Writing in Dissent, Mitchell Cohen takes some object lessons away from a read of Hardt and Negri’s Empire:

‘Being-against’ [the authors’ proscriptive, ontological position of choice] allows Hardt/Negri to bring together under the same rubric Chiapas, fundamentalism, and Tiananmen Square. Participants in the Los Angeles riots of 1992 and the intifada may not realize it — one might say that they may have only local focus rather than decentered global consciousness — but they are all refusing ‘the post-Fordist regime of social control.’ These risings, regardless of their content, are postmodern and potentially liberating. Everyone who is authentically ‘against’ is on the same side of the barricades. Edward Said is lauded at one point in Empire for complaining that ‘Orientalists’ homogenize the ‘Orient.’ That is, most Western scholars don’t examine ‘the Orient’ empirically but as an object created by their own prejudiced discourses. But because Hardt/Negri don’t acknowledge that Said does this himself when he addresses the Middle East, one hardly expects them to recognize that they too are relentless homogenizers when they write of ‘Being-against.’ In the end, one senses that Hardt/Negri’s concern is ontological tantrum rather than alternative politics. And if you don’t know that you are really against the world market — if, say, you are a Palestinian who has lived in misery for decades in a Gaza refugee camp and you don’t grasp that post-Fordism is your real problem –well . . . Hardt/Negri know for you.

Yes. Or, to summarize and concretize…

Hardt/Negri: “The natives demand to be kept free from the tentacles of global capitalism! Their mantra is, ‘we resist!'”

‘The Other’ in question: “…Uh, guys…? Actually we’re more interested in escaping poverty and hopelessness, and we hear that entering into the global economy will help us do just that –“

Hardt/Negri: “–Silence! We’ll do the talking, thank you! Now please, just sit back and look impoverished, okay? We’re trying to make a point here. And if you can manage it, muster up some ennui. Nothin’ sells political oppression like ennui..”

[via Yglesias]

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