I just picked up a copy of Empire, by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri.
Here's a sample paragraph:
We should point out here that we accord special attention to the juridical figures of the constitution of Empire at the beginning of our study not out of any specialized disciplinary interest--as if right or law in itself, as an agency of regulations, were capable of representing the social world in its totality--but rather because they provide a good index of the processes of imperial construction. New juridical figures reveal a first view of the tendency toward the centralized and unitary regulation of both the world market and global power relations, with all the difficulties presented by such a project. Juridical transformations effectively point toward changes in the material constitution of world power and order. The transition we are witnessing today from traditional international law, which was defined by contracts and treaties, to the definition and constitution of a new soveriegn, supranational world power (and thus to an imperial notion of right), however incomplete, gives us a framework in which to read the totalizing social processes of Empire. In effect, the juridical transformation functions as a sumptom of the modifications of the material biopolitical consistution of our societies. These changes regard not only international law and international relations but also the internal power relations of each country. While studying and critquing the new forms of international and supranational law, then, we will at the same time be pushed to the heart of the political theory of Empire, where the problem of supranational sovereignty, its source of legitimacy, and its exercise bring into focus political, cultural, and finally ontological problems.
The rest of this book is filled with similar bullshit. It turns out that Hardt is an associate professor of Italian literature at Duke University, and Negri "is an independent researcher and writer and an inmate of Rebibbia Prison, Rome. He has been a Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Paris and a Professor of Political Science at the University of Padua."
What the blurb does not state is that Negri is in prison as a result of being convicted of involvement in the assassination of Aldo Moro, a former prime minister of Italy, back 1977.
So, if any of you are thinking of buying this book, please don't. Send me an IM or email with our address and I will ship this pile of crap off to you.
TEd, who is really pissed that some of his money ended up in an inmate's hands this way
