Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2001 21:10:38 -0100
From: hbone <hbone-AT-optonline.net>
Subject: Re: What is Empire about?



 Eric wrote:
>
> For many Americans, the electorial process already lacks legitimacy and
> the attempts at privatization are seen for what they are - attempts by
> elites to create a gated republic, which limit liberty to those who can
> afford it. This gilded gated age is already running into problems
> because despite its ownship of the media, its control of the government
> and its pinhold on the economy, the multitudes still elude it and cannot
> be completely controlled.
>
> These tendencies of the transcendental, of constitued power, need to be
> understood, however, in order to continue to find ways to resist them.
> N&H provide us a model. The question is - "Does this model work?"
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Eric/All,

 Perhaps its not yet a "model",  more like a new chick, beginning to peck
through the
shell.  What will emerge?

 In today's Science section of the NY Times, Dennis Overbye tells of a
 meeting of
 our Nation's experts of different disciplines, and their struggle (and
 failure) to define "information", and "complexity".  They need a
vocabulary.
 Here we are in the middle of the Information Revolution and they can't
agree
 on what Information "is".

 By contrast, authors N&H use a vocabulary a large readership seems to
 accept,
 but it is, nevertheless, a puzzle for this reader.

 In his TV interview, Hardt was enthusiastic about the communism of St.
 Francis.

Accounts I've read of St. Francis' activities describe
 participation in the multitude, with the multitude, in a manner remniscient
 of Christianity's founders.  Quite different from other monastic orders who
 seem to have been as severely regimented as modern
 or postmodern workers.

 We believe in the texts that describe Christ and disciples wandering
through
 the land, addressing multitudes who fed and sheltered them, a sort of
communism
 in action.

 At the end their book, N&H speak of global citizenship, and
 re-appropriation.

 Will progeny of expatriates take back the Garden of Eden?

 It is ironic that mammals, fish and fowl of endangered species are deemed
to
 have some sort of "rights" to a life-supporting environment, and a
 fertilized human egg has, or, according to some persons, should have, a
 "human right" to live, but of a multitude of human-workers, only those who
 pay  the purchase price and pay assessed taxes, have a right to land

 In the Old Testament, God asserts the land is His, and don't forget it.

 Around the Globe, the largest populations are found on the land that is
 least valuable,
 mainly in China, India, and their Asian neighbors.

The huge migrations noted in "Empire" are very important, and if global
citizenship could be realized, it would be a partial remedy, but I am
reminded that in the real world the migration of capital is the primary
determinant of global economies.

 Corporate capital is almost biological in its thrust to reproduce.  It
 migrates to countries where the  risk/return ratio is most advantageous.
As
 such, it is guaranteed to be the enemy of the local.  It weakens the
communities it migrates from, drives third-world primitives of f  lands it .
migrates to.

 Whilst I admire the N&H vision of multitudinous diversity, cordiality and
 fellowship, the essence of "place" is local, and small scale
 owner-worker-capitalists
 are more likely to re-invest their surplus in their own communities
 than ship it to Mexico and China.

regards,
 Hugh