radical stuff of the past decade or so

[consuming negativity]

what's worth reading that's recent? preferably stuff that's related to the theme of the site, but really, any book that's good and recent, or any article or whatever, so long as it's new and it's good

i think i have a few different options that i've read, but i'll have to sit and think and see if i can remember where to find them.

[Sewer Socialist]

Off the top of my head, Silvia Federici's Caliban and the Witch and Revolution at Point Zero. Caliban was fantastic; Revolution I have bought but have yet to read.

[consuming negativity]

Off the top of my head, Silvia Federici's Caliban and the Witch and Revolution at Point Zero. Caliban was fantastic; Revolution I have bought but have yet to read.

i read the first ¼ or so of Revolution at Point Zero and it's pretty good. really, i should get back to it, but it can be a lot to take in

[Sewer Socialist]

I have weird taste in books - I can only read books that have a substantial amount to take in; otherwise, I get bored. Sometimes, I have a huge ego, and feel that a book is too simplistic for me to read.

Not that I'm particularly smart. Many books are completely over my head, especially philosophy stuff.

For whatever reason, I find Federici pretty straightforward and accessible.

[Rafiq]

I want to stress that none of what I am recommending here is without flaw - indeed, I think that all of these, most especially Empire, deserve intensive criticism. At the same time, these are works that have encapsulated the spirit of our time - the problems with them are largely the political conclusions drawn from them, rather than the questions they pose. Empire gives us insight into the new order of geopolitical formations (in the spirit of Lenin's analysis of Imperialism), and this is important in understanding politics on a world-scale today (The problems with it, however, is the petite-bourgeois conclusions drawn from it - how to "resist" Empire, creating a theoretical space between "Empire" and its degrees of "control" upon us rather than understanding it as a totality of which you cannot be outside of). The problems are the AFFIRMATIVE or positive conclusions, not the negative ones.

So Antonio Negri's Empire is a must-read, though critically of course.

I have spoken before about how currents of political and ideological degeneracy which contend to the state apparatus in different geopolitical spheres have emerged, namely, Islamism, European (Russian-based) nationalism, pragmatic Asian authoritarianism, and finally American libertarianism. In order to understand the latter phenomena, which presents itself as rather vague, and we don't really have a clear understanding of their grounding beyond fedora-donning internet scum and some pseudo-intellectuals. The Californian Ideology by Richard Barbrook goes into great detail explaining a new, uniquely post-modern trend of neo-fascism that has its spiritual basis in American neoliberalism that derives from what would otherwise be dismissed as the harmlessness of Silicon Valley geek culture.

What is most especially important about the book is that it explains how even something as seemingly postmodern, harmless and apolitical is actually the condition of its barbarity (Not seeing the danger is itself the danger, in other words). Again, none of these are perfect but we lack any substantive analysis of such new phenomena, to leave them to the dogs in substitution for critical analysis is an even greater mistake than employing an imperfect methodology.

As far as importance for the relationship between class and politics in the 21st century, On Populist Reason by Laclau, and then respectively, Against the Populist Temptation by Zizek.