Re: [-empyre-] Baudrillard and the future of theory

["McKenzie Wark" <mckenzie.wark@gmail.com>]

Marx doesn't belong to the 'militants', and neither does 'radical'
thought. Baudrillard outflanked the Marxists in Mirror of Production,
arguing that the critique of political economy did not go far enough.
Like any critique it was still wedded to its object.

Going back to something (back to Marx, for example) does not
necessarily signal a fidelity to the original. It isn't always an
attempt to represent an origin. One can go back (to Marx, for example,
or Freud, whoever) in order to diverge again from that point.

In this sense Baudrillard was an interesting reader of Marx. One thing
one might do, however, is go back and read his reading of Marx, and
diverge again, away from his critique of it. About which, ironically,
we can say it is still to close.

But one can only do this once we stop using the proper names like
trading cards.


___________________
McKenzie Wark
http://www.ludiccrew.org