The Idea of Communism

Alain Badiou: The Idea of  Communism

First off, the Idea is a political truth, but this is too empty a phrase to be universally true. So then let us break it down to its core. We need to get to matter of Idea but we must first establish its parameters. For Badiou there are 3 elements that establish the Communist Idea:

1. The political element – this is the realm of political truths, as such.  Badiou uses the Chinese Cultural Revolution, from 1965-1968, as his prime example but he also uses the French Revolution from 1792 to 1794, and Bolshevism in Russia from 1902-1917. But what is a political truth, as such? “It is a concrete and time-specific sequence in which a new thought and a new practice of collective emancipation arise, exist, and eventually disappear” (Badiou, 231). Quite simply, it is a window of opportunity when new thoughts emerge, exist, and then emancipate their subjective existence into an external objective one, i.e. a revolutionary movement.
2. The historical element – history, for Badiou, is purely symbolic and totally empty of any deep philosophical reality but it is a powerful symbol nonetheless. History places itself in a clear and present time frame and localization (China circa 1968, French circa 1792, or Canadian circa 2010, etc). “Within a given type of truth the historical inscription encompasses an interplay between types of truth that are different from one another and are therefore situated at different points in human time in general” (Badiou, 233). This day and age in politics is not the same as a past epoch and what happened then is only a pure symbol of the present; but this symbolic truth of a past existence can become a retroactive influence.
3.  The subjective element -  all humans are individual actors and potential agents of change within society but each one has to decide to step-up and act, i.e. to decide to become a part of a political truth procedure.  The individual finds their ‘subjectivation’ (their will and decision) within their own incorporation into a collective project of emancipation. “A subjectivation is always the process whereby an individual determines the place of a truth with respect to his or her own vital existence and to the world in which this existence is lived out” (Badiou, 235).  

Thus we come to the crux of the matter, what is the Idea?

“an Idea is the subjectivation of an interplay between the singularity of a truth procedure and a representation of History” (Badiou, 235).

“an Idea is the possibility for an individual to understand that his or her participation in a singular political process (his or her entry into a body-of-truth) is also, in a certain way, a historical decision” (Badiou, 235).

An Idea is the point in an individual’s mind where they decide, for historical reasoning, that in the here and now they need to take decisive political action and join with a collective in a struggle for total emancipation from oppression.  ‘Communism’ perfectly fits the title of ‘Idea’.

Again we refer to Badiou: “the word ‘Communism’ has the status of an Idea, meaning that, once an incorporation has taken place, hence from within a political subjectivation, this term denotes a synthesis of politics, history, and ideology” (Badiou, 237).

“The communist Idea exists only at the border between the individual and the political procedure, as that element of subjectivation that is based on a historical projection of politics” (Badiou, 237).

The communist Idea has existed throughout history in many phases and examples, not just French Revolution, USSR, and state socialism, and it is our imperative to re-imagine the Idea and even attempt to rescue it from the vulgarity of its representation of the past decades. We must be ruthless and remain critical. We must not accept an easy and vulgar determination of the Idea.  We must live with an Idea. We must rescue the Idea especially when it is forgotten, outlawed, and despised by the majority of society. We can, so we must!

references:

Badiou, Alain. 2010. The Communist Hypothesis. New York: Verso.