The communist horizon

In a talk in Rotterdam, Bruno Bosteels used the expression 'communist horizon.' The term comes from a Latin American communist--I can't recall his name (update from Bruno: Alvaro García Linera, Bolivia's VP). It's not a term of art or a concept. It was a syntactic element, not a point. But I find it evocative.

A communist horizon: a vanishing point in our vision, a line we can neither reach, get beyond, nor evade. It can't go away, can't be eliminated. It necessarily and unavoidably conditions what and how we see.

The communist horizon is Real, the condition and contour of our present condition.

The mistake leftists make when they turn into liberals is thinking that they are beyond this horizon. They fail to see how attempts to proceed as if communism were absent, as if liberalism or democracy or capitalism all unfolded in their monstrous, exploitative, vampiric deception in a setting unconditioned by the pressing Real of communism. How much effort is expended on ideological repression of the communist horizon? on convincing people that too much is better? that failures of solidarity are virtuous? that banks matter more than schools? that the whole fucking thing is one massive joke and then we are all dead?

All the lies that make the world go 'round have one purpose: obscuring the communist horizon, drowning our faith that collectively we can clean the environment, educate ourselves, feed ourselves, take care of our health, learn about the planet and the universe, create and preserve beauty.

I haven't read much of Badiou on Plato's idea of communism (his book The Communist Hypothesis is great). My initial reaction is Plato is no communist. The communist moment in his Republic is like an elite group of professor-monks relying on the subservience of the military as they all squeeze the workers. But I think I may be starting to think about this differently.

Why? Reason requires communism. Knowledge of the good is inextricable from a communist moment. It depends on an idea of communism. So at the very heart of a certain line in so-called Western thought is an ideal and an image of collectivity, of sharing passions and desires, viewing all as comrades, and pursuing possibilities of truth. At the ground of thought is not an isolated thinker but a community of equals who only together have access to knowledge of the good. Indeed, this knowing together is strictly incompatible with private property, separate ownership, and a life of commerce.

To focus on the communist horizon, to try to discern its contours, might require looking more closely at what we thought we already saw. We might need to change our focus, to become attentive to communism's signifying stresses (a term from Eric Santner), the pressure it exerts. Sometimes we will feel its absence, the pull of the lack of its positive instantiation. It might feel like a black hole.But we should not let the pull of absence prevent us from noting the horizon. Singularity and horizon are part of one formation.

Comments

[Robert Allen]

Yes. Your last posts lead up to this directly, but I want to focus on that notion you have of being last in a species- political theorist. I've made a career out of being the last whatever unionized worker-- last of the "gandy dancers", railroad spike driving track worker, last of the land line telephone repair call takers, last of this, last of that. For me, it is important to remember that when we fight over jobs and technology-that-replaces jobs we are fighting against our own throw -away commodification, not, as the ruling class would have it, trying to hold on to inefficiencies and being reluctant to change.

[Jodi Dean]

Thanks, Bob. I'm glad you noticed the connection between the posts. Your point as the last union worker is powerful, particularly as something vital to hold onto. I've been doing home repair this summer, depending on knowledge from the paint store guy (the workers at the superstores don't have this knowledge), on the skills of an old local plumber (he says that the new guys aren't taught how to deal with all the hold kinds of pipe), etc. I feel jobs and knowledge and ways of life slipping away. On the faculty front: the new generation doesn't think much about our position as a collective; they tend to be individualistic and identified with management; they almost seem resentful of older faculty who think that we need to protect our working conditions and benefits.

[Jamesmartin145]

"All the lies that make the world go 'round have one purpose: obscuring the communist horizon, drowning our faith that collectively we can clean the environment, educate ourselves, feed ourselves, take care of our health, learn about the planet and the universe, create and preserve beauty." I really like this! It is written very well.
I really like your way of seeing communism as a horizon.
I agree with you, we are all communist at heart and we are all bent toward that horizon as if we were plants hoping to be nourished. Part of the problem, I think, is that this passivity, waiting for Godot or whatever, waiting for the second coming... We elected Obama because he appeared to be this Godot.
Now, nowhere in the media is this great disappointment being dealt with. I think it is a great opportunity.
Thanks