Re: <nettime> Empire for Beginners - (collectivized consciousness) [PGalaxy/njett]

["up" <up@treerunner.com>]

> Not get rid of identity perhaps, but certainly get rid of the  'ego' to
> some extent.

bzzzzt.

"We must die as egos and be born again in the swarm, not 
separate and self-hypnotized, but individual and related."
--Henry Miller, Sexus / gleaned from anti-oedipus.

This hopeful idea, while yes, would be damn nice, is one of the 
many things that Negri/Hardt are trying to get past in Empire. 
Unless my reading is off mark, the idea of collective 
consciousness is an attempt to "point to the end of modern 
sovereignty and demonstrate a new capacity to think outside the 
framework of modern binaries and modern identities..." (N&H, 
2.4). Sure, anti modern thought which attacks boundaries brings 
about a certain momentum away from modern sovereignty but it 
gets you only so far as to land you headfirst into Empire. Reason 
being, Empire too would like to see all of humanity submit to a 
collective consciousness, away from binaries, happily at play 
across boundaries -- though to be sure, not quite the type of 
collective consciousness as laid out by Paola.  Empire is all about 
deterritorialization.

off to a honey pot,

-kevin

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