For love or money

Cultural Anthropology

Volumn 26, Issue 4, 2011, Pages 676-682

  Hardt, Michael ^a  

^a DUKE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

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Indexed keywords

EID: 80054066110     PISSN: 08867356     EISSN: 15481360     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1360.2011.01119.x     Document Type: Article

References (5)

1. In his critique of Rosa Luxemburg's antinationalist position, V. I. Lenin argues that, whereas the nationalism of dominant states is always reactionary, the nationalism of subordinated states can be progressive when it serves as a protest and a defensive mechanism against oppression and imperialism. One might claim in the same spirit that love of the same, although always reactionary when deployed by the dominant, can serve a progressive function when deployed by or in the name of a subordinated identity: a love of the subordinated race, for instance, that serves a defensive function. My position, however, is parallel to Luxemburg's. My sense, in other words, is that the progressive function of any political project animated by the love of the same and unification, even when conducted by or in the name of a subordinated identity, is very limited and constantly runs the danger of becoming reactionary. For Lenin's argument, see The Right of Nations to Self-Determination, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1951, pp. 9-64.
2. Hannah Arendt, TheHuman Condition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958, p. 242.
3. For a more extended reading of Arendt on love, see my in press essay "Red Love." A substantial engagement with Arendt on this topic must also consider her doctoral thesis, Love and Saint Augustine; Joanna Vecchiarelli Scott and Judith Chelius Stark, eds.; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
4. Karl Marx, "Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts," in Early Writings; Rodney Livingstone and Gregor Benton, trans.; London: Penguin, 1975, p. 379, see pp. 279-400.
5. On Marx's notion of crude communism in relation to love and his odd invocation of a "community of women," see again my "Red Love."