Greece and the Reinvention of Politics

In a series of seven trenchant interventions Alain Badou analyses the decisive developments in Greece since 2011. Badiou considers this Mediterranean country "e;a sort of open-air political lesson"e;, with much to tell us about the wider situation. Greece is exemplary of "e;our fundamental contradictions in Europe, which are also ultimately the fundamental contradictions of the world such as it is-the world served up to the authoritarian anarchy of capitalism."e;Notwithstanding the Greeks' heartening opposition to the financial markets' hegemony, Badiou considers it also important to address the reasons why this opposition failed. "e;Movementist"e; politics may arouse widespread sympathy, but for the French philosopher they have "e;absolutely no effect other than to temporarily trap the movement in the negative weakness of its affects."e; Badiou argues that a consequential opposition inspired by the emancipatory politics of the past-or by what he calls "e;the communist hypothesis"e;-should set its compass by the "e;orienting maxims"e; proposed in this book, defining a direction for political action.