every time.
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