1. Is Empire the new world order?
Chapter 7: NeoMarxism
Is Empire the new world order?
© 2014 Cynthia Weber

2. Learning aims:
Understand what the myth “Empire is the new world order” does
Understand what the concepts “Empire” and “multitude” mean and their role in the myth
Explore the differences between postmodernism and neoMarxism
Critically interrogate how the myth is created through desire, truth and selective memory
© 2014 Cynthia Weber

3. Last week: Globalization
Myth: “it is the end of history”
Key concepts: Liberalism, dialectic, history
Liberalism’s own internal contradictions creates historical and ideological struggles as well
© 2014 Cynthia Weber

4. Myth: “Empire is the new world order”
NeoMarxism Flashcard
Key concepts: Truth
Ontology
Desire
Myth: “Empire is the new world order”
Key thinkers:
Karl Marx
Hardt & Negri
© 2014 Cynthia Weber

5. NeoMarxism and history
Marx’s vs. Hardt and Negri’s understanding of history (table 7.1)
Marx
Hardt and Negri
Understanding of history
Dialectical
Nature of dialectic
Materialist
What clashes in the dialectic?
Economic classes
Globalized postmodern ontologies
(Empire vs. multitude)
© 2014 Cynthia Weber

6. What Empire is and isn’t (box 7.1)
“a single logic of rule” (2000: xii)
The political subject that regulates global exchanges (2000:xi)
“the sovereign power that governs the world” (2000: xi)
“an order that effectively suspends history and thereby fixes the existing state of affairs for eternity” (2000:xiv)
“a virtual center” (2000: 58)
“a non-place” (2000: 190)
“a decentered and deterritorializing apparatus of rule”(2000: xii)
A society of control constituted through biopower (2000: 25)
An “international disciplinary order” (2000: 261)
“force” presented as “being in the service of right and peace” (2000: 15)
The enemy of multitude (2000: 45)
What Empire is not
Not reducible to the United States of America (2000: xiii-xiv)
Not imperialism (2000: xiv)
© 2014 Cynthia Weber
Source: Hardt and Negri 2000

7. Who are the multitude? (Box 7.2)
“a new proletariat”
(2000:402)
A unified (or at least unifiable) global axis of resistance
(2000: 54-6)
Those who share the common enemy of empire
(2000: )
“the real ontological referent of philosophy (and I would add, history)”
(2000:48)
“counter-Empire”
(2000: 207)
Contemporary militants
(2000: 413)
© 2014 Cynthia Weber
Source: Hardt and Negri 2000

8. The dialectical logic of Empire (figure 7.1)
(desired but not inevitable outcome of conflict)
Communism
(thesis)
Empire
(antithesis)
Multitude
© 2014 Cynthia Weber

9. Theory activity: Resistance in the time of terror1
Research
In SMALLER groups, you will be given a group or network to research using the internet and what you already know about them 2
Answer
FIND OUT as much as you can about the POLITICS of the groups
Who is their enemy? How are they fighting it? What are they fighting for? 3
Present
Each group presents what they’ve found out 4
Discuss
What do these groups have in common?
Do they have a common enemy and can we understand their enemy as connected (Empire)?
Do they form a multitude?
Does resistance need to be “common” and “coherent” in order for it to make sense?
What constitutes/does not constitute resistance?
© 2014 Cynthia Weber

10. Central characters in Memento
Main character with short- term memory loss
Leonard (Lenny)
“Friend” of Lenny
Teddy (John G)
“Friend” of Lenny and the film’s “Femme Fatal”
Natalie
Former client of Lenny who suffers from the same condition as Lenny
Sammy Jankis
© 2014 Cynthia Weber

11. Memento How Memento makes sense of the world (box 7.3)
Memento’s postmodern world is uncertain
Temporally because there is no guarantee of process through time
Spatially because everything (even individuals) is unbounded
© 2014 Cynthia Weber

12. What is typical and deviant in the world of Memento? (table 7.3)
Time moves forward because people make new memories as they pass through time. This makes temporal progress possible and allows individuals to hold onto their sense of self
Deviant
Time moves backward because people cannot make new memories as they pass through time. This makes temporal progress impossible and means individuals have to constantly re-create their sense of self
© 2014 Cynthia Weber

13. Film activity: Enemies and the “problem”of ontology in Memento
Aim: To reflect on the role that the enemy of Empire plays in Hardt and Negri’s myth “Empire is the new world order.”
1. In SMALL GROUPS of three or four, discuss the following questions with reference both to the film and to Hardt and Negri’s myth “Empire is the new world order” (5 min.)
Are all enemies constructions?
Does Empire exist?
Does this matter?
Did it ever?
2. As a whole group, REFLECT TOGETHER on Hardt and Negri’s solution to postmodernism (5 min.)
How does this happen in Memento and how does it happen in Empire?
Can it be solved by naming enemies?
Is “ontological lack” a problem?
© 2014 Cynthia Weber

14. Next week: Modernization and development theory
Is there a clash of civilizations?
Film:
East is East
Identity
Desire
Culture
© 2014 Cynthia Weber