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SEMIOTEXT(E) FOREIGN AGENTS SERIES
AGrammar ofthe Multitude
For an Analysis ofContemporary Forms ofLife
Paolo Virn
o
Translated fro
m th
e Ita
lian
Isabella Berto
letti
James Cascaito
Andrea Casson
Foreword by Sylvère Lotrin
ger
Copyrig
ht ©
2004 Semiotext(e
)All rig
hts reserve
d.
The ita
lian editio
n was published fro
m Rubbettin
o for D
otto
rato in Scienza Te
cnologia
e Società,Dipartim
ento di Sociologia e di Scienza Politic
a,Università
della Calabria,Ita
ly.
Special th
anks for G
iancarlo Ambrosino,Isabella Berto
letti,J
ames Cascaito and Andrea
Casson for copy editin
g.
Semiotext(e
) 2571 W
.Fifth
Stre
et
Los Angeles,C
A90057
www.semiotexte
.org
Design: Hedi El Kholti
The Index w
as established by Aventurina King.
ISBN: 1-5
8435-021-0
Distrib
uted by The MITPress,Cambridge,M
ass.and London,England
Printed in the United States ofAmerica
Semiotext(e
) 501 P
hilosophy H
all
Columbia University
New Yo
rk,NY10027
Contents
5
Foreword:We,th
e Multitu
de
Introduction
People vs.M
ultitu
de: Hobbes and Spinoza
Exorcized plurality: th
e “priva
te”and the “in
divid
ual”
Three approaches to the Many
Day One Forms ofDread and Refuge
Beyond the coupling ofthe terms fear/a
nguish
Common places and “general intellect”
Publicness without a public sphere
Which One for th
e Many?
Day TwoLabor,Action,Intellect
Juxta
positio
n ofpoiesis and praxis
On virtu
osity.F
rom Aristotle to Glenn Gould
The speaker as perfo
rming artis
tCulture industry: a
nticipation and paradigm
Language on the stage
Virtu
osity in
the workp
lace
Intellect as score
Reason ofState and Exit
Day Three Multitude as Subjectivity
The principle ofindividuation
An equivocal concept: bio-politics
The emotional tonalities ofthe multitude
Idle talk and curiosity
Day FourTen Theses on the Multitu
de and Post-Fordist C
apitalism
Bibliography
Index
7
21
2947
73
95
113
117
FOREWORD:
We,th
e Multitu
de
7
Pao
lo V
irno’s A
Gram
mar of the M
ultitu
deis a sh
ort b
ook, b
ut it casts a
very long sh
adow
. Beh
ind it lo
om
s the en
tire histo
ry of th
e labor m
ove-m
ent an
d its h
eretical win
g, Italian “w
ork
erism” (operaism
o), which
rethough
t Marxism
in ligh
t of th
e struggles o
f the 1
960s an
d 1
970s. F
or
the m
ost p
art, though
, it looks fo
rward
. Abstract in
telligence an
d im
ma-
terial signs h
ave beco
me th
e majo
r pro
ductive fo
rce in th
e “post-F
ord
ist”eco
nom
y we are livin
g in an
d th
ey are deep
ly affecting co
ntem
porary
structu
res and m
entalities. V
irno’s essay exam
ines th
e increased
mobility
and versatility o
f the n
ew lab
or fo
rce whose w
ork
-time n
ow
virtually
extends to
their en
tire life. The “m
ultitu
de” is th
e kin
d o
f subjective
con-
figuratio
n th
at this rad
ical chan
ge is liberatin
g, raising th
e political q
ues-
tion o
f what w
e are capable of.Operaism
o(w
orkerism
) has a p
aradoxical relatio
n to
traditio
nal M
arx-ism
and to
the o
fficial labor m
ovemen
t becau
se it refuses to
consid
er work
as the d
efinin
g factor o
f hum
an life. M
arxist analysis assu
mes th
at what
makes w
ork alien
ating is cap
italist explo
itation, b
ut o
peraists realized
that
it is rather the redu
ction of life to w
ork. Parad
oxically, “workerists” are
against
work, again
st the so
cialist ethics th
at used
to exalt its d
ignity. T
hey
don’t w
ant to
re-appro
priate w
ork (“take over th
e mean
s of p
roductio
n”)but red
uce it. T
rade u
nio
ns o
r parties are co
ncern
ed ab
out w
ages and w
ork-
ing co
nditio
ns. T
hey d
on’t figh
t to ch
ange th
e workers’ lo
t, at best th
eym
ake it more to
lerable. W
orkerists p
ressed fo
r the red
uctio
n o
f labor tim
ean
d th
e transfo
rmatio
n o
f pro
ductio
n th
rough
the ap
plicatio
n o
f technical
know
ledge an
d so
cialized in
telligence.
In th
e mid
-30s th
e leftist philo
sopher Sim
one W
eil experien
ced th
eap
pallin
g abjectio
n o
f the assem
bly lin
e first han
d b
y enlistin
g in a facto
ry.Sh
e wondered
wheth
er Len
in o
r Stalin co
uld
ever have set fo
ot in
a work-
8
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
place
and celeb
rated workers’
labor.
“The
pro
blem
is,
therefo
re, quite
clear,” she co
nclu
ded
in Oppression
and L
ibertyafter ren
ouncin
g Marxism
and b
reaking u
p w
ith th
e organ
ized w
orkers’ m
ovemen
t. “It is a questio
n o
fkn
owin
g wheth
er it is possib
le to co
nceive o
f an o
rganizatio
n o
f pro
duc-
tion” th
at would
n’t be “grin
din
g dow
n so
uls an
d b
odies u
nder o
ppressio
n.”
1
It was to
o early to
achieve th
is goal th
rough
auto
matio
n an
d h
er efforts
remain
ed iso
lated. It fin
ally took th
e Italian O
peraists in
the late 5
0s to
pick
up w
here sh
e left off.
Ideo
logically, O
peraism
was m
ade possibleby th
e Russian
invasio
n o
fH
ungary in
1956, w
hich
revealed th
e true n
ature o
f bureau
cratic socialism
.To yo
ung Italian
intellectu
als on th
e left of th
e left (among th
em T
oni
Negri an
d M
ario T
ronti) it b
ecame clear th
at the Soviet U
nio
n w
asn’t the
Workers’ C
ountry, b
ut a to
talitarian fo
rm o
f capitalism
. Aro
und th
at time
the first large em
igration o
f Italian w
orkers fro
m th
e impoverish
ed So
uth
toth
e industrial N
orth
proved
even m
ore u
nsettlin
g. Instead
of su
bm
itting to
the n
ew system
of m
ass pro
ductio
n, yo
ung u
nskilled
workers (“m
ass-work-
ers”) byp
assed estab
lished
trade-u
nio
ns, w
hich
privileged
skilled w
orkers,
and fu
riously resisted
the F
ord
assembly lin
e. The O
peraist m
ovemen
t took
off in
1961 after th
e first massive lab
or co
nfro
ntatio
n in
Turin
. Quadern
iRossi
(“Red
Noteb
ooks”), its first p
ublicatio
n, an
alyzed th
e impact th
eyo
ung m
ass workers h
ad o
n th
e labor fo
rce and th
e new
“class com
positio
n”th
at em
erged fro
m recen
t cap
italist tran
sform
ations.
Classe
Operaia
(“Workin
g Class”), p
ublish
ed in
1964, fo
rmulated
a new
political strategy,
the refu
sal of w
ork, ch
allengin
g capital to
develo
p its p
roductive fo
rces with
new
technolo
gy. This “strategy o
f refusal” (a sem
inal essay b
y Mario
Tro
n-
ti) was
applied
“in
side”
capitalist
develo
pm
ent,
but
“against
it.” It
anticip
ated th
e post-6
8 an
alysis of cap
ital by F
élix Guattari an
d G
illesD
eleuze in
Anti-O
edipus, 1
972, an
d b
rough
t Italian so
cial thin
kers and
post-Stru
cturalist
Fren
ch philo
sophers
togeth
er in
th
e m
id-7
0s.
What
mass-w
orkers o
bjected
to m
ost w
as the tran
sfer of h
um
an kn
owled
ge to th
em
achin
es, reducin
g life to “d
ead lab
or.” T
here w
as an existen
tial dim
ensio
nth
ere, but active an
d creative. T
heir effo
rt to ch
ange lab
or co
nditio
ns w
asunkn
own to
classical Marxism
, mostly p
reoccu
pied
with
mech
anism
s of
oppressio
n an
d th
eir effect on th
e workin
g class.In
Daybreak, N
ietzsche su
mm
oned
Euro
pean
workers to
“declare th
athen
ceforth
as a classth
ey are a hum
an im
possib
ility and n
ot ju
st, as is cus-
tom
ary, a harsh
and p
urp
oseless estab
lishm
ent.” A
nd h
e exhorted
that
“impossib
le class” to sw
arm o
ut fro
m th
e Euro
pean
beeh
ive, “and w
ith th
isact o
f emigratio
n in
the gran
d m
anner p
rotest again
st the m
achin
e, against
capital, an
d again
st the ch
oice w
ith w
hich
they are n
ow th
reatened
, of
9
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
beco
min
g of necessity eith
er slaves of th
e state or slaves o
f a revolu
tionary
party…
” This celeb
ration o
f exile can b
e found in
Mich
ael Hard
t and T
oni
Negri’s E
mpire, a b
est-seller among A
merican
Marxist acad
emics an
d art
critics (“A sp
ecter hau
nts th
e world
and it is th
e specter o
f migratio
n…
”) aswell as in
Virn
o’s A Gram
mar of the M
ultitu
de, which
it com
plem
ents in
itsow
n w
ay. This call retro
actively found its m
odel in
the u
north
odox an
dm
obile m
igrant lab
or fo
rce of th
e Wobblies (In
ternatio
nal W
orkers o
f the
World
) who o
rganized
imm
igrant w
orkers th
rough
out th
e United
States inth
e 1920s. (H
ence th
e parad
oxical fondness o
f operaists fo
r the A
merican
workers’ m
ovemen
t and A
merica in
general). M
igration as a fo
rm o
f resis-tan
ce also recalls M
arx’s essay on m
odern
colo
nizatio
n, lab
orers in
Euro
pe
desertin
g famin
es or facto
ry work fo
r free lands in
the A
merican
West.
2It
took th
e inven
tiveness o
f Italian so
cial thin
kers to tu
rn th
is curso
ry account
of th
e workers’ d
esire “to b
ecom
e indep
enden
t landow
ners” in
to an
antici-
patio
n o
f the p
ostm
odern
multitu
de. W
hile H
ardt an
d N
egri consid
er this
kind o
f Exo
dus “a p
owerfu
l form
of class stru
ggle,” Virn
o cau
tions th
atdesertio
n w
as “a transito
ry phase,” an
extended
metap
hor fo
r the m
obility
of p
ost-F
ord
ist workers (E
uro
pean
laborers w
orked
in E
ast Coast facto
riesfo
r a decad
e or tw
o b
efore m
oving o
n). A
nuan
ce, mayb
e, but sign
ificant.
Unlike H
ardt an
d N
egri, Virn
o refrain
s from
turn
ing exile, o
r the m
ulti-
tude fo
r that m
atter, let alone co
mm
unism
, into
anoth
er splen
did
myth
.Auto
nom
ist th
eory
is fo
und in
m
any
places,
inclu
din
g th
e U
nited
States, but th
e movem
ent d
eveloped
most p
owerfu
lly in Italy w
here th
e 60s’
movem
ent exten
ded
well in
to th
e 70s. B
reaking aw
ay from
the o
rthodox
and p
opulist M
arxism o
f Anto
nio
Gram
sci, founder o
f the Italian
Com
-m
unist
Party,
young
Operaist
intellectu
als learn
ed fro
m th
e workers
them
selves what th
e reality of p
roductio
n w
as. They h
elped
them
createth
eir organ
izations an
d co
nfro
nt th
e system o
f pro
ductio
n h
ead o
n th
rough
strikes and sab
otage. T
his p
ragmatic an
d m
ilitant asp
ect of w
orkerism
setsItalian
social th
inkers ap
art. They o
pposed
the h
egemony o
f the Italian
C.P.
and G
ramsci’s strategy o
f small step
s (the “w
ar of p
ositio
n” with
in civil so
ci-ety) w
hich
led to
Euro
com
munism
and th
e “histo
ric com
pro
mise” w
ith th
egovern
ing C
hristian
-Dem
ocrats (co
nservatives). O
peraists w
ere the first to
questio
n th
e centrality o
f the p
roletariat, co
rnersto
ne o
f the en
tire socialist
traditio
n, an
d call fo
r a reevaluatio
n o
f the catego
ries of class an
alysis. The
notio
n of
“chan
ging
class co
mpositio
n” in
troduced
by
Sergio Bolo
gna
allowed
them
to re-cen
ter the revo
lutio
nary stru
ggle on th
e “new
social su
b-
ject” just em
erging at th
e time b
oth
from
the facto
ry and th
e university.
3
The “T
roubled
Autu
mn” o
f 1969 w
as marked
by th
e pow
erful o
ffensive o
fm
ass-workers to
obtain
equality in
salaries. Vario
us w
orkerist gro
ups jo
ined
10
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
togeth
er to create a n
ew o
rganizatio
n, b
oth
a group an
d a m
agazine: P
otereOperaio
[Workers’ P
ower]. It gath
ered a n
um
ber o
f theo
rists like Mario
Tro
nti, T
oni N
egri, Fran
co P
ipern
o, O
reste Scalzo
ne an
d B
olo
gna. T
heir
reform
ulatio
n o
f Marxism
becam
e semin
al for th
e entire au
tonom
ist move-
men
t. In 1
974, th
e clandestin
e line o
f the R
ed B
rigades clash
ed w
ith th
eopen
form
s of co
llective organ
ization w
ithin
Potere O
peraio
and led
to th
egro
up’s self-d
issolu
tion.
The w
orkers’ formid
able p
ressure to con
trol the cycle of p
roduction
met
with
serious p
rovocations from
the secret services an
d th
e Christian
-Dem
o-cratic govern
men
t, starting w
ith th
e bom
bin
g of Piazza F
ontan
a in M
ilan in
1969. H
astily attributed
to the an
archists b
y the govern
men
t, it justifi
ed an
inten
se police rep
ression of w
orkers’ organization
s. This “strategy of ten
sion”tore Italy ap
art and sen
t shock w
aves well in
to the 7
0s, vergin
g on civil w
ar.It triggered
amon
g factory workers in
the F
iat factories the creation
ofundergrou
nd terrorist grou
ps—
the “R
ed B
rigades” an
d “P
rima L
inea” are
the m
ost well-kn
own—
targeting lead
ers of the in
dustry an
d p
romin
ent
political fi
gures. T
he kid
nap
pin
g of DC
Presid
ent A
ldo M
oro and h
is cold-
blood
ed execu
tion b
y the R
ed B
rigades after th
e governm
ent b
roke off the
negotiation
s, furth
er upset th
e political b
alance in
Italy.In
1975 P
otere O
peraio
was rep
laced b
y Auto
nom
ia, a large movem
ent
invo
lving stu
den
ts, wom
en, yo
ung w
orkers an
d th
e unem
ployed
. Their rh
i-zo
matic
organ
ization em
bodied
every
form
of
political
beh
avior—
anti-h
ierarchical,
anti-d
ialectical, an
ti-represen
tative—an
ticipated
by
Operaist th
inkers. A
uto
nom
ia wasn’t an
y kind o
f norm
al political o
rgani-
zation.
Lib
ertarian,
neo
-anarch
istic, id
eolo
gically open
an
d lo
osely
organ
ized b
y regions, it w
as respectfu
l of p
olitical d
ifferences. A
uto
nom
istgro
ups
only
cooperated
in
co
mm
on public
actions.
Exp
erimen
tal an
dim
aginative, th
e mass m
ovemen
t was a far cry fro
m th
e tight terro
ristgro
ups takin
g “armed
struggle” in
to th
eir han
ds. In
1977, an
auto
nom
iststu
den
t was m
urd
ered b
y the fascists in
Rom
e and A
uto
nom
ia explo
ded
into
the “M
ovemen
t of 1
977.”
4It sw
ept th
e entire co
untry, takin
g over the
universities in
Rom
e, Palerm
o an
d N
aples, th
en in
Flo
rence, T
urin
and
finally B
olo
gna. It seem
ed as if th
ey were ab
out to
take over Italy. What
they w
ould
have d
one w
ith it, P
ipern
o reco
gnized
recently, th
ey did
n’t real-ly kn
ow. It w
as an in
ausp
icious tim
e for th
e movem
ent to
com
e of age.
Challen
ged fro
m its far left, th
e Com
munist P
arty used
Moro’s m
urd
er toelim
inate A
uto
nom
ia. Accu
sed o
f bein
g a shad
ow co
mm
and fo
r the “arm
edwin
g of th
e pro
letariat,” all the au
tonom
ist leaders, in
cludin
g Negri, w
erearrested
and jailed
in A
pril 1
979. O
thers, like P
ipern
o an
d S
calzone, w
ent
into
exile (not b
y their ow
n ch
oice). P
aolo
Virn
o w
as on th
e edito
rial board
11
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
of th
e influ
ential au
tonom
ist magazin
e Metropoli
and sp
ent tw
o years in
jailbefo
re bein
g cleared o
f all charges. (T
wen
ty-five years later man
y auto
no-
mists are still in
priso
n). H
e is now
Dean
in th
e Eth
ics of C
om
municatio
nat th
e University o
f Calab
ria where h
e gave the th
ree semin
ars that m
ake up
this b
ook in
2001.
Mich
ael Hard
t and T
oni N
egri’s Empire m
akes no exp
licit reference to
this p
eriod o
f social an
d p
olitical creativity, an
d th
ere is a good reaso
n fo
rth
at. The A
merican
Left at th
e time w
as sidin
g with
Euro
com
munism
and
consid
ered A
uto
nom
ia with
susp
icion. A
nd yet th
e theses N
egri defen
ded
then
were h
ardly d
ifferent fro
m th
ose h
e is develo
pin
g today. So
what h
asch
anged
? (Parad
oxically, the gh
ostly p
resence o
f Auto
nom
ia is felt far more
strongly in
Empire th
an in
A Gram
mar of the M
ultitu
dewhere P
aolo
Virn
oco
nfro
nts it h
ead o
n.) T
he strategy p
roved en
orm
ously su
ccessful. T
he b
ulk
of review
s and critical stu
dies o
f Empire n
ow far o
utw
eigh its ow
n m
ass(so
me 5
00 p
ages). Unfo
rtunately, few
peo
ple w
ill realize that th
e multitu
de
isn’t just a p
hilo
sophical co
ncep
t lifted fro
m Sp
inoza—
the d
emocracy o
fth
e multitu
de—
that it h
as a histo
ry under an
oth
er nam
e, and h
as been
the
object o
f vibran
t collective exp
erimen
ts. They w
ill never su
spect eith
er that
the issu
es raised at th
e time are b
eing p
icked u
p again
, and th
at som
e kind
of in
tellectual ren
aissance is p
resently o
ccurrin
g in Italy. W
hat h
as been
resurfacin
g recently in
the U
nited
States with
Empire isn’t ju
st anoth
erAm
erican cu
ltural fad
(“Em
pire” rep
lacing “G
lobalizatio
n”) but a b
old
and
controversial so
cial laborato
ry for th
e presen
t. Virn
o’s A Gram
mar of the
Multitu
deis an
oth
er sign o
f this retu
rn.
In “T
he Strategy o
f Refu
sal,” publish
ed in
1965, M
ario T
ronti w
arned
against fo
cusin
g too m
uch
on th
e pow
er of cap
ital, or assu
me th
at it curb
slab
or p
ower to
its own en
ds. W
orkers are a class fo
r them
selves beforebein
ga class again
st capital. A
ctually, it is alw
ays capital th
at “seeks to u
se the
worker’s an
tagonistic w
ill-to-stru
ggle as a moto
r for its ow
n d
evelopm
ent.”
5
Empire d
evelops th
e same argu
men
t: capitalism
can o
nly b
e reactivesin
ce itis th
e pro
letariat that “actu
ally inven
ts the so
cial and p
roductive fo
rms th
atcap
ital will b
e forced
to ad
opt in
the fu
ture.”
6It w
as the Italian
workers’
stubborn
resistance to
the F
ord
ist rationalizatio
n o
f work, an
d n
ot m
eretech
nolo
gical innovatio
n, th
at forced
capital to
make a leap
into
the p
ost-
Ford
ist era of im
material w
ork.
Hard
t and N
egri strongly op
pose an
y “hyb
rid th
esis” that sim
ultan
eous-
ly emphasizes th
e creativity of capital an
d of th
e workin
g class. In th
is respect
they d
iffer signifi
cantly from
Deleu
ze and G
uattari’s an
alysis of capital, w
hose
theory of fl
ows th
ey adop
ted (E
mpire
clearly echoes A
Thousand P
lateaus).D
eleuze an
d G
uattari saw
capital as fl
uid
, inven
tive and ad
aptive, u
sing every
12
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
obstacle p
ut in
its path
to rebou
nd an
d m
ove forward
again. Yet th
ey empha-
sized th
at it always fakes ou
t in th
e end, n
ever quite d
ares followin
g throu
ghon
its
own m
ovemen
t. Becau
se th
e lim
it of
capitalism
, like
the
stock-exch
ange, w
ould
be u
nregu
lated m
adness. B
eating cap
ital at its own gam
ein
volves decod
ing its fl
ows even
furth
er, or constan
tly disp
lacing on
eself inrelation
to them
. They w
ould
certainly ackn
owled
ge as well th
at Italian cap
-italism
was forced
into a p
aradigm
shift from
the p
ressure of d
eterritorializedworkers, b
ut p
oint ou
t that it u
sed th
is shift to regain
the in
itiative and recod
eth
e workin
g class into a less volatile social com
position
.This is th
e conclu
sion V
irno arrived
at as well in
A Gram
mar of the
Multitu
de. Revisitin
g the tu
multu
ous years o
f Auto
nom
ia, Virn
o realized
that th
eir struggle h
adn’t ach
ieved th
eir goals. T
he p
olitical co
nfro
ntatio
nonly h
ad a “sem
blan
ce” of rad
ical conflict, h
e says, becau
se what au
tono-
mists w
ere claimin
g wasn’t really su
bversive in
itself, just an
anticip
ation o
fth
e post-F
ord
ist mutatio
n. A
uto
nom
ists simply “h
ad th
e misfo
rtune o
fbein
g treated [b
y those w
ho still id
entified
with
the d
eclinin
g Ford
ist para-
digm
] as if it were a m
ovemen
t of m
arginal p
eople an
d p
arasites,” which
itwas n
ot. A
nd yet, V
irno n
ow estim
ates that it w
as just an
“angry an
dco
arse” version o
f the p
ost-F
ord
ist multitu
de b
ecause it o
ften co
nfu
sednon-so
cialist dem
ands (refu
sal of w
ork, ab
olitio
n o
f the state) w
ith a p
role-
tarian revo
lutio
n. (“A
lot o
f peo
ple,” h
e wryly n
otes, “w
ere blath
ering o
nab
out revo
lutio
n.”) A
uto
nom
ia was a defeated
revolu
tion, to
which
the
post-F
ord
ist parad
igm w
as the an
swer.
But w
hat kin
d o
f an “an
swer” is it? A
nd in
what w
ay does th
e post-F
ord
era achieve w
hat A
uto
nom
ia failed to
do b
y more d
irect mean
s? The n
ewpro
letariat did
n’t replace th
e workin
g class, but exten
ded
it to all th
ose
whose lab
or is b
eing exp
loited
by cap
ital. In th
e post-F
ord
ist econom
y, sur-
plu
s value is n
o lo
nger extracted
from
labor m
aterialized in
a pro
duct, it
resides in
the d
iscrepan
cy betw
een p
aid an
d u
npaid
work—
the id
le time o
fth
e min
d th
at keeps en
richin
g, unackn
owled
ged, th
e fruits o
f imm
ateriallab
or. A
s Marx w
rote in
Grundrisse, lab
or activity m
oves “to the sideof th
epro
ductio
n in
stead of
bein
g its
chief
actor.” T
he
multitu
de
is a
force
defin
ed less b
y what it actu
ally pro
duces th
an b
y its virtuality, its poten
tialto
pro
duceand
pro
duce itself. So
is it really a gain over w
hat existed
befo
re?W
orkers u
sed to
work in
servile conditio
ns, leavin
g them
just en
ough
time
to rep
lenish
. Now
their en
tire life is live labor, an
invisib
le and in
divisib
leco
mm
odity. T
oday all th
e multitu
de d
oes is m
onito
r signs o
n a screen
. But
mach
ines are n
ot “d
ead lab
or” an
ymore, th
ey are part o
f the w
orkers’ “life
labor” w
hich
now
plu
gs into
the “gen
eral intellect” d
issimin
ating kn
owl-
edge acro
ss the en
tire public sp
here. T
he m
ore creative an
d ad
aptab
le the
13
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
workers are—
the m
ore self-valorizin
g—th
e more su
rplu
s of kn
owled
ge they
can b
ring to
the co
mm
unity at large. T
he m
ultitu
de is a b
y-pro
duct o
f the
technolo
gical mutatio
n o
f the p
roductive p
rocess ju
st as the co
nsu
mer class
was a b
y-pro
duct o
f the m
etamorp
hosis o
f com
modities fro
m o
bjects (les
choses) to sign
s. In th
e post-F
ord
era, hum
an co
mm
unicatio
n h
as beco
me
the b
asis of p
roductive co
operatio
n in
general. In
purely so
cial terms th
en,
Virn
o is righ
t. This is w
hat au
tonom
ists were tryin
g to ach
ieve when
they
advo
cated “n
on-gu
aranteed
” labor an
d n
om
adic w
ays in o
rder to
evade
labor slavery an
d exp
erience life to
the fu
llest. But is it also
true in
political term
s? The m
ultitu
de is a n
ew catego
ry inpolitical th
ough
t. But h
ow “p
olitical” is it co
mpared
to th
e auto
nom
iam
ovemen
t? It is, Virn
o su
ggests, open
to p
lural exp
eriences an
d search
ing
for n
on-rep
resentative p
olitical fo
rms, b
ut “calm
ly and realistically,” n
ot
from
a margin
al positio
n. In
a sense th
e multitu
de w
ould
finally fu
lfillAuto
nom
ia’s motto
—“T
he m
argins at th
e center”—
thro
ugh
its active par-
ticipatio
n in
so
cialized kn
owled
ge. Politics
itself has
chan
ged an
yway.
Lab
or,
politics
and in
tellect are
no lo
nger
separate,
actually
they
have
beco
me in
terchan
geable, an
d th
is is what gives th
e multitu
de a sem
blan
ceof d
e-politizatio
n. E
verythin
g has b
ecom
e “perfo
rmative.” V
irno b
rilliantly
develo
ps h
ere his m
ajor th
esis, an an
alogy b
etween
virtuosity (art, w
ork,
speech
) and p
olitics. T
hey all are p
olitical b
ecause th
ey all need
an au
di-
ence, a p
ublicly o
rganized
space, w
hich
Marx calls “so
cial cooperatio
n,” an
da co
mm
on lan
guage in
which
to co
mm
unicate. A
nd th
ey all are a perfo
r-m
ance b
ecause th
ey find in
them
selves, and n
ot in
any en
d p
roduct, th
eirow
n fu
lfillmen
tG
ranted
, this is n
ot the assau
lt on th
e Win
ter Palace, b
ut au
tonom
istsnever h
ad th
at kind of p
erforman
ce in m
ind eith
er. The con
temporary m
ul-
titude n
ot bein
g a class, it can’t build
a class consciou
sness of its ow
n, let alon
een
gage capital in
a class struggle. A
nd yet its very existen
ce as multitu
de, d
is-tin
ct from “W
e, the P
eople” (alw
ays pred
icated on
the State) sp
eaks of “the
crisis of the form
-of-state” itself. A Gram
mar of the M
ultitudedwells at len
gthon
the ch
angin
g natu
re of contem
porary form
s of life, but it d
oesn’t elaborate
furth
er on th
is crisis of the n
ation-state, sim
ply attrib
utes it to th
e “centrifu
-gal ch
aracter of the m
ultitu
de.” It is at th
is poin
t that E
mpire com
es in.
Hard
t and N
egri embrace as w
ell the n
otio
n o
f a “postm
odern” so
cialclass, b
ut th
ey try and o
ffset its increasin
g political d
isaffection b
y drasti-
cally chan
ging its scale an
d id
eolo
gical horizo
n. F
or th
em it isn’t ju
st the
crisis of th
e form
-of-state th
at the m
ultitu
de an
nounces, b
ut o
f the very
form
-of-em
pire p
resently b
eing sh
aped
by glo
balizatio
n. Empire
is a pow
er-fu
l political syn
thesis o
f the m
om
ento
us tran
sform
ations th
at are relegating
14
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
parties an
d n
ation-states to
a subsid
iary role. A
dvan
ced cap
italism is d
e-reg-ulatin
g markets, fo
rcing m
odern
states to tran
sfer their sovereign
ty to a
superio
r entity, an
“acephalo
us su
pran
ational o
rder” m
ade o
f a pyram
id o
ftran
snatio
nal co
rporatio
ns, tran
s-political o
rganizatio
ns an
d ad
vanced
cap-
italist natio
ns led
by th
e only rem
ainin
g superp
ower, th
e United
States.(T
he U
nited
States may w
ell be im
perialistic, b
ut it is n
otEm
pire). Sover-
eign states lo
sing th
eir pow
er of m
ediatio
n, a n
ew co
nstitu
tional p
rocess is
begin
nin
g to em
erge, allowin
g for en
forceab
le intern
ational regu
lations to
pro
liferate and m
ore co
mplex fo
rms o
f hierarch
y and in
equality to
replace
the trad
itional an
tagonism
betw
een state an
d so
ciety, rulin
g class and p
ro-
letariat. As a resu
lt the kin
d o
f multitu
de H
ardt an
d N
egri have in
min
d is
of a fairly d
ifferent o
rder th
an V
irno’s. E
mpire isn’t an
“epoch
al shift”
bro
ugh
t about b
y post-F
ord
ist econom
y and th
e impositio
n o
f a transn
a-tio
nal
universal
ord
er, it
is an
oth
er co
ncessio
n extracted
by
the
entire
multitu
de fro
ntin
g for th
e old
workin
g class. Em
pire, still risin
g, already
harb
ors th
e seeds o
f its own d
estructio
n.
It is a bold
claim th
at aims to
shake E
mpire at its very fo
undatio
n.
Placin
g Virn
o’s multitu
de at th
e heart o
f Em
pire o
pen
s up an
entirely n
ewpolitical p
aradigm
, while co
nven
iently keep
ing class stru
ggle as the m
oto
rof h
istory. T
he d
win
dlin
g of th
e natio
n-states, th
ough
, could
well h
aveweaken
ed th
e revolu
tionary m
ovemen
t, and m
any w
ould
argue th
at it did
,but H
ardt an
d N
egri are emphatic th
at the “n
ew so
cial class” was in
deed
bolstered
by th
e emergen
ce of su
pran
ational stru
ctures. So
they w
ould
n’toppose
globalizatio
n,
actually
welco
me
Em
pire
as Auto
nom
ia praised
Am
erica. Clearly, th
ey need
ed an
oversize enem
y to b
uild
up th
e defeated
Italian m
ovemen
t into
a global counter-pow
er. The glo
bal m
ultitu
de is h
ybrid
, fluid
, mutan
t, deterrito
rialized, ju
stlik
e imm
aterial work
ers of th
e postm
odern
world
, and yet, in
mysterio
us
ways, it is su
pposed
to en
com
pass th
e world
poor w
hich
replaced
the
work
ing-class at th
e botto
m o
f the lad
der. (T
raditio
nally th
e work
ers’m
ovemen
t has b
een d
istrustfu
l of th
e unorgan
ized lu
mpen
pro
letariat).The p
oor are n
ot im
material, th
ey all-too-m
aterial them
selves in th
eirwretch
edness, an
d N
egri often
evokes in
general term
s their kairos
of
“poverty an
d love.” (T
he rise o
f Christian
ity durin
g the d
ecline o
f the
Rom
an E
mpire ru
ns th
rough
out m
uch
of E
mpire
as an in
fectious, b
ut
pro
blem
atic, analo
gy to revo
lutio
nary d
esire). For H
ardt an
d N
egri, the
multitu
de is th
is new
social class th
at removes itself fro
m n
ations an
d p
ar-ties to
meet h
ead o
n th
e challen
ge of E
mpire. “In
its will to
be-again
st and
its desire fo
r liberatio
n,” th
e multitu
de “m
ust p
ush
thro
ugh
Em
pire to
com
e out th
e oth
er side.”
7
15
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
The o
ther sid
e, of co
urse, is so
much
better. P
aradise is an
oth
er exam-
ple. T
he p
roblem
is that a m
ultitu
de cap
able o
f doin
g such
a feat doesn’t
exist—or d
oesn’t exist yet. A
t best, it rem
ains a tau
ntin
g hyp
oth
esis, and a
pro
misin
g field o
f investigatio
n fo
r whoever w
ants to
follow
the lead
.8But
the id
ea that cap
ital could
simply b
e “destroyed
” by su
ch an
essentialist
notio
n is a b
it hard
to sw
allow. U
nlike th
e industrial p
roletariat, th
e post-
modern
multitu
de d
oesn’t m
ake up “a w
orkers’ arm
y,” the kin
d th
at isread
ily launch
ed again
st capital, o
r against E
mpire. (T
he w
orker’s arm
ydid
n’t exactly move again
st the State d
urin
g May 1
968 in
Fran
ce). The
“oth
er side” b
elongs, p
oetically, to
the p
anoply o
f endan
gered id
eolo
gies.That an
alternative to
the co
ntem
porary im
perial o
rder is “n
ecessary”—th
em
ultitu
de m
ust p
ush
thro
ugh
like a batterin
g ram—
doesn’t m
ake its exis-ten
ce any m
ore tan
gible. B
ut H
ardt an
d N
egri are already b
usily th
inkin
g“h
ow co
ncrete in
stances o
f class struggle can
actually arise, an
d m
oreover
form
a coheren
t pro
gram o
f struggle, a co
nstitu
ent p
ower ad
equate to
the
destru
ction o
f the en
emy an
d th
e constru
ction o
f a new
society. T
he q
ues-
tion is really h
ow th
e body o
f the m
ultitu
de can
configu
re itself as a telos.”
9
The telo
s, in o
ther w
ord
s, precedesth
e multitu
de, an
d fo
r the m
ost p
artrep
laces it. No w
onder E
mpire
was so
well received
in A
merica, an
d am
ong
the p
eople w
ho, in
ciden
tally, som
e twen
ty-five years ago, lo
oked
the o
ther
way as th
e Italian m
ovemen
t was b
eing b
rutally cru
shed
. (The em
battled
Italy: Auton
omia
issue o
f Semiotext(e), n
ow reissu
ed, w
as first publish
ed in
1980, b
arely one year after th
e auto
nom
ists’ arrests.) Fred
eric Jameso
nhailed
Empire
as “the fi
rst great theoretical syn
thesis of th
e new
millen
niu
m”
and E
tienne B
alibar, p
raising N
egri’s “hyp
er-Marxism
,” acknow
ledged
that
it laid th
e foundatio
ns fo
r “a new
teleolo
gy of class stru
ggles and m
ilitan-
cy.” As fo
r Slavo
j Zizek
, his co
nvictio
n w
as that “if th
is book w
ere not
written
, it would
have to
be in
vented
.” Zizek
may even
be righ
t there.
Did
n’t Nietzsch
e say that th
inkin
g is always u
ntim
ely?W
hat is excitin
g, actually, in
Empire, is th
e questio
n it im
plicitly raises
by glo
balizin
g the m
ultitu
de, n
ot th
e assum
ptio
n th
at it is “the p
roductive
force th
at sustain
s Em
pire an
d calls fo
r and m
akes necessary its d
estruc-
tion.” T
his w
ar is purely m
ythical, an
d so
is the d
estructio
n o
f capital.
That’s w
hy th
eir confro
ntatio
n q
uickly takes o
n an
allegorical d
imen
sion, a
war b
etween
two prin
ciples. The m
ultitu
de b
eing as im
material as th
e work
it pro
duces, it is d
ressed, H
ardt an
d N
egri write, “in
simplicity, an
d also
innocen
ce.” It is pro
phetic an
d p
roductive, an
“abso
lutely p
ositive fo
rce”cap
able o
f bein
g chan
ged “in
to an
abso
lute d
emocratic p
ower.” E
ven its w
illto
destru
ction would
even
tually
beco
me
“love an
d co
mm
unity.”
Evil
Em
pire, o
n th
e oth
er han
d, th
e con-en
emy, is ju
st an “em
pty sh
ell,” a giant
16
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
with
clay-feet, vicious, ab
usive, co
ntro
lling, a p
redato
r always en
gaged in
“an o
peratio
n o
f abso
lute vio
lence” (p
rincip
les are necessarily absolu
te).Im
perial co
mm
and is n
oth
ing b
ut an
“abstract an
d em
pty u
nificatio
n,” a
“parasitical m
achin
e” that o
nly lives o
ff the vitality o
f the m
ultitu
de an
dco
nstitu
tes “the n
egative residue, th
e fallback” o
f its operatio
n. “A
parasite
that sap
s the stren
gth o
f its host, h
owever, can
endan
ger its own existen
ce.The
functio
nin
g of
imperial
pow
er,” H
ardt
and N
egri co
nclu
de,
“isin
eluctab
ly linked
to its d
ecline.”
10W
hy call fo
r a counter-p
ower th
en?
Becau
se Histo
ry can’t wait. T
here is a q
uestio
n th
at keeps co
min
g up
again an
d again
thro
ugh
out N
egri’s writin
gs, and it is th
e irreducib
ility of
the m
om
ent o
f decisio
n. A
lthough
he p
ays lip service to
the trad
ition o
f“vitalist m
aterialism”—
Nietzsch
e, Bergso
n, D
eleuze—
the “w
ill to p
ower”
or th
e “élan vital” o
bvio
usly aren’t en
ough
for a lu
sty Len
inist. T
hese alw
aysru
n th
e risk, he w
rites, of “gettin
g caugh
t in th
e sophism
s of th
e bad
infi-
nite: an
infin
ite that d
ilutes th
e inten
sity of th
e decisio
n…
”11W
ithout a
telos, a b
ig narrative, a d
ecision w
ould
mean
noth
ing an
yway. E
mpire
invo
lves an o
riginal kin
d o
f class struggle:
a struggle lookin
g for a class. For
Virn
o it w
ould
be ju
st the reverse: a class lo
okin
g for a stru
ggle. But H
ardt
and N
egri already kn
ow w
hat kin
d o
f class they are lo
okin
g for. T
heir real
purp
ose is to
jum
p-start th
e revolu
tionary m
achin
e. They q
uote Sp
inoza:
“The p
rophet p
roduces its ow
n p
eople.” T
hey w
ant to
pro
duce th
eir own
multitu
de, b
ut th
ey are not exactly su
re it will w
ork. T
hey even
adm
it itcan
did
ly: “It is not at all clear th
at this p
rophetic fu
nctio
n can
effectivelyad
dress o
ur p
olitical n
eeds an
d su
stain a m
anifesto
of th
e postm
odern
rev-olu
tion again
st Em
pire...”
12
A postm
odernrevo
lutio
n, n
o less. T
he class
struggle w
as postm
odern
too.
Virn
o d
oesn’t h
ave any telo
s up h
is sleeve, no read
y-mad
e pro
gram fo
rth
e multitu
de—
certainly n
ot co
min
g out “th
e oth
er side.” It’s b
een tried
befo
re, did
n’t turn
out so
well. W
hy sh
ould
a “postm
odern
revolu
tion” b
ean
y differen
t? Anyo
ne w
ho cares fo
r the m
ultitu
de sh
ould
first figure o
ut
what it is ab
out an
d w
hat co
uld
be exp
ected fro
m it, n
ot d
erive its mode o
fbein
g from
som
e revolu
tionary essen
ce. The u
ltimate go
al of V
irno’s in
ven-
tive in
vento
ry is
“rescuin
g political
action
from
its
curren
tparalysis.”E
mpire
is trying th
at too, b
ut a straw
fight w
on’t d
o—
The M
ul-
titude Strikes B
ack…
Virn
o m
ay be o
nto
som
ethin
g when
he su
ggests that P
ost-F
ord
ism is
“the co
mm
unism
of cap
ital.” It doesn’t say th
at there is n
o m
ore figh
ts insigh
t, th
at post-F
ord
ism bro
ugh
t us
“com
munism
.” Figh
ts sh
ould
be
expected
, but n
ot a w
ar that w
ould
allegedly d
estroy the en
emy. A
combat
rather, m
eant to
strength
en so
me fo
rces presen
t in cap
ital, and jo
in th
em
17
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
with
oth
er forces in
ord
er to fo
rm a n
ew co
mm
unist en
semble. T
his is w
hat
Virn
o h
as been
attemptin
g to p
rovide: th
e descrip
tion o
f a com
bat, a car-
tograp
hy
of
virtualities
mad
e possib
le by
post-F
ord
ism,
elemen
ts in
contem
porary life th
at could
eventu
ally be m
obilized
. The p
roblem
is not
to d
estroy capital o
r Em
pire—
destroy, th
ey say—but b
olster o
ne’s ow
npow
er. What is a b
ody capable of?
“The co
mm
unism
of cap
ital”: there is as m
uch
com
munism
in cap
italas capital is capable of
too: ab
olitio
n o
f work, d
issolu
tion o
f the state, etc.
But co
mm
unism
in an
y shap
e or fo
rm w
ould
require eq
uality, an
d th
is,cap
ital is incap
able o
f provid
ing. P
ost-F
ord
ism th
erefore can
only satisfy th
edem
ands
of a virtu
al com
munism
. A co
mm
unality o
f generalized
intellect
with
out m
aterial equality. H
ow “co
mm
unistic” can
that b
e? And can
this
virtualco
mm
unism
be en
ough
to tu
rn su
bjected
“peo
ple” in
to a freer “m
ul-
titude”? T
his is w
hat E
mpire is claim
ing to
achieve, b
ut th
e multitu
de isn’t
exactly thrivin
g beyo
nd th
e First W
orld
, or b
elow. In
under-d
evelopin
gco
untries th
e new
labor class is fin
din
g freedom
thro
ugh
upro
otin
g and
over-explo
itation. In
equalities everyw
here are grow
ing exp
onen
tially, and
so is cyn
icism, n
ot esp
ecially of th
e creative kind.
This is n
o reaso
n fo
r disen
chan
tmen
t. One o
f the virtu
es of A
uto
nom
iais th
at it was n
ever afraid o
f claimin
g out lo
ud: “W
e are the fro
nt o
f luxu
-ry.” A
t the tim
e the exp
loited
pro
letariat was still co
nsid
ered to
be th
erep
osito
ry of revo
lutio
nary w
isdom
. But o
nly th
ose w
ho are free fro
m slav-
ery can d
are imagin
e what b
eing really free w
ould
be. T
his is w
hat th
eItalian
s were tryin
g to exp
erimen
t with
befo
re Auto
nom
ia was “d
efeated,”
and th
at’s what th
ey are explo
ring again
today th
rough
a lively intellectu
aldeb
ate. The id
ea of a m
ultitu
de is p
art of th
is on-go
ing p
roject. It is a lu
x-ury th
at we sh
ould
be ab
le to affo
rd: th
e luxu
ry of im
aginin
g a futu
re that
would
actively brin
g togeth
er everythin
g we are cap
able o
f. These virtu
ali-ties are p
resent w
ithin
capital in
ambivalen
t and reversib
le features th
at areju
st waitin
g to b
e liberated
. Imm
aterial workers are m
obile an
d d
etached
,ad
aptab
le, curio
us, o
pportu
nistic an
d cyn
ical, also tow
ard in
stitutio
ns; th
eyare in
ventive an
d sh
are know
ledge th
rough
com
municatio
n an
d lan
guage;
they
are m
ostly
de-p
oliticized
, also
diso
bed
ient.
The
multitu
de
is an
“amphib
ious” catego
ry that can
veer toward
“opposin
g develo
pm
ents,” o
rco
me to
noth
ing, so
a com
bat is co
nstan
tly raging—
not w
ith E
mpire, w
ith-in itself. A
com
bat th
at first “defin
es the co
mpositio
n o
f forces in
the
com
batan
t,”13not its victo
ry over an exterio
r enem
y. C
apital affo
rds u
s to p
roject ah
ead, w
ork it fro
m w
ithin
, know
ing all
too w
ell that it w
ill be q
uick to
instru
men
talize any creative m
ove, turn
ing
it into
bin
ary oppositio
ns, h
owever rad
ical thay claim
to b
e, proven
recipes
18
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
that failed
repeated
ly because they have becom
e inadequ
ate to think the com
-plexity of the con
temporary reality. T
he p
aradoxical p
ositio
ns au
tonom
istshave assu
med
in relatio
n to
work, o
r the strategic em
brace o
f Em
pire b
yH
ard an
d N
egri, are part o
f a luxu
ry of th
inkin
g ahead
, unim
ped
ed, w
hich
has b
ecom
e such
a precio
us co
mm
odity in
a world
squeezed
betw
een m
edi-
ocrity an
d self-satisfied
gloom
. So n
o o
ne co
uld
repro
ach th
em fo
r thin
king
that, o
nly fo
r not thin
king en
ough, fallin
g back to
o so
on o
n th
e quick revo
-lu
tionary fix th
at will p
lease everyone an
d ju
st reinfo
rce a cozy feelin
g of
pow
erlessness.
Cap
ital doesn’t h
ave to b
e “destroyed
.” It is self-destru
ctive enough
, but
not th
e way H
ardt an
d N
egri imagin
ed it. B
ecause it n
ever stops p
rovokin
gresistan
ce to its ow
n ru
le.“It is doubtfu
l that th
e joys of cap
italism are
enough
to lib
erate the p
eople,” D
eleuze w
rote in
1991.14“T
hose w
ho keep
invo
king th
e blo
ody failu
re of so
cialism d
on’t seem
to co
nsid
er as a failure
the p
resent state o
f the glo
bal cap
italist market, w
ith th
e blo
ody in
equali-
ties it invo
lves, the p
opulatio
ns p
ush
ed o
ff the m
arket, etc. It’s been
a long
time sin
ce the A
merican
‘revolu
tion’ h
as failed, even
befo
re the Soviet’s d
id.
The situ
ations an
d revo
lutio
nary attem
pts are gen
erated b
y capitalism
itselfan
d th
ey are not go
ing to
disap
pear.” C
apitalism
itself is revolu
tionary
becau
se it keeps fo
men
ting in
equality an
d p
rovokin
g unrest. It also
keeps
provid
ing its ow
n kin
d o
f “com
munism
” both
as a vaccine, p
reventin
g fur-
ther escalatio
n, an
d an
incen
tive to go
beyo
nd its ow
n lim
itations. T
he
multitu
de resp
onds to
both
and can
go eith
er way, ab
sorb
ing th
e shocks o
rm
ultip
lying th
e fractures th
at will o
ccur in
unpred
ictable w
ays. A sp
ecter hau
nts th
e world
and it is th
e specter o
f capital…
—Sylvère L
otrin
ger
——
—1. Sim
one W
eil, Oppression
and L
iberty. Am
herst: T
he U
niversity o
f Massach
ussets P
ress,1958, p
. 56
2. In
Karl M
arx, Capital
I, “The m
odern
theo
ry of co
lonizatio
n.”
3. C
f. Sergio B
olo
gna, “T
he T
ribe o
f Moles,” in
Italy: Auton
omia. P
ost-Political P
olitics. New
York
: Semiotext(e), III, 3
, 1980, p
p. 3
6-6
1. E
dited
by Sylvère L
otrin
ger and C
hristian
Marazzi.
4. C
f. Bifo
, “Anato
my o
f Auto
nom
y,” in Italy:
Auton
omia, o
p. cit., p
p. 1
48-1
70.
5. See M
ario T
ronti, “T
he Strategy o
f refusal,” in
Italy: Auton
omia, op. cit., p
p. 2
8-3
5.
6. M
ichael H
ardt an
d A
nto
nio
Negri, E
mpire. C
ambrid
ge, Mass.: H
arvard U
niversity P
ress,2000, p
. 268.
19
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
7. Empire, op. cit., p
. 218.
8. See C
hristian
Marazzi, “D
enaro
e Guerra.” [M
oney an
d W
ar]. In A
ndrea F
um
agalli,C
hristian
Marazzi &
Adelin
o Z
anin
i, La M
oneta n
ell Impero. V
erona: O
mbre C
orte, 2
003.
The crash
of th
e new
econom
y signals th
e resistance o
f the m
ultitu
de to
the fin
ancializa-
tion o
f the gen
eral intellect. A
lso B
reit Nelso
n, “T
he M
arket an
d th
e Police: F
inan
ceC
apital in
the P
erman
ent G
lobal W
ar.” (Unpublish
ed.)
9. Empire, op. cit., p
p. 4
03-4
.
10. Empire, op. cit., p
p. 4
13, 3
44, 3
61, 6
3, 3
61.
11. A
nto
nio
Negri, K
airos, Alma V
enus, M
ultitu
de. Paris: C
alman
n L
evy, 2000, p
. 194.
12. Empire, op.cit., p
. 63.
13. O
n “w
ar”and “co
mbat,” see G
illes Deleu
ze, Critical an
d Clinical. M
inneap
olis:
University o
f Min
neso
ta Press, 1
997, p
. 132.
14. G
illes Deleu
ze and F
élix Guattari, “N
ous avo
ns in
venté la rito
urn
elle” [We h
ave inven
t-ed
the refrain
],Le N
ouvel O
bservateur, Sep
tember 1
991. In
Gilles D
eleuze, T
wo R
egimes of
Madn
ess. New
York
: Semio
text(e), 1974. (F
orth
com
ing.)
INTRODUCTION
21
Peo
ple vs. M
ultitu
de: H
obbes an
d Spinoza
I main
tain th
at the co
ncep
t of “m
ultitu
de,” as o
pposed
to th
e more fam
il-iar co
ncep
t of “p
eople,” is a cru
cial tool fo
r every careful an
alysis of th
eco
ntem
porary p
ublic sp
here. O
ne m
ust k
eep in
min
d th
at the ch
oice
betw
een “p
eople” an
d “m
ultitu
de” w
as at the h
eart of th
e practical co
ntro
-versies (th
e establish
ing o
f centralized
modern
States, religious w
ars, etc.)an
d o
f the th
eoretical-p
hilo
sophical co
ntroversies o
f the seven
teenth
cen-
tury. T
hese tw
o co
mpetin
g concep
ts, forged
in th
e fires of in
tense clash
es,played
a prim
ary role in
the d
efinitio
n o
f the p
olitical-so
cial categories o
fth
e m
odern
era.
It w
as th
e notio
n of
“peo
ple”
which
prevailed
.“M
ultitu
de” is th
e losin
g term, th
e concep
t which
got th
e worst o
f it. Indescrib
ing th
e form
s of asso
ciative life and o
f the p
ublic sp
irit of th
e new
lyco
nstitu
ted great States, o
ne n
o lo
nger sp
oke o
f multitu
de, b
ut o
f peo
ple.
But w
e need
to ask
wheth
er, today, at th
e end o
f a long cycle, th
e old
dis-
pute h
as not b
een o
pen
ed u
p o
nce again
; wheth
er, today, n
ow
that th
epolitical th
eory o
f the m
odern
era is goin
g thro
ugh
a radical crisis, th
isonce d
efeated n
otio
n is n
ot d
isplayin
g extraord
inary vitality, th
us tak
ing
its dram
atic revenge.
The tw
o p
olarities, p
eople an
d m
ultitu
de, h
ave Hobbes an
d Sp
inoza as
their p
utative fath
ers. For Sp
inoza, th
e multitu
doin
dicates a plu
ralitywhich persists as su
chin
the p
ublic scen
e, in co
llective action, in
the h
an-
dlin
g of
com
munal
affairs, with
out
convergin
g in
to a
One,
with
out
evaporatin
g with
in a cen
tripetal fo
rm o
f motio
n. M
ultitu
de is th
e form
of
social an
d p
olitical existen
ce for th
e man
y, seen as b
eing m
any: a p
erma-
nen
t form
, not an
episo
dic o
r interstitial fo
rm. F
or Sp
inoza, th
e multitu
dois th
e architrave o
f civil liberties (Sp
inoza, T
ractatus Politicu
s).
22
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
Hobbes detests—
and I am
usin
g here, after d
ue co
nsid
eration, a p
as-sio
nate, n
ot very scien
tific word
—th
e multitu
de; h
e rages against it. In
the
social an
d p
olitical existen
ce of th
e man
y, seen as b
eing m
any, in
the p
lu-
rality which
does n
ot co
nverge in
to a syn
thetic u
nity, h
e sees the greatest
dan
ger of a “su
prem
e empire”; th
at is to say, fo
r that m
onopoly of political
decision-makin
gwhich
is the State. T
he b
est way to
understan
d th
e signif-
icance o
f a concep
t—m
ultitu
de, in
this case—
is to exam
ine it w
ith th
eeyes o
f one w
ho h
as fough
t it tenacio
usly. T
he p
erson w
ho grasp
s all the
implicatio
ns an
d th
e nuan
ces of a co
ncep
t is precisely th
e one w
ho w
ishes
to exp
unge it fro
m th
e theo
retical and p
ractical horizo
n.
Before givin
g a brief exp
lanation
of the w
ay in w
hich
Hob
bes p
ortrays the
detested
multitu
de, it is good
to determ
ine exactly th
e goal bein
g pursu
edhere. I w
ish to sh
ow th
at the category of th
e multitu
de (p
recisely as it is treat-ed
by
its sw
orn en
emy,
Hob
bes)
help
s to
explain
a
certain num
ber
ofcon
temporary social b
ehaviors. A
fter the cen
turies of th
e “peop
le” and th
enth
ose of the State (n
ation-State, cen
tralized State, etc.), th
e opposin
g polarity
return
s at last to man
ifest itself, havin
g been
annulled
at the d
awnin
g of the
mod
ern era. M
ultitu
de seen
as the last cry of social, p
olitical and p
hilosop
hi-
cal theory? Perh
aps. A
n en
tire gamut of con
siderab
le phen
omen
a—lin
guistic
games, form
s of life, ethical in
clination
s, salient ch
aracteristics of prod
uction
in tod
ay’s world
—will en
d u
p to b
e only sligh
tly, or not at all, com
preh
ensi-
ble, u
nless u
nderstood
as originatin
g from th
e mod
e of bein
g of the m
any. To
investigate th
is mod
e of bein
g, one m
ust h
ave recourse to a rath
er varied kin
dof con
ceptu
al orchestration
: anth
ropology, p
hilosop
hy of lan
guage, criticism
of political econ
omics, eth
ics. One m
ust circu
mnavigate th
e multitu
de-con
ti-nen
t, chan
ging frequ
ently th
e angle of p
erspective.
This h
aving b
een said
, let us lo
ok b
riefly at the w
ay in w
hich
Hobbes
delin
eates, in h
is role as p
erspicacio
us ad
versary, the m
ode o
f bein
g of th
e“m
any.” F
or H
obbes, th
e decisive p
olitical clash
is the o
ne w
hich
takes
place b
etween
multitu
de an
d p
eople. T
he m
odern
public sp
here can
have
as its barycen
ter eitherone or th
e oth
er. Civil w
ar, always th
reatenin
g, has
its logical fo
rm in
this altern
ative. The co
ncep
t of p
eople, acco
rdin
g toH
obbes, is strictly co
rrelated to
the existen
ce of th
e State; furth
ermore, it
is a reverberatio
n, a reflectio
n o
f the State: if th
ere is a State, then
there are
peo
ple. In
the ab
sence o
f the State, th
ere are no p
eople. In
the D
e Cive, in
which
the h
orro
r of th
e multitu
de is exp
osed
far and w
ide, w
e read: “T
he
People
is som
ewhat th
at is one, h
aving on
e will, an
d to
whom
one actio
nm
ay be attrib
uted
” (Hobbes, D
e Cive, C
hap
. XII, sectio
n V
III).The m
ultitu
de, fo
r Hobbes, is in
heren
t in th
e “state of n
ature;” th
ere-fo
re, it is inheren
t in th
at which
preced
es the “b
ody p
olitic.” B
ut rem
ote
23
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
histo
ry can re-em
erge, like a “rep
ressed exp
erience” w
hich
return
s to vali-
date itself, in
the crises w
hich
som
etimes sh
ake state sovereign
ty. Befo
reth
e State, there w
ere the m
any; after th
e establish
men
t of th
e State, there
is the O
ne-p
eople, en
dow
ed w
ith a sin
gle will. T
he m
ultitu
de, acco
rdin
gto
Hobbes, sh
uns p
olitical u
nity, resists au
thority, d
oes n
ot en
ter into
last-in
g agreemen
ts, never attain
s the statu
sof ju
ridical p
erson b
ecause it n
evertran
sfers its own n
atural righ
ts to th
e sovereign. T
he m
ultitu
de in
hib
itsth
is “transfer” b
y its very mode o
f bein
g (thro
ugh
its plu
ral character) an
dby its m
ode o
f beh
aving. H
obbes, w
ho w
as a great writer, em
phasizes w
ithad
mirab
le refinem
ent, h
ow th
e multitu
de is an
ti-state, but, p
recisely for
this reaso
n, an
ti-peo
ple: “th
e People, stirrin
g up th
e Citizen
s against th
eCity, th
at is to say, th
e Multitu
deagain
st the P
eople” (Hobbes, ib
id.). T
he
contrast b
etween
the tw
o co
ncep
ts is carried h
ere to fu
ll range: if th
ere arepeo
ple, th
ere is no m
ultitu
de; if th
ere is a multitu
de, th
ere are no p
eople.
For H
obbes an
d fo
r the seven
teenth
centu
ry apolo
gists for state sovereign
-ty, m
ultitu
de is a p
urely n
egative bord
erline co
ncep
t; that is to
say, it isid
entified
with
the risk
s which
weigh
upon staten
ess; it is the d
ebris w
hich
can so
metim
es jam th
e “big m
achin
e.” It is a negative co
ncep
t this m
ulti-
tude: it is th
at which
did
not m
ake itself fit to
beco
me p
eople, in
as much
as it virtually co
ntrad
icts the state m
onopoly o
f political d
ecision m
akin
g;in
brief, it is a regu
rgitation o
f the “state o
f natu
re” in civil so
ciety.
Exo
rcized plurality: th
e “private” an
d th
e “individ
ual”
How
has th
e multitu
de su
rvived th
e creation o
f the cen
tralized States?
Thro
ugh
what co
ncealed
and feeb
le form
s has it m
ade itself k
now
n after
the fu
ll affirmatio
n o
f the m
odern
concep
t of sovereign
ty? Where is its
echo h
eard? Stylizin
g the q
uestio
n to
the extrem
e, let us try to
iden
tify the
ways in
which
the m
any, seen
as bein
g many, h
ave been
understo
od in
lib-
eral though
t and in
dem
ocratic-so
cialist though
t (thus, in
political trad
i-tio
ns w
hich
have h
ad th
eir indisp
utab
le poin
t of referen
ce in th
e unity o
fth
e peo
ple).
In lib
eral though
t, the u
neasin
ess provo
ked
by th
e “man
y” is toned
dow
n b
y mean
s of h
aving reco
urse to
the p
airing o
f the term
s public-p
ri-vate. T
he m
ultitu
de, w
hich
is the p
olar o
pposite o
f the p
eople, tak
es on
the sligh
tly ghostly an
d m
ortifyin
g features o
f the so
-called private. In
ci-den
tally, even th
e public-p
rivate dyad
itself, befo
re beco
min
g som
ethin
gin
disp
utab
le, had
been
forged
thro
ugh
tears and b
lood d
urin
g a thousan
dth
eoretical an
d p
ractical disp
utes; it is m
aintain
ed, th
erefore, b
y a com
plex
set of co
nseq
uen
ces. What co
uld
be m
ore n
orm
al for u
s than
to sp
eak o
f
24
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
public exp
erience an
d o
f private exp
erience? B
ut th
is bifu
rcation w
as not
always tak
en fo
r granted
. The lack
of in
disp
utab
ility is interestin
g becau
se,to
day, w
e are perh
aps livin
g in a n
ew seven
teenth
centu
ry, or in
an age in
which
the o
ld catego
ries are falling ap
art and w
e need
to co
in n
ew o
nes.
Man
y co
ncep
ts which
still
seem extravagan
t an
d unusu
al to
us—
the
notio
n o
f non-rep
resentative d
emocracy, fo
r example—
are perh
aps alread
yten
din
g to d
rum
up a n
ew k
ind o
f com
mon sen
se, in o
rder to
aspire, in
turn
, to b
ecom
e “obvio
us.” B
ut let u
s return
to th
e poin
t. “Private” sign
i-fies n
ot o
nly so
meth
ing p
ersonal, n
ot o
nly so
meth
ing w
hich
concern
s the
inner life o
f this p
erson o
r that; p
rivate signifies, ab
ove all, deprived of:dep
rived o
f a voice, d
eprived
of a p
ublic p
resence. In
liberal th
ough
t, the
multitu
de su
rvives as a private d
imen
sion. T
he m
any are ap
hasic an
d far
removed
from
the sp
here o
f com
mon affairs.
In d
emocratic-so
cialist though
t, where is it th
at we fin
d an
echo o
f the
archaic m
ultitu
de? P
erhap
s in th
e pairin
g of th
e terms co
llective-individ
-ual.
Or,
better
yet, in
th
e seco
nd of
these
terms,
in th
e in
divid
ual
dim
ensio
n. T
he p
eople are th
e collective; th
e multitu
de is co
ncealed
by th
epresu
med
impoten
ce, as well as b
y the im
moderate u
neasin
ess, of sin
glein
divid
uals. T
he in
divid
ual is th
e irrelevant rem
ainder o
f divisio
ns an
dm
ultip
lications w
hich
are carried o
ut so
mew
here far fro
m th
e individ
ual.
In term
s of w
hat can
be called
individ
ual in
the strictest sen
se, the in
di-
vidual seem
s indescrib
able. Ju
st as the m
ultitu
de is in
describ
able w
ithin
the d
emocratic-so
cialist traditio
n.
At th
is poin
t I should
speak
in ad
vance o
f an o
pin
ion w
hich
will
appear o
n several o
ccasions in
what I w
ill have to
say later. I believe th
atin
today’s fo
rms o
f life one h
as a direct p
erceptio
n o
f the fact th
at the co
u-
plin
g of th
e terms p
ublic-p
rivate, as well as th
e couplin
g of th
e terms
collective-in
divid
ual, can
no lo
nger stan
d u
p o
n th
eir own, th
at they are
gaspin
g for air, b
urn
ing th
emselves o
ut. T
his is ju
st like w
hat is h
appen
ing
in th
e world
of co
ntem
porary p
roductio
n, p
rovided
that p
roductio
n—
load
ed as it is w
ith ethos, cu
lture, lin
guistic in
teraction—
not give itself
over to eco
nom
etric analysis, b
ut rath
er be u
ndersto
od as a b
road
-based
experien
ce of th
e world
. That w
hich
was rigid
ly subdivid
ed n
ow b
lends
togeth
er and is su
perim
posed
upon itself. It is d
ifficult to
say where co
l-lective exp
erience en
ds an
d in
divid
ual exp
erience b
egins. It is d
ifficult to
separate p
ublic exp
erience fro
m so
-called p
rivate experien
ce. In th
is blu
r-rin
g of b
ord
ers, even th
e two catego
ries of citizen
and o
f producer
fail us;
or th
ey beco
me o
nly sligh
tly dep
endab
le as categories, even
though
they
were so
importan
t in R
ousseau
, Smith
, Hegel, an
d even
in M
arx him
self(th
ough
bein
g noth
ing m
ore th
an a p
olem
ical butt).
25
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
The co
ntem
porary m
ultitu
de is co
mposed
neith
er of “citizen
s” nor o
f“p
roducers;” it o
ccupies a m
iddle regio
n b
etween
“individ
ual an
d co
llec-tive;”
for
the
multitu
de,
then
, th
e distin
ction betw
een “p
ublic”
and
“private” is in
no w
ay validated
. And it is p
recisely becau
se of th
e disso
lu-
tion o
f the co
uplin
g of th
ese terms, fo
r so lo
ng h
eld to
be o
bvio
us, th
atone can
no lo
nger sp
eak o
f a peopleco
nvergin
g into
the u
nity o
f the state.
While o
ne d
oes n
ot w
ish to
sing o
ut-o
f-tune m
elodies in
the p
ost-m
odern
style (“multip
licity is good, u
nity is th
e disaster to
bew
are of”), it is n
ec-essary, h
owever, to
recogn
ize that th
e multitu
de d
oes n
ot clash
with
the
One; rath
er, it redefin
es it. Even
the m
any n
eed a fo
rm o
f unity, o
f bein
ga O
ne. B
ut h
ere is the p
oin
t: this u
nity is n
o lo
nger th
e State; rather, it is
langu
age, intellect, th
e com
munal facu
lties of th
e hum
an race. T
he O
ne is
no lo
nger a prom
ise, it is a premise. U
nity is n
o lo
nger so
meth
ing (th
e State,th
e sovereign) tow
ards w
hich
thin
gs converge, as in
the case o
f the p
eople;
rather, it is tak
en fo
r granted
, as a back
ground o
r a necessary p
reconditio
n.
The m
any m
ust b
e though
t of as th
e individ
ualizatio
n o
f the u
niversal, o
fth
e generic, o
f the sh
ared exp
erience. T
hus, in
a symm
etric man
ner, w
em
ust co
nceive o
f a One w
hich
, far from
bein
g som
ethin
g conclu
sive,m
ight b
e though
t of as th
e base w
hich
auth
orizes d
ifferentiatio
n o
r which
allows fo
r the p
olitical-so
cial existence o
f the m
any
seen as b
eing m
any. I
say this o
nly in
ord
er to em
phasize th
at presen
t-day reflectio
n o
n th
e cat-ego
ry of
multitu
de
does
not
allow fo
r rap
turo
us
simplificatio
ns
or
superficial
abbreviatio
ns;
instead
, su
ch reflectio
n m
ust
confro
nt
som
eharsh
pro
blem
s: above all th
e logical p
roblem
(which
need
s to b
e refor-
mulated
, not rem
oved) o
f the relatio
nsh
ip o
f One/M
any.
Three ap
proach
es to th
e Man
y
The co
ncrete d
efinitio
ns o
f the co
ntem
porary m
ultitu
de can
be p
laced in
focu
s thro
ugh
the d
evelopm
ent o
f three th
ematic u
nits. T
he first o
f these
is very Hobbesian
: the d
ialectic betw
een fear an
d th
e search fo
r security. It
is clear that even
the co
ncep
t of “p
eople” (in
its seventeen
th cen
tury artic-
ulatio
ns, eith
er liberal o
r dem
ocratic-so
cialist) is centered
around certain
strategies develo
ped
to fo
il dan
ger and to
obtain
pro
tection. I w
ill main
-tain
(in to
day’s p
resentatio
n) th
at on th
e empirical an
d co
ncep
tual levels,
the fo
rms o
f fear have failed
, togeth
er with
the co
rrespondin
g types o
frefu
ge to w
hich
the n
otio
n o
f “peo
ple” h
as been
connected
. What p
revailsin
stead is a d
ialectic of d
read-refu
ge which
is quite d
ifferent: o
ne w
hich
defin
es several characteristic traits o
f today’s m
ultitu
de. F
ear-security: th
isis th
e grid o
r litmus p
aper w
hich
is philo
sophically an
d so
ciolo
gically rel-
26
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
evant in
ord
er to sh
ow h
ow th
e figure o
f the m
ultitu
de is n
ot all “p
eaches,
cream an
d h
oney,” in
ord
er to id
entify w
hat sp
ecific poiso
ns are lu
rkin
g inth
is figure. T
he m
ultitu
de is a m
ode of being, th
e prevalen
t mode o
f bein
gto
day: b
ut, lik
e all modes o
f bein
g, it is ambivalen
t, or, w
e migh
t say, itco
ntain
s with
in itself b
oth
loss an
d salvatio
n, acq
uiescen
ce and co
nflict,
servility and freed
om
. The cru
cial poin
t, how
ever, is that th
ese alternative
possib
ilities have a p
eculiar p
hysio
gnom
y, differen
t from
the o
ne w
ithw
hich
they ap
peared
with
in th
e peo
ple/gen
eral-will/State clu
ster.The seco
nd th
eme, w
hich
I will d
eal with
in th
e next sem
inar, is th
erelatio
n b
etween
the co
ncep
t of m
ultitu
de an
d th
e crisis of th
e ancien
t tri-partitio
nin
g of h
um
an exp
erience in
to L
abor, P
olitics, T
hough
t. This h
asto
do w
ith a su
bdivisio
n p
roposed
by A
ristotle, th
en tak
en u
p again
in th
etw
entieth
centu
ry, above all b
y Han
nah
Aren
dt, an
d en
cysted u
ntil very
recently w
ithin
our n
otio
n o
f com
mon sen
se. This is a su
bdivisio
n w
hich
now
, how
ever, has fallen
apart.
The th
ird th
ematic u
nit co
nsists o
f sifting th
rough
several categories in
ord
er to b
e able to
say som
ethin
g about th
e subjectivity of the m
ultitu
de.Above all, I w
ill examin
e three o
f these catego
ries: the p
rincip
le of in
di-
viduatio
n, an
d th
e categories o
f idle talk
and cu
riosity. T
he first o
f these
categories is an
austere an
d w
rongly n
eglected m
etaphysical q
uestio
n: w
hat
is it that ren
ders an
individ
ual id
entity in
divid
ual? T
he o
ther tw
o cate-
gories, in
stead, h
ave to d
o w
ith d
aily life. It was H
eidegger w
ho co
nferred
the d
ignity o
f philo
sophical co
ncep
ts upon th
e categories o
f idle talk
and
curio
sity. Even
though
my argu
men
t will avail itself o
f certain p
ages of
Bein
g and T
ime, th
e man
ner in
which
I will sp
eak o
f these catego
ries issu
bstan
tially non-H
eideggerian
, or actu
ally anti-H
eideggerian
.
29
Forms ofDread and Refuge
Day One
31
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
Beyo
nd th
e couplin
g of th
e terms fear/an
guish
The d
ialectic of d
read an
d refu
ge lies at the cen
ter of th
e “Analytic o
f the
Sublim
e,” a section o
f the C
ritique of Ju
dgment(K
ant, B
ook II, P
art I).Acco
rdin
g to K
ant, w
hen
I observe a terrifyin
g snow
slide w
hile I m
yselfam
in safety, I am
filled w
ith a p
leasing sen
se of secu
rity mixed
togeth
er,how
ever, with
the h
eighten
ed p
erceptio
n o
f my ow
n h
elplessn
ess. Sublim
eis p
recisely the w
ord
for th
is twofo
ld feelin
g which
is partially co
ntrad
ic-to
ry. With
my startin
g poin
t bein
g the em
pirical p
rotectio
n w
hich
I have
ben
efited fro
m b
y chan
ce, I am m
ade to
ask m
yself what it is th
at could
guaran
tee an ab
solu
te and system
atic pro
tection fo
r my existen
ce. That is
to say, I ask
myself w
hat it is th
at migh
t keep
me safe, n
ot fro
m o
ne given
dan
ger or an
oth
er, but fro
m th
e risk in
heren
t in m
y very bein
g in th
isw
orld
. Where is it th
at one can
find u
nco
nditio
nal refu
ge? Kan
t answ
ers:in
the m
oral “I,” sin
ce it is precisely th
ere that o
ne fin
ds so
meth
ing o
f the
non-co
ntin
gent, o
r of th
e realm ab
ove the m
undan
e. The tran
scenden
tm
oral law
pro
tects my p
erson in
an absolu
tew
ay, since it p
laces the valu
ew
hich
is due to
it above fin
ite existence an
d its n
um
erous d
angers. T
he
feeling o
f the su
blim
e (or at least o
ne o
f its incarn
ations) co
nsists o
f tak-
ing th
e relief I feel for h
aving en
joyed a fo
rtuito
us p
lace of refu
ge and
transfo
rmin
g it into
a search fo
r the u
nco
nditio
nal secu
rity which
only th
em
oral “I” can
guaran
tee.I h
ave men
tioned
Kan
t for o
ne sp
ecific reason: b
ecause h
e offers a very
clear model o
f the w
orld
in w
hich
the d
ialectic of d
read/refu
ge has b
eenco
nceived
in th
e last two cen
turies. T
here is a sh
arp b
ifurcatio
n h
ere: on
one h
and, a p
articular d
anger (th
e snow
slide, th
e malevo
lent atten
tions o
fth
e Dep
artmen
t of th
e Interio
r, the lo
ss of o
ne’s jo
b, etc.); o
n th
e oth
er
32
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
han
d, th
ere is the ab
solu
te dan
ger connected
to o
ur very b
eing in
this
world
. Two fo
rms o
f pro
tection (an
d o
f security) co
rrespond to
these tw
ofo
rms o
f risk (and o
f dread
). In th
e presen
ce of a real d
isaster, there are co
n-
crete rem
edies
(for
example,
the
mountain
refu
ge when
th
e sn
owslid
eco
mes crash
ing d
own). A
bso
lute d
anger, in
stead, req
uires p
rotectio
n fro
m…
the w
orld
itself. But let u
s note th
at the “w
orld
” of th
e hum
an an
imal
can n
ot b
e put o
n th
e same level as th
e environ
mentof th
e non-h
um
an an
i-m
al, or rath
er, of th
e circum
scribed
habitatin
which
the latter an
imal fin
ds
its way aro
und p
erfectly well o
n th
e basis o
f specialized
instin
cts. There is
always so
meth
ing in
definite ab
out th
e world
; it is laden
with
contin
gencies
and su
rprises; it is a vital co
ntext w
hich
is never m
astered o
nce an
d fo
r all;fo
r this reaso
n, it is a so
urce o
f perm
anen
t insecu
rity. While relative d
an-
gers have a “first an
d last n
ame,” ab
solu
te dan
gerousn
ess has n
o exact face
and n
o u
nam
bigu
ous co
nten
t.The K
antian
distin
ction b
etween
the tw
o typ
es of risk an
d secu
rity isdraw
n out
in th
e distin
ction,
traced by
Heid
egger, betw
een fear
and
anguish. F
ear refers to a very sp
ecific fact, to th
e familiar sn
owslid
e or to
the
loss o
f one’s jo
b; an
guish
, instead
, has n
o clear cau
se which
sparks it o
ff. Inth
e pages o
f Heid
egger’s Bein
g and T
ime(H
eidegger, §
40) an
guish
is pro
-vo
ked purely
and sim
ply
by
our
bein
g exp
osed
to
th
e world
, by
the
uncertain
ty and in
decisio
n w
ith w
hich
our relatio
n to
this w
orld
man
ifestsitself. F
ear is always circu
mscrib
ed an
d n
ameab
le; angu
ish is u
biq
uito
us,
not co
nnected
to d
istinctive cau
ses; it can su
rvive in an
y given m
om
ent o
rsitu
ation. T
hese tw
o fo
rms o
f dread
(fear and an
guish
), and th
eir corre-
spondin
g antid
otes, len
d th
emselves to
a histo
rical-social an
alysis.The
distin
ction betw
een circu
mscrib
ed fear
and unsp
ecified fear
isoperative w
here th
ere are substan
tial com
munities co
nstitu
ting a ch
annel
which
is capab
le of d
irecting o
ur p
raxis and co
llective experien
ce. It is ach
annel m
ade o
f repetitive, an
d th
erefore co
mfo
rtable, u
sages and cu
stom
s,m
ade o
f a conso
lidated
ethos. Fear
situates itself in
side th
e com
munity,
insid
e its form
s of life an
d co
mm
unicatio
n. A
nguish, o
n th
e oth
er han
d,
makes its ap
pearan
ce when
it distan
ces itself from
the co
mm
unity to
which
it belo
ngs, fro
m its sh
ared h
abits, fro
m its w
ell-know
n “lin
guistic gam
es,”an
d th
en p
enetrates in
to th
e vast world
. Outsid
e of th
e com
munity, fear is
ubiq
uito
us, u
nfo
reseeable, co
nstan
t; in sh
ort, an
guish
-ridden
. The co
un-
terpart o
f fear is that secu
rity which
the co
mm
unity can
, in p
rincip
le,gu
arantee; th
e counterp
art of an
guish
(or o
f its show
ing itself to
the w
orld
as such
) is the sh
elter pro
cured
from
religious exp
erience.
So, the d
ividin
g line b
etween
fear and an
guish
, betw
een relative d
readan
d ab
solute d
read, is p
recisely what h
as failed. T
he con
cept of “p
eople,” even
33
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
with
its man
y historical variation
s, is closely bou
nd to th
e clear separation
betw
een a h
abitu
al “insid
e” and an
unkn
own an
d h
ostile “outsid
e.” The con
-cep
t of “multitu
de,” in
stead, h
inges u
pon
the en
din
g of such
a separation
.The d
istinction
betw
een fear an
d an
guish
, just like th
e one b
etween
relativesh
elter and ab
solute sh
elter, is groundless for at least th
ree reasons.
The first o
f these reaso
ns is th
at one can
not sp
eak reasonab
ly of su
b-
stantial co
mm
unities. In
today’s w
orld
, impulsive ch
anges d
o n
ot overtu
rntrad
itional an
d rep
etitive form
s of life; w
hat th
ey do is to
com
e betw
eenin
divid
uals w
ho b
y now
have go
tten u
sed to
no lo
nger h
aving fixed
cus-
tom
s, who h
ave gotten
used
to su
dden
chan
ge, who h
ave been
exposed
toth
e unusu
al and to
the u
nexp
ected. W
hat w
e have, th
en, at every m
om
ent
and n
o m
atter what, is a reality w
hich
is repeated
ly innovated
. It is there-
fore n
ot p
ossib
le to estab
lish an
actual d
istinctio
n b
etween
a stable “in
side”
and an
uncertain
and tellu
ric “outsid
e.” The p
erman
ent m
utab
ility of th
efo
rms o
f life, and th
e trainin
g need
ed fo
r confro
ntin
g the u
nch
ecked u
ncer-
tainty o
f life, lead u
s to a d
irect and co
ntin
uous relatio
n w
ith th
e world
assu
ch, w
ith th
e imprecise co
ntext o
f our existen
ce.W
hat w
e have, th
en, is a co
mplete overlap
pin
g of fear an
d an
guish
.If I lo
se my jo
b, o
f course I am
forced
to co
nfro
nt a w
ell defin
ed d
anger,
one w
hich
gives rise to a sp
ecific kind o
f dread
; but th
is real dan
ger isim
med
iately colo
red b
y an u
nid
entifiab
le angu
ish. It is fu
sed to
gether w
itha m
ore gen
eral diso
rientatio
n in
the p
resence o
f the w
orld
in w
hich
we live;
it is iden
tified w
ith th
e abso
lute in
security w
hich
lives in th
e hum
an an
i-m
al, in as m
uch
as the h
um
an an
imal is lackin
g in sp
ecialized in
stincts.
One m
ight say: fear is alw
ays angu
ish-rid
den
; circum
scribed
dan
ger always
makes u
s face the gen
eral risk of b
eing in
this w
orld
. If the su
bstan
tial com
-m
unities o
nce h
id o
r muffled
our relatio
nsh
ip w
ith th
e world
, then
their
disso
lutio
n n
ow clarifies th
is relationsh
ip fo
r us: th
e loss o
f one’s jo
b, o
r the
chan
ge which
alters the featu
res of th
e functio
ns o
f labor, o
r the lo
nelin
essof m
etropolitan
life—all th
ese aspects o
f our relatio
nsh
ip w
ith th
e world
assum
e man
y of th
e traits which
form
erly belo
nged
to th
e kind o
f terror
one feels o
utsid
e the w
alls of th
e com
munity. W
e would
need
to fin
d a n
ewterm
here, d
ifferent fro
m “fear” o
r “angu
ish,” a term
which
would
take the
fusio
n o
f these tw
o term
s into
account. W
hat co
mes to
min
d fo
r me is th
eterm
uncan
ny. B
ut it w
ould
take too m
uch
time h
ere to ju
stify the u
se of
this term
(Virn
o, M
ondan
ità: 65-7
).Let u
s move o
n to
the seco
nd critical ap
pro
ach. A
ccord
ing to
traditio
n-
al exp
lanatio
ns,
fear is
a public
feeling,
while
angu
ish pertain
s to
th
ein
divid
ual w
ho h
as been
isolated
by a fellow
hum
an b
eing. In
contrast to
fear (which
is provo
ked b
y a dan
ger pertain
ing virtu
ally to m
any m
embers
34
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
of th
e com
munity an
d w
hich
can b
e resisted w
ith th
e help
of o
thers), th
ean
guish
ed feelin
g of b
eing lo
st evades th
e public sp
here an
d is co
ncern
edonly w
ith th
e so-called
interio
r natu
re of th
e individ
ual. T
his typ
e of exp
la-natio
n h
as beco
me co
mpletely u
nreliab
le. For certain
reasons, in
fact, itm
ust b
e overturn
ed. T
oday, all fo
rms o
f life have th
e experien
ce of “n
ot feel-
ing at h
om
e,” which
, accord
ing to
Heid
egger, would
be th
e origin
of
angu
ish. T
hus, th
ere is noth
ing m
ore sh
ared an
d m
ore co
mm
on, an
d in
acertain
sense m
ore pu
blic, than
the feelin
g of “n
ot feelin
g at hom
e.” No o
ne
is less isolated
than
the p
erson w
ho feels th
e fearful p
ressure o
f the in
defi-
nite w
orld
. In o
ther w
ord
s, that feelin
g in w
hich
fear and an
guish
converge
is imm
ediately th
e concern
of many. O
ne co
uld
say, perh
aps, th
at “not feel-
ing at h
om
e” is in fact a d
istinctive trait o
f the co
ncep
t of th
e multitu
de,
while th
e separatio
n b
etween
the “in
side” an
d th
e “outsid
e,” betw
een fear
and an
guish
, is what earm
arked th
e Hobbesian
(and n
ot o
nly H
obbesian
)id
ea of p
eople. T
he p
eople are o
ne, b
ecause th
e substan
tial com
munity co
l-lab
orates in
ord
er to sed
ate the fears w
hich
sprin
g from
circum
scribed
dan
gers. The m
ultitu
de, in
stead, is u
nited
by th
e risk which
derives fro
m“n
ot feelin
g at hom
e,” from
bein
g exposed
om
nilaterally to
the w
orld
.N
ow let u
s consid
er the th
ird an
d last critical o
bservatio
n, p
erhap
s the
most rad
ical. It concern
s the sam
e dread
/refuge co
uplin
g. What is m
istak-en
in th
is couplin
g is the id
ea that w
e firstexp
erience a sen
se of d
read an
d,
only then
, we set o
urselves th
e task of p
rocu
ring a so
urce o
f refuge. T
hese
stimulu
s-response
or
cause-effect
models
are co
mpletely
out
of
place.
Rath
er, one sh
ould
believe th
at the o
riginal exp
erience w
ould
be th
at of
pro
curin
g som
e mean
s of refu
ge. Above all, w
e pro
tect ourselves; th
en,
when
we are in
tent o
n p
rotectin
g ourselves, w
e focu
s on id
entifyin
g the
dan
gers with
which
we m
ay have to
concern
ourselves. A
rnold
Geh
len u
sedto
say that su
rvival, for th
e hum
an an
imal, w
as an o
ppressive task, an
d th
atin
ord
er to co
nfro
nt th
is task we n
eed, ab
ove all, to m
itigate the d
isorien
-tatio
n w
hich
results fro
m th
e fact that w
e are not in
possessio
n o
f a fixed“en
vironm
ent” (G
ehlen
, Man: H
is Natu
re). With
in o
ne’s livin
g context,
this gro
pin
g attempt to
cope w
ith life is b
asic. Even
as we seek to
have a
sense o
f orien
tation w
hich
will allow
us to
pro
tect ourselves, w
e also p
er-ceive, o
ften in
retrosp
ect, various fo
rms o
f dan
ger.There is m
ore to
the sto
ry. Not o
nly d
oes d
anger d
efine itself startin
gwith
the o
riginal search
for refu
ge, but, an
d th
is is the tru
ly crucial p
oin
t,dan
ger man
ifests itself for th
e most p
art asa sp
ecific form
of refu
ge. If we
look carefu
lly, we see th
at dan
ger consists o
f a horrifyin
g strategy of salva-
tion (o
ne n
eed o
nly th
ink o
f the cu
lt of so
me eth
nic “en
clave”). The
dialectic b
etween
dan
ger and refu
ge is resolved
, in th
e end, in
the d
ialectic
35
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
betw
een altern
ative form
s of p
rotectio
n. In
contrast to
the sou
rces of refuge
to be fearedwe fin
d th
e second ran
k sources of refu
ge, those w
hich
are capa-
ble o
f serving as an
antid
ote to
the p
oiso
ns o
f the fo
rmer so
urces o
f refuge.
Fro
m th
e histo
rical and so
ciolo
gical poin
t of view
, it is not d
ifficult to
seeth
at evil expresses itself p
recisely as a horrib
le response to
the risk in
heren
tin
this w
orld
, as a dan
gerous search
for p
rotectio
n: w
e need
only th
ink
about th
e pro
pen
sity for en
trustin
g oneself to
a sovereign (eith
er in th
eflesh
, or o
ne o
f those o
peretta typ
es, it doesn’t m
atter), or ab
out th
e fever-ish
elbow
ing to
get to th
e top in
one’s career, o
r about xen
ophobia. W
eco
uld
also say: b
eing tru
ly angu
ish-rid
den
is just a certain
way o
f con-
frontin
g angu
ish. L
et me rep
eat: what is d
ecisive here is th
e choice b
etween
differen
t strategies of reassu
rance, th
e oppositio
n b
etween
extremely d
iffer-en
t form
s of refu
ge. For th
is reason, let m
e say in p
assing, it is fo
olish
either
to overlo
ok th
e them
e of secu
rity, or (an
d th
is is even m
ore fo
olish
) to b
ran-
dish
it with
out fu
rther q
ualificatio
n (n
ot reco
gnizin
g the tru
e dan
ger in th
isvery th
eme, o
r in certain
of its typ
es).The exp
erience o
f the co
ntem
porary (o
r, if your p
refer, of th
e post-
Ford
ist) multitu
de is p
rimarily ro
oted
in th
is modificatio
n o
f the d
ialecticof d
read-refu
ge. The m
any, in
as much
as they are m
any, are th
ose w
ho
share th
e feeling o
f “not feelin
g at hom
e” and w
ho, in
fact, place th
is expe-
rience at th
e center o
f their ow
n so
cial and p
olitical p
raxis. Furth
ermore, in
the m
ultitu
de’s m
ode o
f bein
g, one can
observe w
ith th
e nak
ed eye a co
n-
tinuous oscillation
betw
een differen
t, so
metim
es diam
etrically opposed
,strategies o
f reassuran
ce (an o
scillation w
hich
the p
eople, h
owever, d
o n
ot
understan
d, sin
ce they are an
integral p
art of th
e sovereign States).
Common places an
d “gen
eral intellect”
In o
rder to
have a b
etter understan
din
g of th
e contem
porary n
otio
n o
f mul-
titude, it w
ill be u
seful to
reflect more p
rofo
undly u
pon w
hich
essential
resources m
ight b
e the o
nes w
e can co
unt o
n fo
r pro
tection fro
m th
e dan
-gero
usn
ess of th
e world
. I pro
pose to
iden
tify these reso
urces b
y mean
s of
an A
ristotelian
concep
t, a lingu
istic concep
t (or, b
etter yet, one p
ertainin
gto
the art o
f rheto
ric): the “co
mm
on p
laces,” the topoi koin
oi.W
hen
we sp
eak to
day o
f “com
mon p
laces,” we m
ean, fo
r the m
ost
part, stereo
typical exp
ressions, b
y now
devo
id o
f any m
eanin
g, ban
alities,lifeless m
etaphors (“m
orn
ing is go
lden
-mouth
ed”), trite lin
guistic co
nven
-tio
ns.
Certain
ly th
is was
not
the
origin
al m
eanin
g of
the
expressio
n“co
mm
on p
laces.” For A
ristotle (R
hetoric, I, 2, 1
358a) th
e topoi koinoi
areth
e most gen
erally valid lo
gical and lin
guistic fo
rms o
f all of o
ur d
iscourse
36
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
(let us even
say, the sk
eletal structu
re of it); th
ey allow fo
r the existen
ce of
every individ
ual exp
ression w
e use an
d th
ey give structu
re to th
ese expres-
sions as w
ell. Such
“places” are com
mon
becau
se no o
ne can
do w
ithout
them
(from
the refin
ed o
rator to
the d
runkard
who m
um
bles w
ord
s hard
to u
nderstan
d, fro
m th
e busin
ess perso
n to
the p
olitician
). Aristo
tle poin
tsout th
ree of th
ese “places”: th
e connectio
n b
etween
more an
d less, th
eoppositio
n o
f opposites, an
d th
e category o
f recipro
city (“If I am h
erbro
ther, sh
e is my sister”).
These catego
ries, like every true skeletal stru
cture, n
ever appear as su
ch.
They are th
e woof o
f the “life o
f the m
ind,” b
ut th
ey are an incon
spicuous
woof. W
hat is it, th
en, th
at can actu
ally be seen
in th
e form
s of o
ur d
is-co
urse? T
he “sp
ecial places,” as A
ristotle calls th
em (topoi idioi). T
hese are
ways
of
saying
som
ethin
g—m
etaphors,
witticism
s, allo
cutio
ns,
etc.—which
are appro
priate in
one o
r anoth
er sphere o
f associative life. “Sp
ecialplaces” are w
ays of sayin
g/thin
king so
meth
ing w
hich
end u
p b
eing ap
pro
-priate at a lo
cal political p
arty head
quarters, o
r in ch
urch
, or in
a university
classroom
, or am
ong sp
orts fan
s of a certain
team. A
nd so
on. W
heth
er itbe th
e life of th
e city or its ethos
(shared
custo
ms), th
ese are articulated
by
mean
s of “sp
ecial places” w
hich
are differen
t from
one an
oth
er and o
ftenin
com
patib
le. A certain
expressio
n m
ight fu
nctio
n in
one situ
ation an
d n
ot
in an
oth
er; a certain typ
e of argu
men
tation m
ight su
cceed in
convin
cing
one au
dien
ce, but n
ot an
oth
er, etc.The tran
sform
ation w
ith w
hich
we m
ust co
me to
terms can
be su
m-
marized
in th
is way: in
today’s w
orld
, the “sp
ecial places” o
f disco
urse an
dof argu
men
tation are p
erishin
g and d
issolvin
g, while im
med
iate visibility is
bein
g gained
by th
e “com
mon p
laces,” or b
y generic lo
gical-lingu
istic form
swhich
establish
the p
attern fo
r all form
s of d
iscourse. T
his m
eans th
at inord
er to get a sen
se of o
rientatio
n in
the w
orld
and to
pro
tect ourselves
from
its dan
gers, we can
not rely o
n th
ose fo
rms o
f though
t, of reaso
nin
g,or o
f disco
urse w
hich
have th
eir nich
e in o
ne p
articular co
ntext o
r anoth
-er. T
he
clan of
sports
fans,
the
religious
com
munity,
the
bran
ch of
apolitical p
arty, the w
orkp
lace: all of th
ese “places” o
bvio
usly co
ntin
ue to
exist, but n
one o
f them
is sufficien
tly characterized
or ch
aracterizing as to
be ab
le to o
ffer us a w
ind ro
se, or a stan
dard
of o
rientatio
n, a tru
stworth
yco
mpass, a u
nity o
f specific cu
stom
s, of sp
ecific ways o
f saying/ th
inkin
gth
ings. E
verywhere, an
d in
every situatio
n, w
e speak/ th
ink in
the sam
eway, o
n th
e basis o
f logical-lin
guistic co
nstru
cts which
are as fundam
ental
as they are b
road
ly general. A
n eth
ical-rheto
rical topograp
hy is d
isappear-
ing. T
he “co
mm
on p
laces” (these in
adeq
uate p
rincip
les of th
e “life of th
em
ind”) are m
oving to
the fo
refront: th
e connectio
n b
etween
more an
d less,
37
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
the
oppositio
n of
opposites,
the
relationsh
ip of
recipro
city, etc. T
hese
“com
mon p
laces,” and th
ese alone, are w
hat exist in
terms o
f offerin
g us a
standard
of o
rientatio
n, an
d th
us, so
me so
rt of refu
ge from
the d
irection in
which
the w
orld
is goin
g.Bein
g no lo
nger in
consp
icuous, b
ut rath
er havin
g been
flung in
to th
efo
refront, th
e “com
mon p
laces” are the ap
otro
paic reso
urce o
f the co
ntem
-porary m
ultitu
de. T
hey ap
pear o
n th
e surface, like a to
olb
ox contain
ing
thin
gs which
are imm
ediately u
seful. W
hat else are th
ey, these “co
mm
on
places,” if n
ot th
e fundam
ental co
re of th
e “life of th
e min
d,” th
e epicen
terof th
at lingu
istic (in th
e strictest sense o
f the w
ord
) anim
al which
is the
hum
an an
imal?
Thus, w
e could
say that th
e “life of th
e min
d” b
ecom
es, in itself, pu
b-lic. W
e turn
to th
e most gen
eral categories in
ord
er to eq
uip
ourselves fo
rth
e most varied
specific situ
ations, n
o lo
nger h
aving at o
ur d
isposal an
y“sp
ecial” or secto
rial ethical-co
mm
unicative co
des. T
he feelin
g of n
ot-feel-
ing-at-h
om
e and th
e preem
inen
ce of th
e “com
mon p
laces” go h
and in
han
d. T
he in
tellect as such
, the p
ure in
tellect, beco
mes th
e concrete co
m-
pass w
herever th
e substan
tial com
munities fail, an
d w
e are always exp
osed
to th
e world
in its to
tality. The in
tellect, even in
its most rarefied
functio
ns,
is presen
ted as so
meth
ing com
mon
and co
nsp
icuous. T
he “co
mm
on p
laces”are n
o lo
nger an
unnoticed
backgro
und, th
ey are no lo
nger co
ncealed
by
the sp
ringin
g forth
of “sp
ecial places.” T
he “life o
f the m
ind” is th
e One
which
lies ben
eath th
e mode o
f bein
g of th
e multitu
de. L
et me rep
eat, and
I must in
sist upon th
is: the m
ovemen
t to th
e forefro
nt o
n th
e part o
f the
intellect as su
ch, th
e fact that th
e most gen
eral and ab
stract lingu
istic struc-
tures are b
ecom
ing in
strum
ents fo
r orien
ting o
ne’s ow
n co
nduct—
this
situatio
n, in
my o
pin
ion, is o
ne o
f the co
nditio
ns w
hich
defin
e the co
n-
temporary m
ultitu
de.
A sh
ort w
hile ago
I spoke o
f the “p
ublic in
tellect.” But th
e expressio
n“p
ublic in
tellect” contrad
icts a long trad
ition acco
rdin
g to w
hich
though
twould
be u
ndersto
od as a seclu
ded
and so
litary activity, one w
hich
separates
us fro
m o
ur p
eers, an in
terior actio
n, d
evoid
of visu
al man
ifestations, o
ut-
side o
f the h
andlin
g of h
um
an affairs. It seem
s that o
nly o
ne th
inker takes
exceptio
n to
this lo
ng trad
ition acco
rdin
g to w
hich
the “life o
f the m
ind”
is resistant to
publicn
ess; in several p
ages of M
arx we see th
e intellect b
eing
presen
ted as so
meth
ing exterio
r and co
llective, as a public go
od. In
the
“Fragm
ent o
n M
achin
es” of th
e Grundrisse, (N
oteb
ook V
II) Marx sp
eaks of
a general in
tellect: he u
ses these w
ord
s in E
nglish
to give em
phasis to
the
expressio
n, as th
ough
he w
anted
to p
lace them
in italics. T
he n
otio
n o
f“gen
eral intellect” can
derive fro
m several so
urces: p
erhap
s it is a polem
ical
38
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
response to
the “gen
eral will” o
f Rousseau
(the in
tellect, not th
e will,
accord
ing to
Marx, is th
at which
join
s togeth
er those w
ho b
ring ab
out p
ro-
ductio
n); o
r perh
aps th
e “general in
tellect” is the m
aterialistic renew
al of
the A
ristotelian
concep
t of nous poietikos
(the p
roductive, p
oietic in
tellect).But p
hilo
logy is n
ot w
hat m
atters here. W
hat m
atters is the exterio
r, col-
lective, social ch
aracter which
belo
ngs to
intellectu
al activity when
this
activity beco
mes, acco
rdin
g to M
arx, the tru
e main
sprin
g of th
e pro
ductio
nof w
ealth.
With
the excep
tion o
f these p
ages in M
arx, I repeat, trad
ition h
as attrib-
uted
to th
e intellect th
ose ch
aracteristics which
illustrate its in
sensitivity to
,an
d estran
gemen
t from
, the p
ublic sp
here. In
one o
f the yo
uth
ful w
ritings
of A
ristotle, th
e Protrepticu
s, the life o
f the th
inker is co
mpared
to th
e lifeof th
e stranger. T
hin
kers must live estran
ged fro
m th
eir com
munity, m
ust
distan
ce them
selves from
the b
uzzin
g activity of th
e multitu
de, m
ust m
ute
the so
unds o
f the ago
ra. With
respect to
public life, to
the p
olitical-so
cialco
mm
unity, th
inkers an
d stran
gers alike do n
ot feel th
emselves, in
the strict
sense o
f the exp
ression, to
be at h
om
e. This is a go
od p
oin
t of d
epartu
re for
focu
sing o
n th
e conditio
n o
f the co
ntem
porary m
ultitu
de. B
ut it is a go
od
poin
t of d
epartu
re only if w
e agree to d
raw so
me o
ther co
nclu
sions fro
mth
e analo
gy betw
een th
e stranger an
d th
e thin
ker.Bein
g a stranger, th
at is to say “n
ot-feelin
g-at-hom
e,” is today a co
ndi-
tion co
mm
on to
man
y, an in
escapab
le and sh
ared co
nditio
n. So
then
, those
who d
o n
ot feel at h
om
e, in o
rder to
get a sense o
f orien
tation an
d to
pro
-tect th
emselves, m
ust tu
rn to
the “co
mm
on p
laces,” or to
the m
ost gen
eralcatego
ries of
the
lingu
istic in
tellect; in
th
is sen
se, stran
gers are
always
thin
kers. As yo
u see, I am
invertin
g the d
irection o
f the an
alogy: it is n
ot
the th
inkers w
ho b
ecom
e strangers in
the eyes o
f the co
mm
unity to
which
the th
inkers b
elong, b
ut th
e strangers, th
e multitu
de o
f those “w
ith n
ohom
e,” who are ab
solu
tely obliged
to attain
the statu
sof th
inkers. T
hose
“with
out a h
om
e” have n
o ch
oice b
ut to
beh
ave like thin
kers: not in
ord
erfo
r them
to learn
som
ethin
g about b
iolo
gy or ad
vanced
math
ematics, b
ut
becau
se they tu
rn to
the m
ost essen
tial categories o
f the ab
stract intellect in
ord
er to p
rotect th
emselves fro
m th
e blow
s of ran
dom
chan
ce, in o
rder to
take refuge fro
m co
ntin
gency an
d fro
m th
e unfo
reseen.
In A
ristotle, th
e thin
ker is the stran
ger, yes, but o
nly p
rovisionally: o
nce
he h
as finish
ed w
riting th
e Metaphysics, h
e can retu
rn to
the task o
f dealin
gwith
com
mon affairs. In
the sam
e way, even
the stran
gers in th
e strict sense
of th
e word
, the Sp
artans w
ho h
ave com
e to A
then
s, are strangers fo
r a spe-
cific amount o
f time: so
oner o
r later, they w
ill be ab
le to retu
rn to
their
country. F
or th
e contem
porary m
ultitu
de, in
stead, th
e conditio
n o
f “not
39
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
feeling at h
om
e” is perm
anen
t and irreversib
le. The ab
sence o
f a substan
tialco
mm
unity an
d o
f any co
nnected
“special p
laces” makes it su
ch th
at the life
of th
e stranger, th
e not-feelin
g-at-hom
e, the bios xen
ikos,are u
navo
idab
lean
d lastin
g experien
ces. The m
ultitu
de o
f those “w
ithout a h
om
e” places its
trust in
the in
tellect, in th
e “com
mon p
laces:” in its ow
n w
ay, then
, it is am
ultitu
de
of
thin
kers (even
if
these
thin
kers have
only
an elem
entary
school ed
ucatio
n an
d n
ever read a b
ook, n
ot even
under to
rture).
And now
a
secondary
observatio
n.
Som
etimes
we
speak
about
the
childishness
of co
ntem
porary m
etropolitan
form
s of b
ehavio
r. We sp
eakab
out it in
a dep
recatory to
ne. O
nce w
e have agreed
that su
ch d
eprecatio
nis fo
olish
, it would
be w
orth
it to ask o
urselves if th
ere is som
ethin
g of co
n-
sistency
(in sh
ort,
a kern
el of
truth
) in
th
e co
nnectio
n betw
eenm
etropolitan
life and ch
ildhood. P
erhap
s child
hood is th
e onto
genetic
matrix o
f every subseq
uen
t search fo
r pro
tection fro
m th
e blow
s of th
e sur-
roundin
g world
; it exemplifies th
e necessity o
f conquerin
g a constitu
ent
sense o
f indecisio
n, an
origin
al uncertain
ty (indecisio
n an
d u
ncertain
tywhich
at times give w
ay to sh
ame, a feelin
g unkn
own to
the n
on-h
um
an“b
aby” w
hich
know
s from
the b
eginnin
g how
to b
ehave). T
he h
um
an b
aby
pro
tects itself by m
eans o
f repetition(th
e same fairy tale, o
ne m
ore tim
e, or
the sam
e game, o
r the sam
e gesture). R
epetitio
n is u
ndersto
od as a p
rotec-
tive strategy
in th
e face
of
the
shock
caused
by
new
an
d unexp
ectedexp
eriences. So
, the p
roblem
looks like th
is: is it not tru
e that th
e experi-
ence o
f the b
aby is tran
sferred in
to ad
ult exp
erience, in
to th
e prevalen
tfo
rms o
f beh
avior at th
e center o
f the great u
rban
aggregates (describ
ed b
ySim
mel, B
enjam
in, an
d so
man
y oth
ers)? The ch
ildhood exp
erience o
f rep-
etition is p
rolo
nged
even in
to ad
ulth
ood, sin
ce it constitu
tes the p
rincip
alfo
rm o
f safe haven
in th
e absen
ce of so
lidly estab
lished
custo
ms, o
f sub-
stantial co
mm
unities, o
f a develo
ped
and co
mplete ethos. In
traditio
nal
societies (o
r, if you like, in
the exp
erience o
f the “p
eople”), th
e repetitio
nwhich
is so d
ear to b
abies gave w
ay to m
ore co
mplex an
d articu
lated fo
rms
of p
rotectio
n: to
ethos; that is to
say, to th
e usages an
d cu
stom
s, to th
ehab
its which
constitu
te the b
ase of th
e substan
tial com
munities. N
ow, in
the age o
f the m
ultitu
de, th
is substitu
tion n
o lo
nger o
ccurs. R
epetitio
n, far
from
bein
g replaced
, persists. It w
as Walter B
enjam
in w
ho go
t the p
oin
t.H
e ded
icated a great d
eal of atten
tion to
child
hood, to
child
ish gam
es, toth
e love which
a bab
y has fo
r repetitio
n; an
d to
gether w
ith th
is, he id
enti-
fied th
e sphere in
which
new
form
s of p
erceptio
n are created
with
the
technical rep
roducib
ility of a w
ork o
f art (Ben
jamin
, Illumination
s). Soth
en, th
ere is som
ethin
g to b
elieve in th
e idea th
at there is a co
nnectio
nbetw
een th
ese two facets o
f though
t. With
in th
e possib
ility of tech
nical
40
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
repro
ductio
n, th
e child
’s request fo
r “one m
ore tim
e” com
es back again
,stren
gthen
ed; o
r we m
ight say th
at the n
eed fo
r repetitio
n as a fo
rm o
frefu
ge surfaces again
. The p
ublicn
ess of th
e min
d, th
e consp
icuousn
ess of
“com
mon p
laces,” the gen
eral intellect—
these are also
man
ifested as fo
rms
of th
e reassurin
g natu
re of rep
etition. It is tru
e: today’s m
ultitu
de h
as som
e-th
ing ch
ildish
in it: b
ut th
is som
ethin
g is as serious as can
be.
Publicn
ess with
out a p
ublic sp
here
We h
ave said th
at the m
ultitu
de is d
efined
by th
e feeling o
f not-feelin
g-at-hom
e, just as it w
as defin
ed b
y the co
nseq
uen
t familiarity w
ith “co
mm
on
places,” w
ith th
e abstract in
tellect. We n
eed to
add, n
ow, th
at the d
ialecticdread
-safe haven
is rooted
precisely in
this fam
iliarity with
the ab
stractin
tellect. The p
ublic an
d sh
ared ch
aracter of th
e “life of th
e min
d” is co
l-ored
with
ambivalen
ce: it is also, in
and o
f itself, the h
ost to
negative p
os-
sibilities, to
form
idab
le figures. T
he p
ublic in
tellect is the u
nifyin
g base
from
which
there can
sprin
g forth
either fo
rms o
f ghastly p
rotectio
n o
rfo
rms o
f pro
tection cap
able o
f achievin
g a real sense o
f com
fort (acco
rdin
gto
the d
egree in w
hich
, as we h
ave said, th
ey safeguard
us fro
m th
e form
erfo
rms o
f pro
tection). T
he p
ublic in
tellect which
the m
ultitu
de d
raws u
pon
is the p
oin
t of d
epartu
re for o
pposin
g develo
pm
ents. W
hen
the fu
ndam
en-
tal abilities o
f the h
um
an b
eing (th
ough
t, langu
age, self-reflection, th
ecap
acity for learn
ing) co
me to
the fo
refront, th
e situatio
n can
take o
n a d
is-quietin
g and o
ppressive ap
pearan
ce; or it can
even give w
ay to a n
on-p
ub-
lic public sp
here, to
a non-govern
mental
public sp
here, far fro
m th
e myth
san
d ritu
als of sovereign
ty.M
y thesis, in
extremely co
ncise fo
rm, is th
is: if the p
ublicn
ess of th
ein
tellect does n
ot yield
to th
e realm o
f a public sp
here, o
f a political sp
acein
which
the m
any can
tend to
com
mon affairs, th
en it p
roduces terrifyin
geffects. A
publicn
ess withou
t a public sphere: h
ere is the n
egative side—
the
evil, if you w
ish—
of th
e experien
ce of th
e multitu
de. F
reud in
the essay
“The U
ncan
ny” (F
reud, C
ollected Papers) sh
ows h
ow th
e extrinsic p
ower o
fth
ough
t can take o
n an
guish
ing featu
res. He says th
at peo
ple w
ho are ill,
for w
hom
though
ts have an
exterior, p
ractical and im
med
iately operative
pow
er, fear beco
min
g conditio
ned
and overw
helm
ed b
y oth
ers. It is the
same situ
ation, m
oreover, w
hich
is bro
ugh
t about in
a spiritu
alist séance in
which
the p
articipan
ts are bound to
gether in
a fused
relationsh
ip w
hich
seems to
nullify every trace o
f individ
ual id
entity. So
then
, the b
elief in th
e“o
mnip
oten
ce of th
ough
t,” studied
by F
reud, an
d th
e extreme situ
ation o
fth
e spiritu
alist séance exem
plify clearly w
hat pu
blicness w
ithout a pu
blic
41
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
spherecan
beco
me; w
hat gen
eral intellect
can b
ecom
e when
it is not articu
-lated
with
in a p
olitical sp
ace.The gen
eral intellect, o
r public in
tellect, if it does n
ot b
ecom
e a repub-
lic, a public sp
here, a p
olitical co
mm
unity, d
rastically increases fo
rms o
fsu
bm
ission. T
o m
ake the p
oin
t clear, let us th
ink ab
out co
ntem
porary p
ro-
ductio
n. T
he sharin
gof lin
guistic an
d co
gnitive h
abits is th
e constitu
ent
elemen
t of th
e post-F
ord
ist pro
cess of lab
or. A
ll the w
orkers en
ter into
pro
-ductio
n in
as much
as they are sp
eaking-th
inkin
g. This h
as noth
ing to
do,
min
d yo
u, w
ith “p
rofessio
nality” o
r with
the an
cient co
ncep
t of “skill” o
r“craftsm
ansh
ip”: to sp
eak/to th
ink are gen
eric hab
its of th
e hum
an an
imal,
the o
pposite o
f any so
rt of sp
ecialization. T
his p
relimin
ary sharing
in o
ne
way ch
aracterizes the “m
any,” seen
as bein
g “man
y,” the m
ultitu
de; in
anoth
er way, it is itself th
e base o
f today’s p
roductio
n. Sharin
g, in so
far asit is a tech
nical req
uirem
ent, is o
pposed
to th
e divisionof lab
or—
it contra-
dicts th
at divisio
n an
d cau
ses it to cru
mble. O
f course th
is does n
ot m
eanth
at work lo
ads are n
o lo
nger su
bdivid
ed, p
arceled o
ut, etc.; rath
er, itm
eans th
at the segm
entatio
n o
f duties n
o lo
nger an
swers to
objective “tech
-nical” criteria, b
ut is, in
stead, exp
licitly arbitrary, reversib
le, chan
geable. A
sfar as cap
ital is concern
ed, w
hat really co
unts is th
e origin
al sharin
g of lin
-gu
istic-cogn
itive talents, sin
ce it is this sh
aring w
hich
guaran
tees readin
ess,ad
aptab
ility, etc., in reactin
g to in
novatio
n. So
, it is eviden
t that th
is shar-
ing o
f generic co
gnitive an
d lin
guistic talen
ts with
in th
e pro
cess of real
pro
ductio
n d
oes n
ot b
ecom
e a public sp
here, d
oes n
ot b
ecom
e a political
com
munity o
r a constitu
tional p
rincip
le. So th
en, w
hat h
appen
s?The p
ublicn
ess of th
e intellect, th
at is to say th
e sharin
g of th
e intellect,
in o
ne sen
se causes every rigid
divisio
n o
f labor to
fall flat on its b
ack; inan
oth
er sense, h
owever, it fo
sters personal depen
dence. G
eneral in
tellect,th
een
d o
f the d
ivision o
f labor, p
ersonal d
epen
den
cy: the th
ree facets are inter-
related. T
he p
ublicn
ess of th
e intellect, w
hen
it does n
ot take p
lace in a
public sp
here, tran
slates into
an unchecked proliferation
of hierarchiesas
groundless as th
ey are thrivin
g. The d
epen
den
cy is personal
in tw
o sen
ses of
the w
ord
: in th
e world
of lab
or o
ne d
epen
ds o
n th
is perso
n o
r on th
at per-
son, n
ot o
n ru
les endow
ed w
ith an
onym
ous co
ercive pow
er; moreover, it is
the w
hole p
erson w
ho is su
bdued
, the p
erson’s b
asic com
municative an
dco
gnitive h
abits.
Which
One fo
r the M
any?
The p
oin
t of d
epartu
re for o
ur an
alysis was th
e oppositio
n b
etween
the
terms “p
eople” an
d “m
ultitu
de.” F
rom
what w
e have d
iscussed
up to
this
42
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
poin
t, it remain
s clear that th
e multitu
de d
oes n
ot rid
itself of th
e One, o
fth
e universal, o
f the co
mm
on/sh
ared; rath
er, it redefin
es the O
ne. T
he O
ne
of th
e multitu
de n
o lo
nger h
as anyth
ing to
do w
ith th
e One co
nstitu
ted b
yth
e State, with
the O
ne tow
ards w
hich
the p
eople co
nverge.
The p
eople are th
e result o
f a centrip
etal movem
ent: fro
m ato
mized
individ
uals, to
the u
nity o
f the “b
ody p
olitic,” to
sovereignty. T
he extrem
eoutco
me o
f this cen
tripetal m
ovemen
t is the O
ne. T
he m
ultitu
de, o
n th
eoth
er han
d, is th
e outco
me o
f a centrifu
gal movem
ent: fro
m th
e One to
the
Man
y. But w
hich
One is it th
at serves as the startin
g poin
t from
which
the
man
y differen
tiate them
selves and rem
ain so
? Certain
ly it can n
ot b
e the
State; it must h
ave to d
o w
ith so
me co
mpletely d
ifferent fo
rm o
f unity/u
ni-
versality. We can
now
consid
er once again
a poin
t to w
hich
we referred
atth
e begin
nin
g of o
ur an
alysis.The u
nity w
hich
the m
ultitu
de h
as beh
ind itself is co
nstitu
ted b
y the
“com
mon p
laces” of th
e min
d, b
y the lin
guistic-co
gnitive facu
lties com
mon
to th
e species, b
y the gen
eral intellect.
It has to
do w
ith a u
nity/u
niversality
which
is visibly u
nlike th
at of th
e state. Let u
s be clear: th
e cogn
itive-lin-
guistic h
abits o
f the sp
ecies do n
ot co
me to
the fo
refront b
ecause so
meo
ne
decid
es to m
ake them
com
e to th
e forefro
nt; th
ey do so
out o
f necessity, o
rbecau
se they co
nstitu
te a form
of p
rotectio
n in
a society d
evoid
of su
bstan
-tial co
mm
unities (o
r of “sp
ecial places”).
The O
ne o
f the m
ultitu
de, th
en, is n
ot th
e One o
f the p
eople. T
he m
ul-
titude d
oes n
ot co
nverge in
to a volon
té générale
for o
ne sim
ple reaso
n:
becau
se it already h
as access to a gen
eral intellect. T
he p
ublic in
tellect, how
-ever,
which
ap
pears
in th
e post-F
ord
world
as
a m
ere reso
urce
of
pro
ductio
n, can
constitu
te a differen
t “constitu
tional p
rincip
le”; it canoversh
adow
a non-state pu
blic sphere.The m
any, in
as much
as they are
man
y, use th
e publicn
ess of th
e intellect as th
eir base o
r ped
estal: for b
etteror fo
r worse.
Certain
ly there is a su
bstan
tial differen
ce betw
een th
e contem
porary
multitu
de an
d th
e multitu
de w
hich
was stu
died
by seven
teenth
centu
ryphilo
sophers o
f political th
ough
t. At th
e daw
nin
g of th
e modern
era, the
“man
y” coin
cided
with
the citizen
s of th
e com
munal rep
ublics p
rior to
the
birth
of th
e great natio
nal States. T
hose “m
any” m
ade u
se of th
e “right o
fresistan
ce,” of th
e jus resisten
tiae. That righ
t, nonsen
sically, does n
ot m
eanlegitim
ate defen
se: it is som
ethin
g more su
btle an
d co
mplicated
. The “righ
tof resistan
ce” consists o
f validatin
g the p
rerogatives o
f an in
divid
ual o
r of a
local co
mm
unity, o
r of a co
rporatio
n, in
contrast to
the cen
tral pow
erstru
cture, th
us safegu
ardin
g form
s of life w
hich
have already
been
affirmed
as free-standin
g form
s, thus p
rotectin
g practices already
rooted
in so
ciety. It
43
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
mean
s, then
, defen
din
g som
ethin
g positive: it is a con
servativevio
lence (in
the go
od an
d n
oble sen
se of th
e word
.) Perh
aps th
ejus resisten
tiae(o
r the
right to
pro
tect som
ethin
g which
is already in
place an
d is w
orth
y of co
n-
tinuin
g to exist) is w
hat p
rovides th
e strongest co
nnectio
n b
etween
the
seventeen
th cen
tury m
ultitu
doan
d th
e post-F
ord
multitu
de. E
ven fo
r the
latter “multitu
de,” it is n
ot a q
uestio
n o
f “seizing p
ower,” o
f constru
cting a
new
State or a n
ew m
onopoly o
f political d
ecision m
aking; rath
er, it has to
do w
ith d
efendin
g plu
ral experien
ces, form
s of n
on-rep
resentative d
emoc-
racy, of
non-govern
men
tal usages
and cu
stom
s. As
far as
the
rest is
concern
ed, it is d
ifficult n
ot to
see the d
ifferences b
etween
the tw
o “m
ulti-
tudes”:
the
contem
porary
multitu
de
is fu
ndam
entally
based
upon th
epresu
mptio
n o
f a One w
hich
is more, n
ot less, u
niversal th
an th
e State:public in
tellect, langu
age, “com
mon p
laces” (just th
ink, if yo
u w
ill, about
the W
orld
-wid
e Web
…). F
urth
ermore, th
e contem
porary m
ultitu
de carries
with
it the h
istory o
f capitalism
and is clo
sely bound to
the n
eeds o
f the
labor class.W
e must h
old
at bay th
e dem
on o
f the an
alogy, th
e short circu
iting
betw
een th
e ancien
t and th
e very modern
; we n
eed to
delin
eate in h
ighrelief th
e origin
al histo
rical traits of th
e contem
porary m
ultitu
de, w
hile
avoid
ing to
defin
e this m
ultitu
de as sim
ply a rem
ake o
f som
ethin
g which
once w
as. Let m
e give an exam
ple. It is typ
ical of th
e post-F
ord
multitu
de
to fo
men
t the co
llapse o
f political rep
resentatio
n: n
ot as an
anarch
ic ges-tu
re, but as a m
eans o
f calmly an
d realistically search
ing fo
r new
political
form
s. Of co
urse H
obbes w
as already p
uttin
g us o
n alert w
ith referen
ce toth
e tenden
cy of th
e multitu
de to
take o
n th
e form
s of irregu
lar political
organ
isms: “in
their n
ature b
ut leagu
es, or so
metim
es mere co
nco
urse o
fpeo
ple, w
ithout u
nio
n to
any p
articular d
esign, n
ot b
y obligatio
n o
f one
to an
oth
er” (Hobbes, L
eviathan: 1
54). B
ut it is o
bvio
us th
at non-rep
re-sen
tative dem
ocracy
based
upon th
e gen
eral intellect
has
an en
tirelydifferen
t significan
ce: it is in n
o w
ay interstitial, m
arginal o
r residual;
rather, it is th
e concrete ap
pro
priatio
n an
d re-articu
lation o
f the k
now
l-ed
ge/pow
er unity w
hich
has co
ngealed
with
in th
e adm
inistrative m
odern
mach
ine o
f the States.
When
we sp
eak of “m
ultitu
de,” w
e run u
p again
st a com
plex p
roblem
:we m
ust co
nfro
nt a co
ncep
t with
out a h
istory, w
ithout a lexico
n, w
hereas
the co
ncep
t of “p
eople” is a co
mpletely co
dified
concep
t for w
hich
we h
aveap
pro
priate w
ord
s and n
uan
ces of every so
rt. This is o
bvio
usly th
e way it is.
I have alread
y said th
at the “p
eople” p
revailed again
st the “m
ultitu
de” in
the
political-p
hilo
sophical th
ough
t of th
e seventeen
th cen
tury: th
us, th
e “peo
-ple” h
ave enjoyed
the p
rivilege of a su
itable lexico
n. W
ith regard
to th
e
44
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
multitu
de, w
e are left, instead
, with
the ab
solu
te lack of co
dificatio
n, w
ithth
e absen
ce of a clear co
ncep
tual vo
cabulary. B
ut th
is is a wonderfu
l chal-
lenge fo
r philo
sophers an
d so
ciolo
gists, above all fo
r doin
g research in
the
field. It in
volves w
orkin
g on co
ncrete m
atters, examin
ing th
em in
detail,
but, at th
e same tim
e derivin
g theo
retical categories fro
m th
em. T
here is a
dual m
ovemen
t here, fro
m th
ings to
word
s, and fro
m w
ord
s to th
ings: th
isreq
uires th
e post-F
ord
multitu
de. A
nd it is, I rep
eat, an excitin
g task.It is q
uite clear th
at “peo
ple” an
d “m
ultitu
de” are tw
o catego
ries which
are more in
line w
ith p
olitical th
ough
t than
with
socio
logy; in
fact, they sig-
nify, b
etween
them
selves, alternate fo
rms o
f political existen
ce. But it is m
yopin
ion th
at the n
otio
n o
f the m
ultitu
de is extrao
rdin
arily rich in
terms o
fallow
ing u
s to u
nderstan
d, to
assess the m
odes o
f bein
g of p
ost-F
ord
sub-
ord
inate lab
or, to
understan
d so
me o
f the fo
rms o
f beh
avior o
f that lab
or
which
at first sight seem
ed so
enigm
atic. As I w
ill try to exp
lain m
ore co
m-
pletely in
the seco
nd d
ay of o
ur sym
posiu
m, th
is is precisely a catego
ry of
political th
ough
t which
, havin
g been
defeated
in th
e theo
retical deb
ate of
its time, n
ow p
resents itself again
as a most valu
able in
strum
ent fo
r the
analysis o
f living lab
or in
the p
ost-F
ord
era. Let u
s say that th
e multitu
de is
an am
phib
ian catego
ry: on o
ne h
and it sp
eaks to u
s of so
cial pro
ductio
nbased
on kn
owled
ge and lan
guage; o
n th
e oth
er han
d, it sp
eaks of th
e cri-sis o
f the fo
rm-o
f-State. And p
erhap
s there is a stro
ng co
nnectio
n b
etween
these tw
o th
ings. C
arl Sch
mitt is so
meo
ne w
ho h
as grasped
the essen
tialnatu
re of th
e State and w
ho is th
e majo
r theo
retician o
f the p
olitics o
f the
past cen
tury; in
the Sixties, w
hen
he w
as already an
old
man
, he w
rote a
very bitter (fo
r him
) statemen
t, the sen
se of w
hich
is that as th
e multitu
de
reappears, th
e peo
ple fad
e away: “T
he era o
f stateness [Staatlichkeit] is n
ear-in
g its end […
]. The State as th
e model o
f political u
nity, th
e State as the
hold
er of th
e most extrao
rdin
ary of all m
onopolies, th
at is to say, o
f the
monopoly o
f political d
ecision-m
aking […
] is bein
g deth
roned
” (Sch
mitt,
Der B
egriff: 10 [n
ote: E
nglish
translatio
n fro
m th
e Germ
an, b
y the tran
sla-to
rs]). One im
portan
t additio
n, h
owever, m
ust b
e mad
e: this m
onopoly o
fdecisio
n m
aking can
be tru
ly taken aw
ay from
the State o
nly w
hen
it ceas-es fo
r once an
d fo
r all to b
e a monopoly, o
nly w
hen
the m
ultitu
de asserts
its centrifu
gal character.
I would
like to co
nclu
de th
is first day o
f our sem
inar b
y disp
elling, as
much
as I can, a m
isunderstan
din
g into
which
it is easy to fall. It m
ight
seem as th
ough
the m
ultitu
de w
ould
mark th
e end o
f the lab
or class. In
the
universe o
f the “m
any,” th
ere is no lo
nger ro
om
for th
e blu
e collar w
orkers,
all of th
em eq
ual, w
ho m
ake up a u
nified
body am
ong th
em, a b
ody w
hich
is not very sen
sitive to th
e kaleidosco
pe o
f the “d
ifference” am
ong th
em.
45
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
This is a fo
olish
way o
f thin
king, o
ne w
hich
is dear to
those w
ho feel th
eneed
to oversim
plify q
uestio
ns, to
get high
on w
ord
s mean
t for effect (to
pro
duce electro
shocks fo
r monkeys, as a frien
d o
f min
e used
to say). N
ei-th
er in M
arx, nor in
the o
pin
ion o
f any serio
us p
erson, is lab
or class
equated
with
certain h
abits, w
ith certain
usages an
d cu
stom
s, etc. The lab
or
class is a theo
retical concep
t, not a sn
ap-sh
ot p
hoto
graph kep
t as a sou-
venir: it sign
ifies the su
bject w
hich
pro
duces relative an
d ab
solu
te surp
lus
value. So
then
, the co
ntem
porary w
orkin
g class, the cu
rrent su
bord
inate
labor-p
ower an
d its co
gnitive-lin
guistic co
llaboratio
n, b
ear the traits o
f the
multitu
de, rath
er than
of th
e peo
ple. H
owever, th
is multitu
de n
o lo
nger
assum
es the “p
opular” vo
cation to
stateness [statu
alità]. The n
otio
n o
f“m
ultitu
de” d
oes n
ot overtu
rn th
e concep
t of th
e workin
g class, since th
isco
ncep
t was n
ot b
ound b
y defin
ition to
that o
f “peo
ple.” B
eing “m
ultitu
de”
does n
ot in
terfere at all with
pro
ducin
g surp
lus valu
e. Since th
e labor class
no lo
nger assu
mes th
e mode o
f bein
g of th
e peo
ple, b
ut rath
er, that o
f the
multitu
de, m
any th
ings ch
ange, o
f course: th
e men
tality, the fo
rms o
f orga-
nizatio
n an
d o
f conflict. E
verythin
g beco
mes co
mplicated
. How
much
easier it would
be to
say that th
ere is a multitu
de n
ow, th
at there is n
o m
ore
labor class …
But if w
e really wan
t simplicity at all co
sts, all we h
ave to d
ois d
rink u
p a b
ottle o
f red w
ine.
On th
e oth
er han
d, th
ere are passages even
in M
arx in w
hich
the lab
or
class loses th
e appearan
ce of th
e “peo
ple” an
d acq
uires th
e features o
f the
“multitu
de.” Ju
st one exam
ple: let u
s thin
k about th
e pages o
f the last ch
ap-
ter of th
e first book o
f theCapital, w
here M
arx analyzes th
e conditio
n o
fth
e labor class in
the U
nited
States (Volu
me 1
, Chap
. 33, “T
he m
odern
theo
ry of co
lonizatio
n”). There is, in
that ch
apter, so
me great w
riting o
n th
esu
bject o
f the A
merican
West, o
n th
e exodus fro
m th
e East, o
n th
e indi-
vidual in
itiative of th
e “man
y.” The E
uro
pean
laborers, d
riven aw
ay from
their ow
n co
untries b
y epid
emics, fam
ines an
d eco
nom
ic crises, go o
ff towork o
n th
e East C
oast o
f the U
nited
States. But let u
s note: th
ey remain
there fo
r a few years, on
lyfo
r a few years. T
hen
they d
esert the facto
ry, mov-
ing W
est, toward
s free lands. W
age labor is seen
as a transito
ry phase, rath
erth
an as a life sen
tence. E
ven if o
nly fo
r a twen
ty-year perio
d, th
e wage
laborers h
ad th
e possib
ility of p
lantin
g the seed
s of d
isord
er into
the iro
n-
clad law
s of th
e labor m
arket: by ren
ouncin
g their ow
n in
itial conditio
n,
they b
rough
t about a relative sh
ortage o
f man
pow
er and th
us a raise in
salaries. Marx, in
describ
ing th
is situatio
n, o
ffers us a very vivid
portrait o
fa lab
or class w
hich
is also a m
ultitu
de.
47
Labor,Action,Intellect
Day Two
49
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
In o
ur p
revious sem
inar I tried
to illu
strate the m
ode o
f bein
g of th
e mul-
titude, b
eginnin
g with
the d
ialectic dread
-safe haven
. Today, I w
ould
like
to d
iscuss th
e classical divisio
n o
f hum
an exp
erience in
to th
ree fundam
en-
tal spheres: L
abor (o
r poiesis), p
olitical A
ction (o
r praxis) an
d In
tellect (or
life of th
e min
d). T
he go
al here is still th
e same: to
articulate an
d to
inves-
tigate in d
epth
the n
otio
n o
f multitu
de.
As
you w
ill recall,
“multitu
de”
is a
central
category
of
political
though
t: it is called in
to q
uestio
n h
ere in o
rder to
explain
som
e of th
esalien
t features o
f the p
ost-F
ord
mode o
f pro
ductio
n. W
e do so
on th
eco
nditio
n th
at we u
nderstan
d “m
ode o
f pro
ductio
n” to m
ean n
ot o
nly
one p
articular eco
nom
ic configu
ration, b
ut also
a com
posite u
nity o
ffo
rms o
f life, a social, an
thro
polo
gical and eth
ical cluster: “eth
ical,” let us
note, an
d n
ot “m
oral”; in
questio
n h
ere are com
mon p
ractices, usages an
dcu
stom
s, not th
e dim
ensio
n o
f the m
ust-b
e. So th
en, I w
ould
like to
main
tain th
at the co
ntem
porary m
ultitu
de h
as as its back
ground th
e cri-sis o
f the su
bdivisio
n o
f hum
an exp
erience in
to L
abor, (p
olitical) A
ction
and In
tellect. The m
ultitu
de affirm
s itself, in h
igh relief, as a m
ode o
fbein
g in
w
hich
th
ere is
a ju
xtapositio
n,
or
at least
a hyb
ridizatio
n,
betw
een sp
heres w
hich
, until very recen
tly, even d
urin
g the F
ord
era,seem
ed clearly d
istinct an
d sep
arated.
Lab
or, A
ction, In
tellect: in th
e style of a trad
ition w
hich
goes b
ack to
Aristo
tle and w
hich
has b
een revisited
with
particu
lar efficacy and p
assion
by H
annah
Aren
dt (A
rendt, T
he Human Condition
), this trip
artitionin
ghas seem
ed clear, realistic, n
early unquestio
nab
le. It has p
ut d
own so
lidro
ots in
the realm
of co
mm
on sen
se: it is not a q
uestio
n, th
en, o
f an u
nder-
takin
g which
is only p
hilo
sophical, b
ut o
f a wid
ely shared
pattern
of
50
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
though
t. When
I began
to get in
volved
in p
olitics, in
the Sixties, I co
n-
sidered
this su
bdivisio
n to
be so
meth
ing in
disp
utab
le; it seemed
to m
e asunquestio
nab
le as any im
med
iate tactile or visu
al percep
tion. It w
as not
necessary to
have read
Aristo
tle’s Nicom
achean Ethics
to k
now
that lab
or,
political actio
n, an
d in
tellectual reflectio
n co
nstitu
ted th
ree spheres su
p-
ported
by rad
ically hetero
geneo
us p
rincip
les and criteria. O
bvio
usly, th
ishetero
geneity d
id n
ot exclu
de in
tersection: p
olitical reflectio
n co
uld
be
applied
to p
olitics; in
turn
, political actio
n w
as often
, and w
illingly, n
our-
ished
by th
emes related
to th
e sphere o
f pro
ductio
n, etc. B
ut, as n
um
erous
as the in
tersections w
ere, Lab
or, In
tellect, and P
olitics rem
ained
essential-
ly distin
ct. For stru
ctural reaso
ns.
Lab
or is th
e organ
ic exchan
ge with
natu
re, the p
roductio
n o
f new
objects, a rep
etitive and fo
reseeable p
rocess. T
he p
ure in
tellect has a so
li-tary an
d in
consp
icuous ch
aracter: the m
editatio
n o
f the th
inker escap
esth
e notice o
f oth
ers; theo
retical reflection m
utes th
e world
of ap
pearan
ces.D
ifferently fro
m L
abor, p
olitical A
ction co
mes b
etween
social relatio
ns,
not b
etween
natu
ral materials; it h
as to d
o w
ith th
e possib
le and th
eunfo
reseen; it d
oes n
ot o
bstru
ct, with
ulterio
r motives, th
e context in
which
it operates; rath
er, it modifies th
is very context. D
ifferently fro
mth
e Intellect, p
olitical A
ction is p
ublic, co
nsign
ed to
exteriority, to
contin
-gen
cy, to th
e buzzin
g of th
e “man
y;” it invo
lves, to u
se the w
ord
s of
Han
nah
, “the p
resence o
f oth
ers” (Human Condition
, Chap
. V, “A
ction”).
The co
ncep
t of p
olitical A
ction can
be d
educed
by o
ppositio
n w
ith resp
ectto
the o
ther tw
o sp
heres.
So th
en, th
is ancien
t tripartitio
nin
g, which
was still en
cysted in
to th
erealm
of co
mm
on sen
se of th
e generatio
n w
hich
mad
e its appearan
ce inth
e public scen
e in th
e Sixties, is exactly w
hat h
as failed to
day. T
hat is to
say, the b
oundaries b
etween
pure in
tellectual activity, p
olitical actio
n, an
dlab
or h
ave disso
lved. I w
ill main
tain, in
particu
lar, that th
e world
of so
-called
post-F
ord
ist labor h
as abso
rbed
into
itself man
y of th
e typical
characteristics o
f political actio
n; an
d th
at this fu
sion b
etween
Politics
and L
abor co
nstitu
tes a decisive p
hysio
gnom
ic trait of th
e contem
porary
multitu
de.
Juxtap
ositio
n of p
oiesis an
d praxis
Contem
porary lab
or h
as intro
jected in
to itself m
any ch
aracteristics which
origin
ally mark
ed th
e experien
ce of p
olitics. P
oiesishas tak
en o
n n
um
erous
aspects o
f praxis. This is th
e first aspect o
f the m
ost gen
eral form
of
hyb
ridizatio
n w
hich
I would
like to
address.
51
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
But let u
s note th
at even H
annah
Aren
dt in
sisted o
n d
enouncin
g the
collap
se of th
e bord
er betw
een lab
or an
d p
olitics—
whereb
y politics d
oes
not m
ean life in
som
e local p
arty head
quarters, b
ut th
e generically h
um
anexp
erience o
f begin
nin
g som
ethin
g again, an
intim
ate relationsh
ip w
ithco
ntin
gency an
d th
e unfo
reseen, b
eing in
the p
resence o
f oth
ers. Politics,
accord
ing to
Aren
dt, h
as taken
to im
itating lab
or. T
he p
olitics o
f the tw
en-
tieth cen
tury, in
her ju
dgm
ent, h
as beco
me a so
rt of fab
rication o
f new
objects: th
e State, the p
olitical p
arty, histo
ry, etc. So th
en, I m
aintain
that
thin
gs have go
ne in
the o
pposite d
irection fro
m w
hat A
rendt seem
s tobelieve: it is n
ot th
at politics h
as confo
rmed
to lab
or; it is rath
er that lab
or
has acq
uired
the trad
itional featu
res of p
olitical actio
n. M
y reasonin
g isopposite an
d sym
metrical w
ith resp
ect to th
at of A
rendt. I m
aintain
that
it is in th
e world
of co
ntem
porary lab
or th
at we fin
d th
e “bein
g in th
epresen
ce of o
thers,” th
e relationsh
ip w
ith th
e presen
ce of o
thers, th
e begin
-nin
g of n
ew p
rocesses, an
d th
e constitu
tive familiarity w
ith co
ntin
gency,
the u
nfo
reseen an
d th
e possib
le. I main
tain th
at post-F
ord
ist labor, th
epro
ductive lab
or o
f surp
lus, su
bord
inate lab
or, b
rings in
to p
lay the talen
tsan
d th
e qualificatio
ns w
hich
, accord
ing to
a secular trad
ition, h
ad m
ore to
do w
ith p
olitical actio
n.
Incid
entally, th
is explain
s, in m
y opin
ion, th
e crisis of p
olitics, th
esen
se of sco
rn su
rroundin
g political p
raxis today, th
e disrep
ute in
to w
hich
action h
as fallen. In
fact, political actio
n n
ow seem
s, in a d
isastrous w
ay,lik
e som
e superflu
ous d
uplicatio
n o
f the exp
erience o
f labor, sin
ce the lat-
ter experien
ce, even if in
a defo
rmed
and d
espotic m
anner, h
as subsu
med
into
itself certain stru
ctural ch
aracteristics of p
olitical actio
n. T
he sp
here
of p
olitics, in
the strictest sen
se of th
e word
, follow
s closely th
e pro
cedures
and stylistic elem
ents w
hich
defin
e the cu
rrent state o
f labor; b
ut let u
snote: it fo
llows th
em clo
sely while o
ffering a p
oorer, cru
der an
d m
ore sim
-plistic versio
n o
f these p
roced
ures an
d stylistic elem
ents. P
olitics o
ffers anetw
ork
of co
mm
unicatio
n an
d a co
gnitive co
nten
t of a m
ore w
retched
variety than
what is carried
out in
the cu
rrent p
roductive p
rocess. W
hile
less com
plex th
an lab
or an
d yet to
o sim
ilar to it, p
olitical actio
n seem
s, allth
e same, lik
e som
ethin
g not very d
esirable at all.
The in
clusio
n o
f certain stru
ctural featu
res of p
olitical p
raxis in co
n-
temporary
pro
ductio
n help
s us
to understan
d w
hy
the
post-F
ord
multitu
de m
ight b
e seen, to
day, as a de-politicized
multitu
de. T
here is
already to
o m
uch
politics in
the w
orld
of w
age labor (in
as much as it is
wage
labor)
in ord
er fo
r politics
as su
ch to
co
ntin
ue
to en
joy an
auto
nom
ous d
ignity.
52
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
On virtu
osity. F
rom Aristo
tle to G
lenn G
ould
The su
bsu
mptio
n in
to th
e labor p
rocess o
f what fo
rmerly gu
aranteed
anin
disp
utab
le physio
gnom
y for p
ublic A
ction can
be clarified
by m
eans o
fan
ancien
t, but b
y no m
eans in
effective, category: virtu
osity.Accep
ting, fo
r now
, the n
orm
al mean
ing o
f the w
ord
, by “virtu
osity” I
mean
the sp
ecial capab
ilities of a p
erform
ing artist. A
virtuoso
, for exam
-ple, is th
e pian
ist who o
ffers us a m
emorab
le perfo
rman
ce of S
chubert; o
rit is a sk
illed d
ancer, o
r a persu
asive orato
r, or a teach
er who is n
ever bor-
ing, o
r a priest w
ho d
elivers a fascinatin
g sermon. L
et us co
nsid
er carefully
what d
efines th
e activity of virtu
oso
s, of p
erform
ing artists. F
irst of all,
theirs is an
activity which fin
ds its own fulfillm
ent (that is, its ow
n pu
rpose)in itself, w
ithout o
bjectifyin
g itself into
an en
d p
roduct, w
ithout settlin
gin
to a “fin
ished
pro
duct,” o
r into
an o
bject w
hich
would
survive th
e per-
form
ance. Seco
ndly, it is an
activity which requ
ires the presence of others,
which
exists only in
the p
resence o
f an au
dien
ce.An activity w
ithout an
end p
roduct: th
e perfo
rman
ce of a p
ianist o
r of
a dan
cer does n
ot leave u
s with
a defin
ed o
bject d
istingu
ishab
le from
the
perfo
rman
ce itself, capab
le of co
ntin
uin
g after the p
erform
ance h
as ended
.An activity w
hich
requires th
e presen
ce of o
thers: th
e performance
[Auth
or
uses th
e English
word
here] m
akes sen
se only if it is seen
or h
eard. It is
obvio
us th
at these tw
o ch
aracteristics are inter-related
: virtuoso
s need
the
presen
ce of an
audien
ce precisely b
ecause th
ey are not p
roducin
g an en
dpro
duct, an
object w
hich
will circu
late thro
ugh
the w
orld
once th
e activi-ty h
as ceased. L
ackin
g a specific extrin
sic pro
duct, th
e virtuoso
has to
relyon w
itnesses.
The catego
ry of virtu
osity is d
iscussed
in th
e Nicom
achean Ethics; it
appears h
ere and th
ere in m
odern
political th
ough
t, even in
the tw
entieth
centu
ry; it even h
old
s a small p
lace in M
arx’s criticism o
f political eco
-nom
ics. In th
e Nicom
achean Ethics
Aristo
tle distin
guish
es labor (o
r poiesis)
from
political actio
n (o
r praxis), u
tilizing p
recisely the n
otio
n o
f virtuosi-
ty: we h
ave labor w
hen
an o
bject is p
roduced
, an o
pus w
hich
can b
esep
arated fro
m actio
n; w
e have p
raxis when
the p
urp
ose o
f action is fo
und
in actio
n itself. A
ristotle w
rites: “For w
hile m
akin
g has an
end o
ther th
anitself, actio
n can
not; fo
r good actio
n [u
ndersto
od b
oth
as ethical co
nduct
and as p
olitical actio
n, V
irno ad
ds] itself is its en
d” (N
icomachean
Ethics,
VI, 1
140 b
). Implicitly resu
min
g Aristo
tle’s idea, H
annah
Aren
dt co
m-
pares th
e perfo
rmin
g artists, the virtu
oso
s, to th
ose w
ho are en
gaged in
political
action.
She
writes:
“The
perfo
rmin
g arts
[…]
have
indeed
a
strong
affinity
with
politics.
Perfo
rmin
g artists—
dan
cers, play-acto
rs,
53
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
musician
s, and th
e like—
need
an au
dien
ce to sh
ow th
eir virtuosity, ju
st asactin
g men
need
the p
resence o
f oth
ers befo
re whom
they can
appear; b
oth
need
a publicly o
rganized
space fo
r their ‘w
ork
,’ and b
oth
dep
end u
pon
oth
ers for th
e perfo
rman
ce itself” (Aren
dt, B
etween
Past an
d Future: 1
54).
One co
uld
say that every p
olitical actio
n is virtu
osic. Every p
olitical
action, in
fact, shares w
ith virtu
osity a sen
se of co
ntin
gency, th
e absen
ceof a “fin
ished
pro
duct,” th
e imm
ediate an
d u
navo
idab
le presen
ce of o
th-
ers. On th
e one h
and, all virtu
osity is in
trinsically political. T
hin
k ab
out
the case o
f Glen
n G
ould
(Gould
, The G
lenn Gould R
eader; and S
chneid
er,Glenn Gould). T
his great p
ianist p
aradoxically, h
ated th
e distin
ctive char-
acteristics of h
is activity as a perfo
rmin
g artist; to p
ut it an
oth
er way, h
edetested
public
exhib
ition. T
hro
ugh
out
his
life he
fough
t again
st th
e“p
olitical d
imen
sion” in
trinsic to
his p
rofessio
n. A
t a certain p
oin
t Gould
declared
that h
e wan
ted to
aban
don th
e “active life,” that is, th
e act of
bein
g exposed
to th
e eyes of o
thers (n
ote: “active life” is th
e traditio
nal
nam
e for p
olitics). In
ord
er to m
ake h
is own virtu
osity n
on-p
olitical, h
eso
ugh
t to b
ring h
is activity as a perfo
rmin
g artist as close as p
ossib
le to th
eid
ea of lab
or, in
the strictest sen
se, which
leaves beh
ind extrin
sic pro
ducts.
This m
eant clo
sing h
imself in
side a reco
rdin
g studio
, passin
g off th
e pro
-ductio
n o
f record
s (excellent o
nes, b
y the w
ay) as an “en
d p
roduct.” In
ord
er to avo
id th
e public-p
olitical d
imen
sion in
grained
in virtu
osity, h
ehad
to p
retend th
at his m
asterly perfo
rman
ces pro
duced
a defin
ed o
bject
(indep
enden
t of th
e perfo
rman
ce itself). Where th
ere is an en
d p
roduct,
an au
tonom
ous p
roduct, th
ere is labor, n
o lo
nger virtu
osity, n
or, for that
reason, p
olitics.
Even
Marx sp
eaks o
f pian
ists, orato
rs, dan
cers, etc. He sp
eaks o
f them
in so
me o
f his m
ost im
portan
t writin
gs: in h
is “Resu
lts of th
e Imm
ediate
Pro
cess of P
roductio
n,” an
d th
en, in
almost id
entical term
s, in h
is Theo-
ries of
Surplu
s-value.
Marx
analyzes
intellectu
al lab
or,
distin
guish
ing
betw
een its tw
o p
rincip
al types. O
n o
ne h
and, th
ere is imm
aterial or m
en-
tal activity which
“results in
com
modities w
hich
exist separately fro
m th
epro
ducer […
] books, p
aintin
gs and all p
roducts o
f art as distin
ct from
the
artistic achievem
ent o
f the p
racticing artist” (in
Appen
dix to
Capital, V
ol.I, “R
esults o
f the Im
med
iate Pro
cess of P
roductio
n”: 1048). T
his is th
efirst typ
e of in
tellectual lab
or. O
n th
e oth
er han
d, M
arx writes, w
e need
toco
nsid
er all those activities in
which
the “p
roduct is n
ot sep
arable fro
m th
eact o
f pro
ducin
g” (ibid
., 1048)—
those activities, th
at is, which
find in
them
selves their ow
n fu
lfillmen
t with
out b
eing o
bjectivized
into
an en
dpro
duct w
hich
migh
t surp
ass them
. This is th
e same d
istinctio
n w
hich
Aristo
tle mad
e betw
een m
aterial pro
ductio
n an
d p
olitical actio
n. T
he o
nly
54
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
differen
ce is that M
arx in th
is instan
ce is not co
ncern
ed w
ith p
olitical
action; rath
er, he is an
alyzing tw
o d
ifferent rep
resentatio
ns o
f labor. T
oth
ese sp
ecifically defin
ed typ
es of
poiesis
he
applies
the
distin
ction
betw
een activity-w
ith-en
d-p
roduct an
d activity-w
ithout-en
d-p
roduct. T
he
second typ
e of in
tellectual lab
or (activities in
which
“pro
duct is n
ot sep
a-rab
le from
the act o
f pro
ducin
g,”) inclu
des, acco
rdin
g to M
arx, all those
whose lab
or tu
rns in
to a virtu
osic p
erform
ance: p
ianists, b
utlers, d
ancers,
teachers, o
rators, m
edical d
octo
rs, priests, etc.
So th
en, if in
tellectual lab
or w
hich
pro
duces an
end p
roduct d
oes n
ot
pose an
y special p
roblem
s, labor w
ithout an
end p
roduct (virtu
osic lab
or)
places M
arx in an
embarrassin
g situatio
n. T
he first typ
e of in
tellectual
labor co
nfo
rms to
the d
efinitio
n o
f “pro
ductive lab
or.” B
ut w
hat ab
out th
eseco
nd typ
e? I remem
ber in
passin
g, that fo
r Marx, p
roductive lab
or is n
ot
subord
inate o
r fatiguin
g or m
enial lab
or, b
ut is p
recisely and o
nly th
atkin
d o
f labor w
hich
pro
duces su
rplu
s-value. O
f course, even
virtuosic p
er-fo
rman
ces can, in
prin
ciple, p
roduce su
rplu
s-value: th
e activity of th
edan
cer, of th
e pian
ist, etc., if organ
ized in
a capitalistic fash
ion, can
be a
source o
f pro
fit. But M
arx is distu
rbed
by th
e strong resem
blan
ce betw
eenth
e activity of th
e perfo
rmin
g artist and th
e servileduties w
hich
, than
kless
and fru
strating as th
ey are, do n
ot p
roduce su
rplu
s value, an
d th
us retu
rnto
the realm
of n
on-p
roductive lab
or. Servile lab
or is th
at labor in
which
no capital
is invested
, but a w
age is paid
(example: th
e perso
nal services o
fa b
utler). A
ccord
ing to
Marx, even
if the “virtu
osist” w
ork
ers represen
t, on
one h
and, a n
ot very sign
ificant excep
tion to
the q
uan
titative poin
t of
view, o
n th
e oth
er han
d, an
d th
is is what co
unts m
ore, th
ey almost alw
aysco
nverge in
to th
e realm o
f servile/non-p
roductive lab
or. Su
ch co
nvergen
ceis san
ctioned
precisely b
y the fact th
at their activity d
oes n
ot give w
ay toan
indep
enden
t end p
roduct: w
here an
auto
nom
ous fin
ished
pro
duct is
lackin
g, for th
e most p
art one can
not sp
eak o
f pro
ductive (su
rplu
s-value)
labor. M
arx virtually accep
ts the eq
uatio
n w
ork
-with
out-en
d-p
roduct =
perso
nal services. In
conclu
sion, virtu
osic lab
or, fo
r Marx, is a fo
rm o
fwage lab
or w
hich
is not, at th
e same tim
e, pro
ductive lab
or (T
heories ofSurplu
s-value: 4
10–411).
Let u
s try to su
m th
ings u
p. V
irtuosity is o
pen
to tw
o altern
atives:eith
er it conceals th
e structu
ral characteristics o
f political activity (lack
of
an en
d p
roduct, b
eing exp
osed
to th
e presen
ce of o
thers, sen
se of co
ntin
-gen
cy, etc.), as Aristo
tle and H
annah
Aren
dt su
ggest; or, as in
Marx, it
takes o
n th
e features o
f “wage lab
or w
hich
is not p
roductive lab
or.” T
his
bifu
rcation d
ecays and falls to
pieces w
hen
productive
labor, in
its totality,
appro
priates th
e special ch
aracteristics of th
e perfo
rmin
g artist. In p
ost-
55
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
Ford
ism, th
ose w
ho p
roduce su
rplu
s-value b
ehave—
from
the stru
ctural
poin
t of view
, of co
urse—
like th
e pian
ists, the d
ancers, etc., an
d for this
reason, lik
e the p
olitician
s. With
reference to
contem
porary p
roductio
n,
Han
nah
Aren
dt’s o
bservatio
n o
n th
e activity of th
e perfo
rmin
g artist and
the p
olitician
rings clear: in
ord
er to w
ork
, one n
eeds a “p
ublicly o
rganized
space.” In
post-F
ord
ism, L
abor req
uires a “ p
ublicly o
rganized
space” an
dresem
bles a virtu
osic p
erform
ance (w
ithout en
d p
roduct). T
his p
ublicly
organ
ized sp
ace is called “co
operatio
n” by M
arx. One co
uld
say: at a cer-tain
level in th
e develo
pm
ent o
f pro
ductive so
cial forces, lab
or co
operatio
nin
trojects verb
al com
municatio
n in
to itself, o
r, more p
recisely, a com
plex
of political action
s.D
o yo
u rem
ember th
e extremely ren
owned
com
men
tary of M
ax Web
eron p
olitics as p
rofessio
n? (W
eber, P
olitics as a Vocation
) Web
er elaborates
on a series o
f qualities w
hich
defin
e the p
olitician
: know
ing h
ow to
place
the h
ealth o
f one’s ow
n so
ul in
dan
ger; an eq
ual b
alance b
etween
the eth
icsof co
nvin
cing an
d th
e ethics o
f responsib
ility; ded
ication to
one’s go
al, etc.W
e should
re-read th
is text with
reference to
Toyo
taism, to
labor b
asedupon lan
guage, to
the p
roductive m
obilizatio
n o
f the co
gnitive facu
lties.W
eber’s w
isdom
speak
s to u
s of th
e qualities req
uired
today fo
r material
pro
ductio
n.
The sp
eaker as p
erform
ing artist
Each
one o
f us is, an
d h
as always b
een, a virtu
oso
, a perfo
rmin
g artist, attim
es med
iocre o
r awkw
ard, b
ut, in
any even
t, a virtuoso. In
fact, the fu
n-
dam
ental m
odel o
f virtuosity, th
e experien
ce which
is the b
ase of th
e con-
cept, is the activity of the speaker. T
his is n
ot th
e activity of a k
now
ledge-
able an
d eru
dite lo
cuto
r, but o
f any
locu
tor. H
um
an verb
al langu
age, not
bein
g a pure to
ol o
r a com
plex o
f instru
men
tal signals (th
ese are charac-
teristics which
are inheren
t, if anyth
ing, in
the lan
guages o
f non-h
um
anan
imals: o
ne n
eed o
nly th
ink o
f bees an
d o
f the sign
als which
they u
se for
coord
inatin
g the p
rocu
remen
t of fo
od), h
as its fulfillm
ent in
itself and
does n
ot p
roduce (at least n
ot as a ru
le, not n
ecessarily) an “o
bject” in
de-
pen
den
t of th
e very act of h
aving b
een u
ttered.
Lan
guage is “w
ithout en
d p
roduct.” E
very utteran
ce is a virtuosic p
er-fo
rman
ce. And th
is is so, also
becau
se, obvio
usly, u
tterance is co
nnected
(directly o
r indirectly) to
the p
resence o
f oth
ers. Lan
guage p
resupposes
and, at th
e same tim
e, institu
tes once again
the “p
ublicly o
rganized
space”
which
Aren
dt sp
eaks ab
out. O
ne w
ould
need
to reread
the p
assages from
the N
icomachean
Ethics
on th
e essential d
ifference b
etween
poiesis (p
ro-
56
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
ductio
n) an
d p
raxis (politics) w
ith very clo
se connectio
n to
the n
otio
n o
fparole
in Sau
ssure (S
aussu
re, Course) an
d, ab
ove all, to th
e analyses o
fEm
ile Ben
veniste
(Ben
veniste,
Problem
s) on th
e su
bject
of
utteran
ce(w
here “u
tterance” is n
ot u
ndersto
od to
mean
the co
nten
t of w
hat is
uttered
, that “w
hich
is said,” b
ut th
e interjectio
n o
f a word
as such
, the
very fact of sp
eakin
g). In th
is way o
ne w
ould
establish
that th
e differen
tialch
aracteristics of p
raxis with
respect to
poiesis co
incid
e abso
lutely w
ith th
edifferen
tial characteristics o
f verbal lan
guage w
ith resp
ect to m
otility o
reven
to n
on-verb
al com
municatio
n.
There is m
ore to
the sto
ry. The sp
eaker alo
ne—
unlik
e the p
ianist, th
edan
cer or th
e actor—
can d
o w
ithout a scrip
t or a sco
re. The sp
eaker’s vir-
tuosity is tw
ofo
ld: n
ot o
nly d
oes it n
ot p
roduce an
end p
roduct w
hich
isdistin
guish
able fro
m p
erform
ance, b
ut it d
oes n
ot even
leave beh
ind an
end p
roduct w
hich
could
be actu
alized b
y mean
s of p
erform
ance. In
fact,th
e act of parole
mak
es use o
nly o
f the poten
tialityof lan
guage, o
r better
yet, of th
e generic facu
lty of lan
guage: n
ot o
f a pre-estab
lished
text indetail. T
he virtu
osity o
f the sp
eaker is th
e pro
totyp
e and ap
ex of all o
ther
form
s of virtu
osity, p
recisely becau
se it inclu
des w
ithin
itself the p
oten
-tial/act
relationsh
ip,
whereas
ord
inary
or
derivative
virtuosity,
instead
,presu
pposes a d
etermin
ed act (as in
Bach’s “G
oldberg” Variation
s, let us
say), which
can b
e relived over an
d over again
. But I w
ill return
to th
ispoin
t later. It is en
ough
to say, fo
r now
, that co
ntem
porary p
roductio
n b
ecom
es“virtu
osic” (an
d th
us p
olitical) p
recisely becau
se it inclu
des w
ithin
itselflin
guistic exp
erience as su
ch. If th
is is so, th
e matrix o
f post-F
ord
ism can
be fo
und in
the in
dustrial secto
rs in w
hich
there is “p
roductio
n o
f com
-m
unicatio
n b
y mean
s of co
mm
unicatio
n”; hen
ce, in th
e cultu
re industry.
Cultu
re industry: an
ticipatio
n an
d parad
igm
Virtu
osity b
ecom
es labor fo
r the m
asses with
the o
nset o
f a cultu
re indus-
try. It is here th
at the virtu
oso
begin
s to p
unch
a time card
. With
in th
esp
here o
f a cultu
re industry, in
fact, activity with
out an
end p
roduct, th
atis to
say, com
municative activity w
hich
has itself as an
end, is a d
istinctive,
central an
d n
ecessary elemen
t. But, exactly fo
r this reaso
n, it is ab
ove allw
ithin
the cu
lture in
dustry th
at the stru
cture o
f wage lab
or h
as overlapped
with
that o
f political actio
n.
With
in th
e sectors w
here co
mm
unicatio
n is p
roduced
by m
eans o
fco
mm
unicatio
n, resp
onsib
ilities and ro
les are, at the sam
e time, “virtu
-osic” an
d “p
olitical.” In
his m
ost im
portan
t novel, L
a vita agra [Bitter
57
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
Life],
a distin
guish
ed Italian
writer,
Lucian
o Bian
ciardi,
describ
es th
esp
lendors an
d m
iseries of th
e cultu
re industry in
Milan
durin
g the F
ifties.In
one rem
arkab
le page o
f this b
ook, h
e effectively illustrates w
hat d
istin-
guish
es cultu
re industry fro
m trad
itional in
dustry an
d fro
m agricu
lture.
The p
rotago
nist o
f La vita agra, h
aving arrived
in M
ilan fro
m G
rosseto
with
the in
tentio
n o
f avengin
g recent jo
b related
death
s that to
ok p
lace inhis regio
n, en
ds u
p b
ecom
ing in
volved
in th
e buddin
g cultu
re industry.
After a b
rief time, h
owever, h
e is fired. T
he fo
llowin
g is a passage w
hich
,to
day, h
as unm
istakab
le theo
retical merit: “[…
] And th
ey fired m
e, only
on acco
unt o
f the fact th
at I drag m
y feet, I move slow
ly, I look aro
und
even w
hen
it is not ab
solu
tely necessary. In
our b
usin
ess, how
ever, we n
eedto
lift our feet h
igh o
ff the gro
und, an
d b
ang th
em d
own again
on th
eflo
or n
oisily, w
e need
to m
ove, hit th
e pavem
ent, ju
mp u
p, create d
ust,
possib
ly a cloud o
f dust an
d th
en h
ide in
side it. It is n
ot lik
e bein
g a peas-
ant o
r a work
er. The p
easant m
oves slowly b
ecause th
e work
is so related
to th
e seasons; th
e peasan
t cannot sow
in Ju
ly and h
arvest in F
ebru
ary.W
ork
ers move q
uick
ly, but if th
ey are on th
e assembly lin
e, becau
se on th
elin
e there are m
easured
out p
eriods o
f pro
ductio
n, an
d if th
ey do n
ot m
ovefo
llowin
g that rh
ythm
, they are in
trouble […
]. But th
e fact is that th
epeasan
t belo
ngs to
the realm
of p
rimary activities an
d th
e work
er to th
erealm
of seco
ndary activities. O
ne p
roduces so
meth
ing fro
m n
oth
ing; th
eoth
er transfo
rms o
ne th
ing in
to an
oth
er. There is an
easy measu
ring stick
for th
e work
er and fo
r the p
easant, o
ne w
hich
is quan
titative: does th
e fac-to
ry pro
duce so
man
y pieces p
er hour, d
oes th
e farm yield
a pro
fit? In o
ur
pro
fessions it is d
ifferent, th
ere are no q
uan
titative measu
ring stick
s. How
does o
ne m
easure th
e skill o
f a priest, o
r of a jo
urn
alist, or o
f som
eone in
public relatio
ns? T
hese people neither produ
ce from scratch, n
or transform
.They are n
either p
rimary n
or seco
ndary. T
ertiary is what th
ey are and
what’s m
ore, I w
ould
dare say […
] even fo
ur tim
es removed
. They are n
ei-th
er instru
men
ts of p
roductio
n, n
or d
rive belts o
f transm
ission. T
hey are
a lubrican
t, at the m
ost p
ure V
aseline. H
ow can
one evalu
ate a priest, a
journ
alist, a public relatio
ns p
erson? H
ow can
one calcu
late the am
ount o
ffaith
, of p
urch
asing d
esire, of lik
eability th
at these p
eople h
ave man
agedto
muster u
p? N
o, w
e have n
o o
ther yard
stick in
this case th
an th
e one
which
can m
easure o
ne’s cap
acity to flo
at above w
ater, and to
ascend even
high
er, in sh
ort, to
beco
me a b
ishop. In
oth
er word
s, those w
ho ch
oose a
tertiary or q
uatern
ary pro
fession n
eed skills an
d aptitudes of a political kin
d.Politics, as everyb
ody k
now
s has fo
r a long tim
e ceased to
be th
e science
of go
od govern
men
t and h
as beco
me, in
stead, th
e art of co
nquerin
g and
main
tainin
g pow
er. Therefo
re, the excellen
ce of p
olitician
s is not m
ea-
58
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
sured
accord
ing to
the go
od th
at they m
anage to
do fo
r oth
ers, but is b
asedon th
e swiftn
ess with
which
they get to
the to
p an
d o
n th
e amount o
f time
they last th
ere. […] In
the sam
e way, in
the tertiary an
d q
uatern
ary pro
-fessio
ns,
since
there is no visible
production
of
goods to
function
as
ameasu
ring stick, th
e criterion w
ill be th
e same” (B
ianciard
i, La vita agra:
129-3
2; V
irno’s italics [n
ote: E
nglish
translatio
n fro
m th
e origin
al Italianby th
e translato
rs]). In
man
y ways, B
ianciard
i’s analysis is clearly d
ated, sin
ce it presen
ts the
function
s of the cu
lture in
dustry as a m
arginal an
d ou
tlandish
exception
toth
e rule. M
oreover, it is at best su
perfi
cial to reduce p
olitics to a pure an
d sim
-ple overth
rowin
g of pow
er. In sp
ite of this, th
e passage w
hich
I have ju
st readsh
ows excep
tional in
tuition
. In its ow
n w
ay, this in
tuition
recalls and reh
ash-
es Aren
dt’s th
esis on th
e similarity b
etween
virtuosos an
d p
oliticians, as w
ellas M
arx’s notation
s abou
t labor w
hich
does n
ot have a sep
arate “end p
roduct”
as its goal. Bian
ciardi u
nderscores th
e emergin
g “political d
imen
sion” of labor
with
in th
e cultu
re industry. B
ut, an
d th
is is crucial, h
e links th
is dim
ension
to the fact th
at in th
e cultu
re industry th
ere is no p
roduction
of labor in
de-
pen
den
t from activity itself. W
here an
extrinsic “en
d p
roduct” is lackin
g,th
ere lies the grou
nd for p
olitical action. I sh
ould
clarify: in th
e cultu
re indus-
try (as is the case, after all, tod
ay in th
e post-F
ord era for in
dustry in
general)
the fi
nish
ed p
roducts w
hich
can b
e sold at th
e end of th
e prod
uctive p
rocessare su
rely not scarce. T
he cru
cial poin
t is, thou
gh, th
at while th
e material p
ro-duction
of objects is d
elegated to an
autom
ated system
of mach
ines, th
eservices ren
dered
by livin
g labor, in
stead, resem
ble lin
guistic-virtu
osic ser-vices m
ore and m
ore.W
e should
ask o
urselves w
hat ro
le the cu
lture in
dustry assu
med
with
relation to
overcom
ing th
e Ford
/ Taylo
r model. I b
elieve that it fin
e-tuned
the p
aradigm
of p
ost-F
ord
ist pro
ductio
n o
n th
e whole. I b
elieve therefo
re,th
at the m
ode o
f action o
f the cu
lture in
dustry b
ecame, fro
m a certain
poin
t on, exem
plary an
d p
ervasive. With
in th
e cultu
re industry, even
in its
archaic in
carnatio
n exam
ined
by B
enjam
in an
d A
dorn
o, o
ne can
graspearly sign
s of a m
ode o
f pro
ductio
n w
hich
later, in th
e post-F
ord
era,beco
mes gen
eralized an
d elevated
to th
e rank o
f canon
.To clarify, let u
s return
, for a mom
ent, to th
e critique of th
e comm
uni-
cation in
dustry
leveled by
the
thin
kers of
the
Fran
kfurt
School.
In th
eDialectic of E
nlighten
ment(A
dorn
o and H
orckheim
er: 120–167) th
e auth
orsm
aintain
, rough
ly, that th
e “factories of the sou
l” (publish
ing, cin
ema, rad
io,television
etc.)
also con
form to
the
Ford
ist criteria
of serialization
an
dparcelization
. In th
ose factories, also, the con
veyer belt, th
e dom
inan
t sym-
bol of au
tomob
ile factories, seems to assert itself. C
apitalism
—th
is is the
59
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
thesis—
show
s that it can
mech
anize an
d p
arcelize even its sp
iritual p
roduc-
tion, exactly as it h
as don
e with
agricultu
re and th
e processin
g of metals.
Serialization, in
signifi
cance of in
divid
ual tasks, th
e econom
etrics of feelings:
these are th
e recurren
t refrains. E
viden
tly, this critical ap
proach
allowed
, inth
e pecu
liar case of the cu
lture in
dustry, for th
e contin
uation
of some ele-
men
ts which
resist a complete assim
ilation to th
e Ford
ist organization
of the
labor p
rocess. In th
e cultu
re industry, th
at is to say, it was th
erefore necessary
to main
tain a certain
space th
at was in
formal, n
ot program
med
, one w
hich
was op
en to th
e unfo
reseen sp
ark, to
com
municative an
d creative im
provi-
sation: n
ot in
ord
er to favo
r hum
an creativity, n
aturally, b
ut in
ord
er toach
ieve satisfacto
ry levels
of
corp
orate
pro
ductivity.
How
ever, fo
r th
eFran
kfu
rt Sch
ool, th
ese aspects w
ere noth
ing b
ut u
n-in
fluen
tial remnan
ts,rem
ains o
f the p
ast, waste. W
hat co
unted
was th
e general F
ord
ization o
fth
e cultu
re industry. N
ow, it seem
s to m
e, from
our p
resent p
erspective,
that it is n
ot d
ifficult to
recogn
ize that th
ese purp
orted
remnan
ts (with
acertain
space gran
ted to
the in
form
al, to th
e unexp
ected, to
the “u
n-
plan
ned
”) were, after all, lo
aded
with
futu
re possib
ilities.These w
ere not rem
nan
ts, but an
ticipato
ry om
ens. T
he in
form
ality of
com
municative b
ehavio
r, the co
mpetitive in
teraction typ
ical of a m
eeting,
the ab
rupt d
iversion th
at can en
liven a televisio
n p
rogram
(in gen
eral,everyth
ing w
hich
it would
have b
een d
ysfunctio
nal to
rigidify an
d regu
latebeyo
nd a certain
thresh
old
), has b
ecom
e now
, in th
e post-F
ord
era, a typ-
ical trait of th
e entire
realm o
f social p
roductio
n. T
his is tru
e not o
nly fo
rour co
ntem
porary cu
lture in
dustry, b
ut also
for F
iat in M
elfi. If Bian
ciar-di
was
discu
ssing
labor
organ
ized by
a nexu
s betw
een (virtu
osic)
activity-with
out-en
d-p
roduct an
d p
olitical attitu
des as a m
arginal ab
erra-tio
n,
this
has
now
beco
me
the
rule. T
he
interm
inglin
g of
virtuosity,
politics an
d lab
or h
as extended
everywhere. W
hat is left to
questio
n, if
anyth
ing, is w
hat sp
ecific role is carried
out today
by th
e com
municatio
nin
dustry, sin
ce all industrial secto
rs are insp
ired b
y its model. H
as the very
thin
g that o
nce
upon a
time
anticip
ated th
e post-F
ord
tu
rnin
g poin
tbeco
me en
tirely unfo
lded
? In o
rder to
answ
er this q
uestio
n, w
e should
linger a w
hile o
n th
e concep
t of “sp
ectacle” and “so
ciety of th
e spectacle.”
Lan
guage o
n th
e stage
I believe th
at the n
otio
n o
f “spectacle,” th
ough
itself rather vagu
e, provid
esa u
seful to
ol fo
r decip
herin
g som
e aspects o
f the p
ost-F
ord
multitu
de
(which
is, in fact, a m
ultitu
de o
f virtuoso
s, of w
ork
ers who, in
ord
er tow
ork
, rely on gen
erically “political” sk
ills).
60
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
The co
ncep
t of “sp
ectacle,” coin
ed in
the Sixties b
y the S
ituatio
nists,
is a truly th
eoretical co
ncep
t, not fo
reign to
the ten
et of M
arxian argu
-m
entatio
n.
Acco
rdin
g to
G
uy
Deb
ord
“sp
ectacle” is
hum
anco
mm
unicatio
n which
has
beco
me
a co
mm
odity.
What
is delivered
thro
ugh
the sp
ectacle is precisely th
e hum
an ab
ility to co
mm
unicate, ver-
bal lan
guage as su
ch. A
s we can
see, the co
re of th
e issue is n
ot a ran
coro
us
objectio
n to
consu
mer so
ciety (which
is always sligh
tly susp
ect, the risk
bein
g, as in th
e case of P
asolin
i, that o
f bem
oan
ing th
e blessed
cohab
ita-tio
n
betw
een
low
levels
of
consu
merism
an
d
pellagra).
Hum
anco
mm
unicatio
n, as sp
ectacle, is a com
modity am
ong o
thers, n
ot o
utfitted
with
special q
ualities o
r prero
gatives. On th
e oth
er han
d, it is a co
mm
od-
ity which
concern
s, from
a certain p
oin
t on, all in
dustrial secto
rs. This is
where th
e pro
blem
lies.O
n o
ne h
and, sp
ectacle is the sp
ecific pro
duct o
f a specific in
dustry,
the so
-called cu
lture in
dustry, in
fact. On th
e oth
er han
d, in
the p
ost-F
ord
era, hum
an co
mm
unicatio
n is also
an essen
tial ingred
ient o
f pro
ductive
cooperatio
n in
general; th
us, it is th
e reignin
g pro
ductive fo
rce, som
ethin
gth
at goes b
eyond th
e dom
ain o
f its own sp
here, p
ertainin
g, instead
, to th
ein
dustry as a w
hole, to
poiesis in
its totality. In
the sp
ectacle we fin
d exh
ib-
ited, in
a separate an
d fetish
ized fo
rm, th
e most relevan
t pro
ductive fo
rcesof so
ciety, those p
roductive fo
rces on w
hich
every contem
porary w
ork
pro
cess must d
raw: lin
guistic co
mpeten
ce, know
ledge, im
aginatio
n, etc.
Thus, th
e spectacle h
as a double n
ature: a sp
ecific pro
duct o
f a particu
larin
dustry, b
ut also
, at the sam
e time, th
e quin
tessence o
f the m
ode o
f pro
-ductio
n in
its entirety. D
ebord
writes th
at the sp
ectacle is “the gen
eralglo
ss on th
e rationality o
f the system
.” (Deb
ord
, ibid
., Thesis 1
5) W
hat
presen
ts the sp
ectacle, so to
speak
, are the p
roductive fo
rces them
selves of
society as th
ey overlap, in
ever-greater measu
re, with
lingu
istic-com
mu-
nicative co
mpeten
cies and w
ith th
e general in
tellect.The d
ouble n
ature o
f the sp
ectacle is remin
iscent, in
som
e ways, o
f the
double n
ature o
f money. A
s you k
now
, money is a co
mm
odity am
ong o
th-
ers, man
ufactu
red b
y the State M
int, in
Rom
e, endow
ed o
f a metallic o
rpap
er form
. But it also
has a seco
nd n
ature: it is an
equivalen
t, a unit o
fm
easurem
ent, o
f all oth
er com
modities. M
oney is p
articular an
d u
niversal
at the sam
e time; sp
ectacle is particu
lar and u
niversal at th
e same tim
e.This co
mpariso
n, th
ough
with
out a d
oubt an
attractive one, is in
correct.
Unlik
e money, w
hich
measu
res the resu
lt of a p
roductive p
rocess, o
ne
which
has b
een co
nclu
ded
, spectacle co
ncern
s, instead
, the p
roductive
pro
cess in fieri, in
its unfo
ldin
g, in its p
oten
tial. The sp
ectacle, accord
ing
to D
ebord
, reveals what w
om
en an
d m
en can
do. W
hile m
oney m
irrors in
61
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
itself the valu
e of co
mm
odities, th
us sh
owin
g what so
ciety has already
pro
-duced
, the sp
ectacle exposes in
a separate fo
rm th
at which
the aggregate o
fso
ciety canbe an
d d
o. If money is th
e “real abstractio
n” (to u
se a classicM
arxian exp
ression) w
hich
refers back
to fin
ished
labor, to
labor’s p
ast,acco
rdin
g to D
ebord
the sp
ectacle is, instead
, the “real ab
straction” w
hich
portrays lab
or in
itself, the p
resent ten
se of lab
or. If m
oney sp
earhead
sexch
ange, th
en th
e spectacle, h
um
an co
mm
unicatio
n w
hich
has b
ecom
e aco
mm
odity, sp
earhead
s, if anyth
ing, p
roductive co
mm
unicatio
n. W
e must
conclu
de, th
en, th
at the sp
ectacle, which
is hum
an co
mm
unicative cap
ac-ity tu
rned
into
com
modity, d
oes h
ave a double n
ature w
hich
is differen
tfro
m th
at of m
oney. B
ut d
ifferent in
what w
ay?M
y hyp
oth
esis is that th
e com
municatio
n in
dustry (o
r rather, th
esp
ectacle, or even
yet, the cu
lture in
dustry) is an
industry am
ong o
thers,
with
its specific tech
niq
ues, its p
articular p
roced
ures, its p
eculiar p
rofits,
etc.; on th
e oth
er han
d, it also
plays th
e role o
f industry of the m
eans of
production
. Trad
itionally, th
e industry o
f the m
eans o
f pro
ductio
n is th
ein
dustry th
at pro
duces m
achin
ery and o
ther in
strum
ents to
be u
sed in
the
most varied
sectors o
f pro
ductio
n. H
owever, in
a situatio
n in
which
the
mean
s of p
roductio
n are n
ot red
ucib
le to m
achin
es but co
nsist o
f lin-
guistic-co
gnitive
com
peten
cies in
separab
le fro
m livin
g lab
or,
it is
legitimate to
assum
e that a co
nsp
icuous p
art of th
e so-called
“mean
s of
pro
ductio
n” consists o
f techniq
ues an
d co
mm
unicative p
roced
ures. N
ow,
where are th
ese techniq
ues an
d p
roced
ures created
, if not in
the cu
lture
industry? T
he cu
lture in
dustry p
roduces (regen
erates, experim
ents w
ith)
com
municative p
roced
ures, w
hich
are then
destin
ed to
functio
n also
asm
eans o
f pro
ductio
n in
the m
ore trad
itional secto
rs of o
ur co
ntem
porary
econom
y. This is th
e role o
f the co
mm
unicatio
n in
dustry, o
nce p
ost-
Ford
ism has
beco
me
fully
entren
ched
: an
in
dustry
of
the
mean
s of
com
municatio
n.
Virtu
osity in
the w
orkplace
Virtu
osity, w
ith its in
trinsic p
olitical d
imen
sion, n
ot o
nly ch
aracterizes the
cultu
re industry b
ut th
e totality o
f contem
porary so
cial pro
ductio
n. O
ne
could
say that in
the o
rganizatio
n o
f labor in
the p
ost-F
ord
era, activityw
ithout an
end p
roduct, p
reviously a sp
ecial and p
roblem
atic case (one
need
only recall, in
this regard
, Marx’s u
ncertain
ties), beco
mes th
e pro
to-
type o
f all wage lab
or. L
et me rep
eat a poin
t I mad
e befo
re: this d
oes n
ot
mean
that car d
ashboard
s are no lo
nger p
roduced
but th
at, for an
everin
creasing n
um
bers o
f pro
fessional task
s, the fu
lfillmen
t of an
action is
62
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
intern
al to th
e action itself (th
at is, it does n
ot co
nsist o
f giving rise to
anin
dep
enden
t semi-lab
or).
A situ
ation o
f this k
ind is fo
reshad
owed
by M
arx him
self in th
e Grun-
drisse, when
he w
rites that w
ith th
e adven
t of large, au
tom
ated in
dustry
and th
e inten
sive and system
atic applicatio
n o
f the n
atural scien
ces to th
epro
ductive p
rocess, lab
or activity m
oves “to the side of th
e pro
ductio
npro
cess instead
of b
eing its ch
ief actor” (G
rundrisse: 7
05). T
his p
lacing o
flab
or activity “to
the sid
e” of th
e imm
ediate p
rocess o
f pro
ductio
n in
di-
cates, Marx ad
ds, th
at labor co
rresponds m
ore an
d m
ore to
“a superviso
ryan
d regu
latory activity” (ib
id., 7
09). In
oth
er word
s: the task
s of a w
ork
eror o
f a clerk n
o lo
nger in
volve th
e com
pletio
n o
f a single p
articular assign
-m
ent, b
ut th
e chan
ging an
d in
tensifyin
g of so
cial cooperatio
n. P
leaseallow
me to
digress. T
he co
ncep
t of social cooperation
, which
is so co
mplex
and su
btle in
Marx, can
be th
ough
t of in
two d
ifferent w
ays. There is, first
of all, an
“objective” m
eanin
g: each in
divid
ual d
oes d
ifferent, sp
ecific,th
ings w
hich
are put in
relation to
one an
oth
er by th
e engin
eer or b
y the
factory fo
reman
: cooperatio
n, in
this case, tran
scends in
divid
ual activity;
it has n
o relevan
ce to th
e way in
which
individ
ual w
ork
ers functio
n. S
ec-ondly,
how
ever, w
e m
ust
consid
er also
a
“subjective”
notio
n of
cooperatio
n:
it m
aterializes when
a
consp
icuous
portio
n of
individ
ual
work
consists o
f develo
pin
g, refinin
g, and in
tensifyin
g cooperatio
n itself.
With
post-F
ord
ism th
e second d
efinitio
n o
f cooperatio
n p
revails. I amgo
ing to
try to exp
lain th
is better b
y mean
s of a co
mpariso
n. F
rom
the
begin
nin
g, one reso
urce o
f capitalistic en
terprise h
as been
the so
-called“m
isappro
priatio
n o
f work
ers’ know
how
.” That is to
say: when
work
ersfo
und a w
ay to execu
te their lab
or w
ith less effo
rt, takin
g an extra b
reak,
etc., th
e co
rporate
hierarch
y to
ok ad
vantage
of
this
min
imal
victory,
know
ing it w
as hap
pen
ing, in
ord
er to m
odify th
e organ
ization o
f labor.
In m
y opin
ion, a sign
ificant ch
ange tak
es place w
hen
the task
of th
e work
-er o
r of th
e clerk to
som
e extent co
nsists in
actually fin
din
g, in d
iscovering
exped
ients, “trick
s,” solu
tions w
hich
amelio
rate the o
rganizatio
n o
f labor.
In th
e latter case, work
ers’ know
ledge is n
ot u
sed o
n th
e sly but it is
requested
explicitly; th
at is to say, it b
ecom
es one o
f the stip
ulated
work
-in
g assignm
ents. T
he sam
e chan
ge takes p
lace, in fact, w
ith regard
s toco
operatio
n: it is n
ot th
e same th
ing if w
ork
ers are coord
inated
de facto
by
the en
gineer o
r if they are ask
ed to
inven
t and p
roduce n
ew co
operative
pro
cedures. In
stead o
f remain
ing in
the b
ackgro
und, th
e act of co
operat-
ing, lin
guistic in
tegration, co
mes to
the very fo
reground.
When
“subjective” co
operatio
n b
ecom
es the p
rimary p
roductive fo
rce,lab
or activities d
isplay a m
arked
lingu
istic-com
municative q
uality, th
ey
63
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
entail th
e presen
ce of o
thers. T
he m
onolo
gical feature o
f labor d
ies away:
the relatio
nsh
ip w
ith o
thers is a d
riving, b
asic elemen
t, not so
meth
ing
accessory. W
here lab
or m
oves to the side of th
e imm
ediate p
roductive
pro
cess, instead
of b
eing o
ne o
f its com
ponen
ts, pro
ductive co
operatio
n is
a “publicly o
rganized
space.” T
his “p
ublicly o
rganized
space”—
interjected
into
the lab
or p
rocess—
mobilizes attitu
des w
hich
are traditio
nally p
oliti-
cal. Politics (in
the b
road
sense) b
ecom
es pro
ductive fo
rce, task, “to
ol
box.” O
ne co
uld
say that th
e herald
ic motto
of p
ost-F
ord
ism is, righ
tful-
ly, “politics ab
ove all.” After all, w
hat else co
uld
the d
iscourse o
f “total
quality” m
ean, if n
ot a req
uest to
surren
der to
pro
ductio
n a taste fo
ractio
n, th
e capacity to
face the p
ossib
le and th
e unfo
reseen, th
e capacity to
com
municate so
meth
ing n
ew?
When
hired
lab
or
invo
lves th
e desire
for
action,
for
a relatio
nal
capacity, fo
r the p
resence o
f oth
ers—all th
ings th
at the p
recedin
g gener-
ation w
as trying o
ut w
ithin
the lo
cal party h
eadquarters—
we can
sayth
at som
e distin
guish
ing traits o
f the h
um
an an
imal, ab
ove all th
e pos-
session o
f a langu
age, are subsu
med
with
in cap
italistic pro
ductio
n. T
he
inclu
sion o
f the very an
thropogenesis
in th
e existing m
ode o
f pro
ductio
nis an
extreme even
t. Forget th
e Heid
eggerian ch
atter about th
e “techni-
cal era”…
This
event
does
not
assuage,
but
radicalizes,
instead
, th
ean
tinom
ies of eco
nom
ic-social cap
italistic form
ation. N
obody is as p
oor
as those w
ho see th
eir ow
n relatio
n to
the p
resence o
f oth
ers, that is to
say, their o
wn co
mm
unicative facu
lty, their o
wn p
ossessio
n o
f a lan-
guage, red
uced
to w
age labor.
Intellect as sco
re
If the en
tirety of p
ost-F
ord
ist labor is p
roductive (o
f surp
lus-valu
e) labor
precisely b
ecause it fu
nctio
ns in
a political-virtu
osic m
anner, th
en th
equestio
n to
ask is th
is: what is th
e scorew
hich
the virtu
oso
s-work
ers per-
form
? What is th
e script o
f their lin
guistic-co
mm
unicative perform
ances?
The p
ianist p
erform
s a Chopin
waltz, th
e actor is m
ore o
r less faithfu
lto
a prelim
inary scrip
t, the o
rator h
as at the least so
me n
otes to
refer to;
all perfo
rmin
g artists can co
unt o
n a sco
re. But w
hen
virtuosity ap
plies to
the to
tality of so
cial labor, w
hich
one is th
e pro
per sco
re? Fro
m m
y per-
spective,
I m
aintain
w
ithout
too m
any
reservations
that
the
score
perfo
rmed
by th
e multitu
de in
the p
ost-F
ord
era is the In
tellect, intellect
as generic h
um
an facu
lty. Acco
rdin
g to M
arx, the sco
re of m
odern
virtu-
oso
s is the gen
eral intellect, th
e general in
tellect of so
ciety, abstract th
ough
twhich
has b
ecom
e a pillar o
f social p
roductio
n. W
e thus go
back
to a
64
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
them
e (general in
tellect, public in
tellect, “com
monplaces,” etc.) w
hich
we
consid
ered d
urin
g the first d
ay.By gen
eral intellect
Marx m
eans scien
ce, know
ledge in
general, th
eknow
-how
on w
hich
social p
roductivity relies b
y now
. The p
oliticizatio
nof w
ork
(that is, th
e subsu
mptio
n in
to th
e sphere o
f labor o
f what h
adhith
erto belo
nged
to
political
action)
occu
rs precisely
when
th
ough
tbeco
mes th
e prim
ary source o
f the p
roductio
n o
f wealth
. Though
t ceasesto
be an
invisib
le activity and b
ecom
es som
ethin
g exterior, “p
ublic,” as it
break
s into
the p
roductive p
rocess. O
ne co
uld
say: only th
en, o
nly w
hen
it has lin
guistic in
tellect as its barycen
ter, can th
e activity of lab
or ab
sorb
into
itself man
y of th
e characteristics w
hich
had
previo
usly b
elonged
toth
e sphere o
f political actio
n.
Up to
this p
oin
t we h
ave discu
ssed th
e juxtap
ositio
n b
etween
Lab
or
and P
olitics. N
ow, h
owever, th
e third
facet of h
um
an exp
erience co
mes
into
play, In
tellect. It is the “sco
re” which
is always p
erform
ed, over an
dagain
, by th
e work
ers-virtuoso
s. I believe th
at the h
ybrid
ization b
etween
the d
ifferent sp
heres (p
ure th
ough
t, political life an
d lab
or) b
egins p
re-cisely w
hen
the In
tellect, as prin
cipal p
roductive fo
rce, beco
mes p
ublic.
Only th
en d
oes lab
or assu
me a virtu
osic (o
r com
municative) sem
blan
ce,an
d, th
us, it co
lors itself w
ith “p
olitical” h
ues.
Marx attrib
utes to
though
t an exterio
r character, a p
ublic d
ispositio
n,
on tw
o d
ifferent o
ccasions. A
bove all, w
hen
he m
akes u
se of th
e expressio
n“real ab
straction,” w
hich
is a very beau
tiful exp
ression also
from
a philo
-so
phical p
oin
t of view
, and th
en, w
hen
he d
iscusses “gen
eral intellect.”
Money, fo
r instan
ce, is a real abstractio
n. M
oney, in
fact, embodies, m
akes
real,one o
f the card
inal p
rincip
les of h
um
an th
ough
t: the id
ea of eq
uiva-
lency. T
his id
ea, which
is in itself u
tterly abstract, acq
uires a co
ncrete
existence, even
jingles in
side a w
allet. A th
ough
t beco
min
g a thing: h
ere iswhat a real ab
straction is. O
n th
e oth
er han
d, th
e concep
t of gen
eral intel-
lectdoes n
oth
ing b
ut ad
vance, excessively, th
e notio
n o
f real abstractio
n.
With
the term
general in
tellectM
arx indicates th
e stage in w
hich
certainrealities (fo
r instan
ce, a coin
) no lo
nger h
ave the valu
e and valid
ity of a
though
t, but rath
er it is our th
ough
ts, as such
, that im
med
iately acquire
the valu
e of m
aterial facts. If in th
e case of ab
stract though
t it is the em
pir-
ical fact (for exam
ple, th
e exchan
ge of eq
uivalen
cies) which
exhib
its the
sophisticated
structu
re of p
ure th
ough
t, in th
e case of gen
eral intellect
the
relation is overtu
rned
: now
it is our th
ough
ts which
presen
t them
selveswith
the w
eight an
d in
ciden
ce typical o
f facts. The gen
eral intellect
is the
stage at which
men
tal abstractio
ns are im
med
iately, in th
emselves, real
abstractio
ns.
65
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
Here, h
owever, is w
here th
e prob
lems arise. O
r, if you w
ish, a certain
dis-
satisfaction arises w
ith relation
to Marx’s form
ulation
s. The d
ifficu
lty derives
from th
e fact that M
arx conceives th
e “general in
tellect” as a scientifi
c objec-
tified
capacity, as a system
of mach
ines. O
bviou
sly, this asp
ect of the “gen
eralin
tellect” matters, b
ut it is n
ot everythin
g. We sh
ould
consid
er the d
imen
sionwhere th
e general in
tellect, instead
of bein
g incarn
ated (or rath
er, cast in iron
)in
to the system
of mach
ines, exists as attrib
ute of livin
g labor. T
he general
intellect
man
ifests itself today, ab
ove all, as the com
munication
, abstraction
,self-refl
ection of livin
g subjects. It seem
s legitimate to m
aintain
that, accord
-in
g to the very logic of econ
omic d
evelopm
ent, it is n
ecessary that a p
art ofth
e general in
tellectnot con
geal as fixed
capital b
ut u
nfold
in com
municative
interaction
, under th
e guise of ep
istemic p
aradigm
s, dialogical perform
ances,
lingu
istic games. In
other w
ords, p
ublic in
tellect is one an
d th
e same as coop
-eratio
n,
the
acting
in co
ncert
of
hum
an lab
or,
the
com
municative
competen
ce of individ
uals.
In th
e fifth ch
apter o
f the first b
ook o
f the C
apital, Marx w
rites: “The
labour p
rocess, as w
e have ju
st presen
ted it in
its simple an
d ab
stract ele-m
ents, is p
urp
osefu
l activity aimed
at the p
roductio
n o
f use-valu
es […]
We d
id n
ot, th
erefore, h
ave to p
resent th
e work
er in h
is relationsh
ip w
ithoth
er work
ers; it was en
ough
to p
resent m
an an
d h
is labour o
n o
ne sid
e,natu
re and its m
aterials on th
e oth
er”(Capital, V
olu
me 1
: 290). In
this
chap
ter Marx d
escribes th
e labor p
rocess as a n
atural p
rocess o
f organ
icren
ewal b
etween
hum
ans an
d n
ature, th
us in
abstract an
d gen
eral terms,
with
out p
aying atten
tion to
histo
rical-social relatio
ns. N
oneth
eless, we
should
ask w
heth
er it is legitimate, w
hile rem
ainin
g on th
is very general
(almost an
thro
polo
gical) level, to exp
urgate fro
m th
e concep
t of lab
or th
ein
teractive aspect, o
ne’s relatio
n w
ith o
ther w
ork
ers. It is certainly n
ot
legitimate as lo
ng as th
e activity of lab
or h
as its core in
com
municative
perfo
rman
ce. It is impossib
le, then
, to trace th
e pro
cess of lab
or w
ithout
presen
ting, fro
m th
e begin
nin
g, the w
ork
er in relatio
n w
ith o
ther w
ork
ers;or, if w
e wish
to em
ploy again
the catego
ry of virtu
osity, in
relation w
ithone’s “p
ublic.”
The co
ncep
t of co
operatio
n co
mprises in
itself, fully, th
e com
munica-
tive capacity o
f hum
an b
eings. T
hat is tru
e, above all, w
here co
operatio
nis tru
ly a specific “p
roduct” o
f the activity o
f labor, so
meth
ing w
hich
ispro
moted
, elaborated
, refined
by th
ose w
ho co
operate. T
he gen
eral intel-
lectdem
ands virtu
osic actio
n (th
at is, in th
e bro
ad sen
se, political actio
n),
precisely b
ecause a co
nsisten
t portio
n o
f this in
tellect is not ch
anneled
inth
e mach
ine system
, but m
anifests itself in
the d
irect activity of h
um
anlab
or, in
its lingu
istic cooperatio
n.
66
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
The in
tellect, the p
ure facu
lty of th
ough
t, the sim
ple fact o
f havin
g-a-lan
guage: let u
s repeat, h
ere lies the “sco
re” which
is always an
d again
perfo
rmed
by th
e post-F
ord
ist virtuoso
s. (We sh
ould
notice th
e differen
cein
appro
ach b
etween
today’s lectu
re and th
at of o
ur p
revious sem
inar:
what to
day w
e are calling th
e “score” o
f the virtu
oso
, the in
tellect, in o
ur
previo
us m
eeting w
as seen as an
apotro
paic reso
urce, as sh
elter against th
ein
determ
inate h
azards o
f the w
orld
ly context. It is im
portan
t to co
nsid
erboth
of th
ese concep
ts togeth
er: the co
ntem
porary m
ultitu
de, w
ith its
form
s of life an
d its lin
guistic gam
es, places itself at th
e crossro
ads b
etween
these tw
o m
eanin
gs of “p
ublic in
tellect.”) I would
like to
go b
ack to
, and
emphasize h
ere, an im
portan
t poin
t I have m
ade b
efore. W
hile th
e virtu-
oso
in th
e strictest sense o
f the w
ord
(the p
ianist, th
e dan
cer, for in
stance)
mak
es use o
f a well d
efined
score, th
at is to say, o
f an en
d product
in its
most p
roper an
d restricted
sense, th
e post-F
ord
ist virtuoso
s, “perfo
rmin
g”th
eir own lin
guistic facu
lties, can n
ot tak
e for gran
ted a d
etermin
ed en
dprodu
ct. General in
tellectsh
ould
not n
ecessarily mean
the aggregate o
f the
know
ledge acq
uired
by th
e species, b
ut th
e faculty o
f thin
kin
g; poten
tial assu
ch, n
ot its co
untless p
articular realizatio
ns. T
he “gen
eral intellect” is
noth
ing b
ut th
e intellect in
general. H
ere it is usefu
l to go
back
to th
eexam
ple o
f the sp
eaker w
hich
we h
ave already exam
ined
. With
the in
finite
poten
tial of o
ne’s ow
n lin
guistic facu
lty as the o
nly “sco
re,” a locu
tor (an
ylo
cuto
r) articulates d
etermin
ed acts o
f speech
: so th
en, th
e faculty o
f lan-
guage is th
e opposite o
f a determ
ined
script, o
f an en
d p
roduct w
ith th
eseor th
ose u
nm
istakab
le characteristics. V
irtuosity fo
r the p
ost-F
ord
ist mul-
titude is o
ne an
d th
e same as th
e virtuosity o
f the sp
eaker: virtu
osity
with
out a scrip
t, or rath
er, based
on th
e prem
ise of a scrip
t that co
incid
eswith
pure an
d sim
ple dyn
amis, w
ith p
ure an
d sim
ple p
oten
tial.It is u
seful to ad
d th
at the relation
betw
een “score” an
d virtu
osic perfor-
man
ce is regulated
by th
e norm
s of capitalistic en
terprise. P
uttin
g to work
(and to p
rofit) th
e most gen
eric comm
unicative an
d cogn
itive faculties of th
ehum
an an
imal h
as a historical in
dex, a h
istorically determ
ined
form. T
he
general in
tellectm
anifests itself, tod
ay, as a perp
etuation
of wage lab
or, as ahierarch
ical system, as a p
illar of the p
roduction
of surp
lus-valu
e.
Reaso
n of S
tate and Exit
At th
is poin
t we can
sketch
som
e of th
e conseq
uen
ces of th
e hyb
ridiza-
tion b
etween
Lab
or, (p
olitical) A
ction an
d In
tellect. Conseq
uen
ces which
occu
r both
on th
e level of p
roductio
n an
d w
ithin
the p
ublic sp
here (State,
adm
inistrative ap
paratu
s).
67
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
The In
tellect beco
mes p
ublic as so
on as it lin
ks itself to
labor; w
e must
observe, h
owever, th
at once it h
as been
linked
to w
age labor, its typ
icalpublicn
ess is also in
hib
ited an
d d
istorted
. This p
ublicn
ess is evoked
overan
d over again
in its ro
le as pro
ductive fo
rce; and it is su
ppressed
over and
over again in
its role as pu
blic sphere(in
the p
roper sen
se of th
e term), as
possib
le root o
f political A
ction, as a d
ifferent co
nstitu
tional p
rincip
le.The gen
eral intellect
is the fo
undatio
n o
f a social co
operatio
n b
road
erth
an th
at cooperatio
n w
hich
is specifically related
to lab
or. B
road
er and, at
the sam
e time, to
tally hetero
geneo
us. W
e go b
ack to
one o
f the th
emes
addressed
durin
g the first d
ay of o
ur sem
inar. W
hile th
e connectio
ns o
f the
pro
ductive p
rocess are b
ased o
n a tech
nical an
d h
ierarchical division
of
tasks, th
e acting in
concert w
hich
hin
ges upon th
e general in
tellectm
ovesfro
m co
mm
on p
articipatio
n to
“life of th
e min
d,” th
at is, from
the p
re-lim
inary
sharing
of
com
municative
and co
gnitive
abilities.
How
ever,co
operatio
n in excess o
f the In
tellect, instead
of an
nullin
g the co
-actions o
fcap
italistic pro
ductio
n, figu
res as its most em
inen
t resource. Its h
etero-
geneity
has
neith
er vo
ice nor
visibility.
On th
e co
ntrary,
since
the
appearan
ce of th
e Intellect b
ecom
es the tech
nical p
rerequisite o
f Lab
or,
the actin
g in co
ncert b
eyond lab
or w
hich
it brin
gs about is in
turn
sub-
sum
ed in
to th
e criteria and h
ierarchies w
hich
characterize th
e regime o
fth
e factory.
There are tw
o p
rincip
al conseq
uen
ces of th
is parad
oxical situ
ation.
The first p
ertains to
the n
ature an
d fo
rm o
f political p
ower. T
he p
eculiar
publicn
ess of th
e Intellect, d
eprived
of its ow
n tru
e expressio
n b
y that very
Lab
or w
hich
at the sam
e time reclaim
s it as pro
ductive p
ower, m
anifests
itself indirectly w
ithin
the sp
here o
f the State b
y way o
f a hypertrophicgrow
th of the administrative apparatu
s. The ad
min
istration, an
d n
o lo
nger
the p
olitical-p
arliamen
tary system, is th
e heart o
f “stateness” [“statu
alità”]:but th
is is so, in
fact, becau
se the ad
min
istration rep
resents an
auth
oritar-
ian co
alescence
of
the gen
eral intellect,
the
poin
t of
fusio
n betw
eenknow
ledge an
d co
ntro
l, the in
verted im
age of excess co
operatio
n. It is tru
eth
at peo
ple h
ave noticed
for years th
e increasin
g and d
etermin
ing w
eight
of b
ureau
cracy with
in th
e “body p
olitic,” th
e preem
inen
ce of th
e decree
with
respect to
the law
: here, h
owever, I w
ould
like to
indicate a n
ewth
reshold
. In sh
ort, w
e no lo
nger face th
e well-k
now
n p
rocesses o
f ratio-
nalizatio
n o
f the State; o
n th
e contrary, w
e must ack
now
ledge th
e achieved
statization[statizzazion
e] of
the Intellect
which
has
occu
rred. T
he
old
expressio
n “reaso
n o
f State” acquires fo
r the first tim
e a non-m
etaphorical
significan
ce. Hobbes saw
the p
rincip
le of legitim
ization o
f abso
lute p
ower
in th
e transfer
of th
e natu
ral right o
f each sin
gle individ
ual to
the p
erson
68
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
of th
e sovereign; n
ow, o
n th
e oth
er han
d, w
e should
talk ab
out a tran
sferof th
e Intellect, o
r rather, o
f its imm
ediate an
d irred
ucib
le publicn
ess toth
e state adm
inistratio
n.
The seco
nd co
nseq
uen
ce pertain
s to th
e prevailin
g natu
re of th
e post-
Ford
ist regime. S
ince th
e “publicly o
rganized
space” o
pen
ed u
p b
y the
Intellect is co
nstan
tly reduced
to lab
or co
operatio
n, th
at is, to a th
ick n
etof h
ierarchical relatio
ns, th
e nullifyin
g functio
n o
f the “p
resence o
f oth
-ers” in
all concrete o
peratio
ns o
f pro
ductio
n tak
es the fo
rm o
f personal
dependen
ce. In o
ther w
ord
s, virtuosic activity sh
ow
s itself as universal
servile work. T
he affin
ity betw
een a p
ianist an
d a w
aiter, which
Marx h
adfo
reseen, fin
ds an
unexp
ected co
nfirm
ation in
the ep
och
in w
hich
allw
age labor h
as som
ethin
g in co
mm
on w
ith th
e “perfo
rmin
g artist.” It isju
st that th
e very labor w
hich
pro
duces th
e surp
lus-valu
e is what tak
es on
the ap
pearan
ce of servile lab
or. W
hen
“the p
roduct is in
separab
le from
the act o
f pro
ducin
g,” this act calls in
to q
uestio
n th
e perso
nhood o
f the
one w
ho p
erform
s the w
ork
and, ab
ove all, the relatio
n o
f this p
erson-
hood to
that o
f the o
ne w
ho h
as com
missio
ned
the w
ork
or fo
r whom
itis b
eing d
one. P
uttin
g to w
ork
that w
hich
is common
, that is, th
e intellect
and lan
guage, ren
ders th
e imperso
nal tech
nical d
ivision o
f tasks fictitio
us,
becau
se such
com
munity d
oes n
ot tran
slate into
a public sp
here (th
at isto
say, into
a political co
mm
unity); b
ut is also
induces a visco
us p
erson-
alization o
f subjectio
n.
The cru
cial questio
n go
es like th
is: is it possib
le to sp
lit that w
hich
today is u
nited
, that is, th
e Intellect (th
e general in
tellect) and (w
age)Lab
or, an
d to
unite th
at which
today is d
ivided
, that is, In
tellect and p
olit-
ical Actio
n?
Is it
possib
le to
m
ove fro
m th
e “an
cient
alliance”
of
Intellect/L
abor to
a “new
alliance” o
f Intellect/p
olitical A
ction?
Rescu
ing p
olitical actio
n fro
m its cu
rrent p
aralysis is no d
ifferent fro
mdevelo
pin
g the p
ublicn
ess of th
e Intellect o
utsid
e the realm
of w
age Lab
or,
in oppositio
n to
it. T
his
matter
show
s tw
o distin
ct pro
files, betw
eenwhich
, how
ever, there exists th
e strongest co
mplem
entary b
ond. O
n o
ne
han
d, th
e general in
tellectasserts itself as an
auto
nom
ous p
ublic sp
here
only if th
e junctu
re that ties it to
the p
roductio
n o
f goods an
d w
age labor
is severed. O
n th
e oth
er han
d, th
e subversio
n o
f capitalistic relatio
ns o
fpro
ductio
n can
man
ifest itself, at this p
oin
t, only w
ith th
e institu
tion o
f anon-state ru
n pu
blic sphere, of a p
olitical co
mm
unity th
at hin
ges on th
egen
eral intellect. T
he salien
t traits of p
ost-F
ord
ist experien
ce (servile virtu-
osity, exp
loitatio
n o
f the very facu
lty of lan
guage, u
nfailin
g relation to
the
“presen
ce of o
thers,” etc.) p
ostu
late, as a form
of co
nflictu
al retaliation,
noth
ing less th
an a rad
ically new
form
of d
emocracy.
69
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
The n
on-state ru
n pu
blic sphereis a p
ublic sp
here w
hich
confo
rms to
the w
ay of b
eing o
f the m
ultitu
de. It b
enefits fro
m th
e “publicn
ess” of lan
-gu
age/though
t, of
the
extrinsic,
consp
icuous,
shared
ch
aracter of
the
Intellect in
the gu
ise of a sco
re for th
e virtuoso
s. It is a “publicn
ess”—as
we h
ave already o
bserved
durin
g the first d
ay of o
ur sem
inar—
totally h
et-ero
geneo
us w
ith resp
ect to th
at which
is institu
ted b
y state sovereignty, o
rto
quote H
obbes, “b
y the u
nity o
f the b
ody p
olitic.” T
his “p
ublicn
ess,”which
m
anifests
itself to
day
as an
em
inen
t pro
ductive
resource,
canbeco
me a co
nstitu
tional p
rincip
le, a public sphere, in
fact.H
ow is n
on-servile virtu
osity p
ossib
le? How
do w
e move, h
ypoth
eti-cally, fro
m a servile virtu
osity to
a “republican” virtu
osity (u
nderstan
din
g“rep
ublic o
f the m
ultitu
de” to
mean
a sphere o
f com
mon affairs w
hich
isno lo
nger state-ru
n)? H
ow d
o w
e conceive, in
prin
ciple, o
f political actio
nbased
on th
e general in
tellect? We m
ust tread
this terrain
carefully. A
ll we
can d
o is to
poin
t to th
e logical formof so
meth
ing th
at is still lackin
g aso
lid em
pirical exp
erience. I am
pro
posin
g two k
ey-terms: civil d
isobed
i-en
ce and exit.
“Civil
diso
bed
ience”
represen
ts, perh
aps,
the
fundam
ental
form
of
political actio
n o
f the m
ultitu
de, p
rovided
that th
e multitu
de is em
anci-
pated
from
the lib
eral traditio
n w
ithin
which
it is encap
sulated
. It is not a
matter o
f ignorin
g a specific law
becau
se it appears in
coheren
t or co
ntra-
dicto
ry to o
ther fu
ndam
ental n
orm
s, for exam
ple to
the co
nstitu
tional
charter. In
such
case, in fact, relu
ctance w
ould
signal o
nly a d
eeper loyal-
ty to state co
ntro
l. Conversely, th
e radical d
isobed
ience w
hich
concern
s us
here casts d
oubt o
n th
e State’s actual ab
ility to co
ntro
l. Let u
s digress fo
ra m
om
ent in
ord
er to u
nderstan
d th
is better.
Acco
rdin
g to H
obbes, w
ith th
e institu
tion o
f the “b
ody p
olitic,” w
efo
rce ourselves to
obey before
we even
know
what w
e will b
e ord
ered to
do:
“our o
bligatio
n to
civil obed
ience, b
y vertue w
hereo
f the civill L
awes are
valid, is b
efore all civill L
awe” (D
e Cive, C
hap
. XIV
, Section X
XI). F
or th
isreaso
n w
e shall n
ot fin
d a p
articular law
which
explicitly d
ictates that p
eo-
ple sh
ould
not revo
lt. If the u
nco
nditio
nal accep
tance o
f the co
ntro
lling
pow
er were n
ot alread
y presupposed, th
e concrete legislative p
resupposi-
tions
(inclu
din
g, obvio
usly,
that
which
states
“thou sh
alt not
rebell”)
would
have n
o valid
ity whatso
ever. Hobbes m
aintain
s that th
e initial b
ond
of o
bed
ience d
erives from
“Law
es of n
ature,” th
at is from
a com
mon in
ter-est in
self-preservatio
n an
d secu
rity. Still, he q
uick
ly adds th
at this “n
atural
law,” th
e Super-law
which
com
pels p
eople to
observe all o
f the o
rders o
fth
e sovereign, effectively b
ecom
es law o
nly w
hen
we h
ave left the state o
fnatu
re, thus w
hen
the State h
as already b
een in
stituted
. Thus, a real p
ara-
70
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
dox tak
es shap
e: the d
uty to
obey is b
oth
the cau
se and th
e effect of th
eexisten
ce of th
e State; this d
uty is su
pported
by th
e very State which
dep
ends u
pon it fo
r the co
nstitu
tion o
f its own fo
undatio
n; it p
recedes
and
follow
s, at the sam
e time, th
e develo
pm
ent o
f a “suprem
e empire.”
So th
en, th
e multitu
de aim
s precisely at th
is prelim
inary fo
rm o
f obe-
dien
ce with
out co
nten
t, which
is the fo
undatio
n so
lely of th
e gloom
ydialectic b
etween
acquiescen
ce and “tran
sgression.” B
y break
ing a p
articu-
lar law
m
eant
for
dism
antlin
g so
cialized m
edicin
e or
for
stoppin
gim
migratio
n, th
e multitu
de go
es back
to th
e covert presu
ppositio
n h
idden
beh
ind every act o
f man
datin
g law an
d tain
ts its ability to
remain
in fo
rce.Rad
ical diso
bed
ience also
“preced
es civil laws,” sin
ce it is not lim
ited to
the b
reakin
g of th
ese laws b
ut also
calls into
questio
n th
e very foundatio
nof th
eir validity.
And n
ow let u
s move o
n to
the seco
nd k
ey word
: exit. The b
reedin
ggro
und o
f diso
bed
ience d
oes n
ot lie exclu
sively in th
e social co
nflicts
which
express protest, b
ut, an
d ab
ove all, in th
ose w
hich
express defection
(as Alb
ert O. H
irschm
an h
as explain
ed [H
irschm
an, Exit]: n
ot as voice
but
as exit).N
oth
ing is less p
assive than
the act o
f fleeing, o
f exiting. D
efection
modifies th
e conditio
ns w
ithin
which
the stru
ggle takes p
lace, rather th
anpresu
pposin
g those co
nditio
ns to
be an
unalterab
le horizo
n; it m
odifies
the co
ntext w
ithin
which
a pro
blem
has arisen
, rather th
an facin
g this
pro
blem
by o
ptin
g for o
ne o
r the o
ther o
f the p
rovided
alternatives. In
short, exit
consists o
f unrestrain
ed in
ventio
n w
hich
alters the ru
les of th
egam
e and th
rows th
e adversary co
mpletely o
ff balan
ce. While rem
ember-
ing w
hat w
as discu
ssed o
n th
is subject d
urin
g the first d
ay of o
ur sem
inar,
we n
eed o
nly th
ink o
f the m
ass exodus fro
m th
e regime o
f the facto
ry, car-ried
out b
y Am
erican w
ork
ers in th
e mid
dle o
f the n
ineteen
th cen
tury. B
yven
turin
g into
the “fro
ntier” to
colo
nize in
expen
sive land, th
ey seizedupon th
e opportu
nity to
reverse their ow
n in
itial conditio
n. So
meth
ing
similar to
ok p
lace in th
e late Seventies in
Italy, when
the yo
ung lab
or-
pow
er, challen
ging all exp
ectations, ch
ose tem
porary an
d p
art-time w
ork
over full-tim
e employm
ent in
big co
rporatio
ns. T
hough
it lasted o
nly fo
ra b
rief perio
d, p
rofessio
nal m
obility fu
nctio
ned
as a political reso
urce, giv-
ing
rise to
th
e eclip
se of
industrial
discip
line
and allow
ing
for
the
establish
ing o
f a certain d
egree of self-d
etermin
ation.
Exit, o
r defectio
n, is th
e polar o
pposite o
f the d
esperate cry “th
ere isnoth
ing to
lose b
ut o
ne’s ow
n ch
ains:” o
n th
e contrary, exit h
inges o
n a
latent k
ind o
f wealth
, on an
exuberan
ce of p
ossib
ilities, in sh
ort, o
n th
eprin
ciple o
f the tertiu
m datu
r. But fo
r the co
ntem
porary m
ultitu
de, w
hat
71
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
is this virtu
al abundan
ce which
presses fo
r the flee-o
ptio
n at th
e expen
seof th
e resistance-o
ptio
n? W
hat is at stak
e, obvio
usly, is n
ot a sp
atial “fron-
tier,” but th
e surp
lus o
f know
ledge, co
mm
unicatio
n, virtu
osic actin
g inco
ncert, all p
resupposed
by th
e publicn
ess of th
e general in
tellect. Defec-
tion allow
s for a d
ramatic, au
tonom
ous, an
d affirm
ative expressio
n o
f this
surp
lus; an
d in
this w
ay it imped
es the “tran
sfer” of th
is surp
lus in
to th
epow
er of state ad
min
istration, im
ped
es its configu
ration as p
roductive
resource o
f the cap
italistic enterp
rise.D
isobed
ience, exit. It is clear, h
owever, th
at these are on
ly allusion
s towhat th
e true political, an
d n
ot servile, virtuosity of th
e multitu
de cou
ld b
e.
73
Multitude as Subjectivity
Day Three
75
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
The con
cept of m
ultitu
de m
erits perh
aps th
e same treatm
ent w
hich
the great
Fren
ch ep
istemologist G
aston B
achelard
prop
osed u
sing for th
e prob
lems
and p
aradoxes b
rough
t abou
t by q
uan
tum
mech
anics. B
achelard
main
tained
(Bach
elard, T
he Philosophy of N
o) that q
uan
tum
mech
anics m
ust b
e under-
stood as a gram
matical su
bject an
d th
at in ord
er for it to be ad
equately
thou
ght ou
t, one m
ust m
ake use of m
any p
hilosop
hical “p
redicates” w
hich
are heterogeneous: som
etimes a K
antian
concep
t is usefu
l, at other tim
es anotion
insp
ired b
yGestalt
psych
ology, or even som
e subtle id
ea of scholastic
logic. This is also tru
e in ou
r case. The m
ultitu
de m
ust also b
e investigated
by
mean
s of concep
ts derived
from d
ifferent areas of stu
dy an
d d
ifferent au
thors.
This is w
hat w
e began
to do d
urin
g the cou
rse of the in
itial two d
ays ofou
r semin
ar. Durin
g the fi
rst day w
e approach
ed th
e subject of th
e mod
e ofbein
g of the “m
any” b
y way of th
e dialectic d
read-refu
ge. As you
will recall,
we em
ployed
key word
s from H
obbes, K
ant, H
eidegger, A
ristotle (topoikoin
oi, the “com
mon
places”), M
arx and F
reud. D
urin
g the secon
d d
ay,in
stead, w
e contin
ued
the in
vestigation of th
e contem
porary m
ultitu
de b
ydiscu
ssing th
e juxtap
osition b
etween
poiesis an
d p
raxis, Lab
or and p
oliticalAction
. The “p
redicates” w
e utilized
in th
is regard w
ere draw
n from
Han
nah
Aren
dt,
Glen
n G
ould
, th
e novelist
Lucian
o Bian
ciardi,
Saussu
re, G
uy
Deb
ord, an
d on
ce again M
arx, Hirsh
man
n an
d oth
ers. Tod
ay we w
ill exam-
ine an
other grou
p of con
cepts w
hich
will en
able u
s, I hop
e, to shed
light,
from a d
ifferent p
erspective, on
the m
ultitu
de. T
he n
ew an
gle of persp
ectivewill com
e from th
e forms of subjectivity.
The p
redicates w
e will attrib
ute to th
e gramm
atical subject of “m
ulti-
tude” are: a) th
e prin
ciple of in
divid
uation
, that is, th
e ancien
t philosop
hical
question
which
hin
ges on w
hat en
ables sin
gularity to b
e singu
lar and an
indi-
vidual to b
e individ
ual; b
) Fou
cault’s n
otion of “b
io-politics”; c) em
otional
76
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
tonalities, or Stim
mungen
, which
defi
ne, tod
ay, the form
s of life of the
“man
y:” opportu
nism
and cyn
icism (let u
s note, h
owever: b
y emotion
alton
ality I do n
ot mean
a passin
g psych
ological ripplin
g, but a ch
aracteristicrelation
with
one’s ow
n b
eing in
the w
orld); d
) lastly, two p
hen
omen
a, which
,an
alyzed also b
y Augu
stine an
d b
y Pascal, rise to th
e rank of p
hilosop
hical
them
es in H
eidegger’s B
eing an
d Time: id
le talk and cu
riosity.
The p
rincip
le of in
divid
uatio
n
Multitu
de sign
ifies: p
lurality—
literally: being-m
any—
as a lasting form
of socialan
d p
olitical existence, as op
posed
to the coh
esive unity of th
e peop
le. Thus,
multitu
de con
sists of a netw
ork of individuals; the m
any are a singularity.
The cru
cial poin
t is to consid
er these sin
gularities as a p
oint of arrival, n
otas a startin
g poin
t; as the u
ltimate resu
lt of a process of individuation
, not as
solipsistic atom
s. Precisely b
ecause th
ey are the com
plex resu
lt of a progres-
sive differen
tiation, th
e “man
y” do n
ot postu
late an u
lterior synth
esis. The
individ
ual of th
e multitu
de is th
e final stage of a p
rocess beyon
d w
hich
there
is noth
ing else, b
ecause everyth
ing else (th
e passage from
the O
ne to th
eM
any) h
as already taken
place.
When
we sp
eak of a process, or a p
rincip
le, of individ
uation
, we sh
ould
keep clearly in
min
d w
hat p
recedes in
divid
uation
itself. This h
as to do, fi
rstof all, w
ith a pre-in
dividual reality, that is to say, som
ethin
g comm
on, u
ni-
versal and u
ndifferen
tiated. T
he p
rocess which
prod
uces sin
gularity h
as anon
-individ
ual, p
re-individ
ual in
cipit. Singu
larity takes its roots in its op
po-
site, com
es ou
t of
someth
ing
that
lies at
its an
tipod
es. The
notion
of
multitu
de seem
s to share som
ethin
g with
liberal th
ough
t becau
se it values
individ
uality b
ut, at th
e same tim
e, it distan
ces itself from it rad
ically becau
seth
is individ
uality is th
e final p
roduct of a p
rocess of individ
uation
which
stems from
the u
niversal, th
e generic, th
e pre-in
divid
ual. T
he seem
ing n
ear-ness is overtu
rned
and b
ecomes th
e maxim
um
distan
ce.Let u
s ask this q
uestion
: what are th
e compon
ents of th
e pre-in
divid
ual
reality which
is at the fou
ndation
of individ
uation
? The p
ossible an
swers are
man
y and are all legitim
ate. First of all, th
e pre-in
divid
ual is th
e biological b
asis of the sp
ecies, that is,
the sen
sory organs, m
otor skills apparatu
s, percep
tion ab
ilities. In th
is regard,
Merleau
-Pon
ty main
tains som
ethin
g very interestin
g (Phen
omenology: 2
15):
“I am n
o more aw
are of bein
g the tru
e subject of m
y sensation
than
of my
birth
or my d
eath.” A
nd later in
his stu
dy h
e writes: “sigh
t, hearin
g and
touch
, with
their fi
elds, […
] are anterior, an
d rem
ain alien
, to my p
ersonal
life” (ibid
., 347). P
erception
cannot b
e encap
sulated
by th
e first p
erson sin
-
77
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
gular p
ronou
n. It is n
ever an in
divid
ual “I” w
ho h
ears, sees, touch
es; it is the
whole sp
ecies as such
. To sp
eak abou
t the sen
ses, the an
onym
ous p
ronou
n“on
e” seems m
ore approp
riate: onesees, on
etou
ches, on
ehears. T
he p
re-indi-
vidual n
ature in
scribed
in th
e senses is a gen
eric biological en
dow
men
t,which
is not su
sceptib
le to individ
uation
.Secon
dly, lan
guage is p
re-individ
ual; it is th
e historical-n
atural lan
guage
shared
by all sp
eakers of a certain com
munity. L
angu
age belon
gs to every-bod
y and to n
obod
y. Also in
the case of lan
guage, th
ere is not an
individ
ual
“I” but a “on
e”: onesp
eaks. The u
se of the sp
oken w
ord is, at fi
rst, someth
ing
inter-psychic, social, p
ublic. A
“private lan
guage” d
oes not exist—
in an
y indi-
vidual case, an
d even
less in th
e case of an in
fant. In
this resp
ect one
compreh
ends th
e full exten
t of the con
cept of “p
ublic in
tellect” or general
intellect. L
angu
age, how
ever, unlike sen
sory percep
tion, is a p
re-individ
ual
sphere w
ithin
which
is rooted th
e process of in
divid
uation
. The on
togenesis,
that is, th
e develop
men
tal phases of th
e individ
ual h
um
an b
eing, con
sists infact of th
e passage from
langu
age as public or in
ter-psych
ic experien
ce to lan-
guage as sin
gularizin
g and in
tra-psych
ic experien
ce. This p
rocess, in m
yop
inion
, takes place w
hen
the ch
ild u
nderstan
ds th
at the act of parole
does
not exclu
sively dep
end on
the d
etermin
ed lan
gue(w
hich
in m
any resp
ectsresem
bles
an am
niotic
fluid
or
an an
onym
ous
zoological en
vironm
ent);
rather, it stan
ds in
relation also to a gen
eric facultyfor sp
eaking, to an
inde-
termin
ate capacity
for sayin
g th
ings
(which
is
never
resolved in
on
ehistorical-n
atural lan
guage or an
other). T
he p
rogressive clarification
of the
relation b
etween
the faculty
(or capacity) for sp
eaking an
d th
e particu
lar actof parole: th
is is what en
ables u
s to surp
ass the p
re-individ
ual ch
aracter of his-
torical-natu
ral langu
age, pressin
g for the in
divid
uation
of the sp
eaker. In fact,
while lan
guage b
elongs to everyb
ody an
d to n
obod
y, the p
assage from th
epure an
d sim
ple ab
ility to say someth
ing to a p
articular an
d con
tingen
t utter-
ance d
etermin
es the sp
ace of an in
divid
ual’s n
otion of “m
y own.” B
ut th
is isa com
plicated
matter an
d I h
ave time h
ere only to allu
de to it. In
conclu
sion:
we sh
ould
keep in
min
d th
at, while th
e pre-in
divid
ual p
erceptive facu
ltyrem
ains su
ch, w
ithou
t giving w
ay to an act of in
divid
uation
, the p
re-individ
-ual
lingu
istic facu
lty is,
on th
e oth
er han
d,
the
basis
for in
divid
uated
singu
larity, or the realm
with
in w
hich
this sin
gularity takes its form
.Third
ly, the p
revailing relation
of prod
uction
is pre-in
divid
ual. T
hus, w
eface also a p
re-individ
ual reality w
hich
is essentially historical. In
advan
cedcap
italism, th
e labor p
rocess mob
ilizes the m
ost universal req
uisites of th
esp
ecies: percep
tion, lan
guage m
emory, an
d feelin
gs. Roles an
d tasks, in
the
post-F
ord era, corresp
ond b
y and large to th
e Gattun
gsgwesen
or “generic exis-
tence,” w
hich
Marx d
iscussed
in The E
conomic an
d Philosophic M
anuscripts of
78
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
1844. T
he en
tire realm of p
roductive forces is p
re-individ
ual. It is social
cooperation
in th
e form of action
in con
cert, the totality of p
oietic, “politi-
cal,” cogn
itive, em
otional
forces. It
is th
e gen
eral intellect,
the
general,
objective, extern
al intellect. T
he con
temporary m
ultitu
de is com
posed
ofin
divid
ualized
individ
uals, w
ho h
ave beh
ind th
em also this
pre-in
divid
ual
reality (in ad
dition
, natu
rally, to anon
ymou
s sensory p
erception
and to th
elan
guage of everyb
ody an
d n
obod
y).An am
phibian Subject. A
n im
portan
t text by G
ilbert Sim
ondon
, a Fren
chphilosop
her an
d d
ear friend of G
illes Deleu
ze, is abou
t to be p
ublish
ed in
Italy (by th
e publish
er DeriveA
pprod
i); this is a text w
hich
has h
itherto b
eenrath
er ignored
(even in
Fran
ce, min
d you
). The b
ook is entitled
L’ individu-
ation psychique
et collective
(Simon
don
). Sim
ondon’s
reflection
on
th
eprin
ciple of in
divid
uation
presen
ts other con
ceptu
al “pred
icates” to apply to
the gram
matical su
bject at h
and, th
e multitu
de.
Two of Sim
ondon’s th
eses are particu
larly fittin
g to any d
iscussion
of sub-
jectivity in th
e era of the m
ultitu
de. T
he fi
rst thesis states th
at individuation isnever concluded, th
at the p
re-individ
ual is n
ever fully tran
slated in
to singu
lar-ity.
Con
sequen
tly, accord
ing
to Sim
ondon
, th
e subject
consists
of th
eperm
anen
t interw
eaving of p
re-individ
ual elem
ents an
d in
divid
uated
charac-
teristics; moreover, th
e subject is th
is interw
eaving. It w
ould
be a seriou
sm
istake, accordin
g to Simon
don
, to iden
tify the su
bject w
ith on
e of its com-
pon
ents, th
e one w
hich
is singu
larized. T
he su
bject is, rath
er, a composite: “I,”
but also “on
e,” unrep
eatable u
niqu
eness, b
ut also an
onym
ous u
niversality.
While th
e individ
uated
“I” cohab
its with
the b
iological basis of th
esp
ecies (sensory p
erception
, etc.), with
the p
ublic or in
ter-psych
ic character-
istics of the m
other ton
gue, w
ith p
roductive coop
eration an
d th
e general
intellect, w
e must ad
d th
at this coh
abitation
is not alw
ays a peacefu
l one.
Quite to th
e contrary, it en
genders crises of variou
s kinds. T
he su
bject is a
battlefi
eld. N
ot infreq
uen
tly do p
re-individ
ual ch
aracteristics seem to call
into q
uestion
the act of in
divid
uation
: the latter reveals itself to b
e a precari-
ous, alw
ays reversible, resu
lt. At oth
er times, on
the oth
er han
d, it is th
eprecise an
d exact “I” w
hich
appears to en
deavor to red
uce for itself, w
ithfeverish
voracity, all of the p
re-individ
ual asp
ects of our exp
erience. In
both
cases, th
ere is
no
shortage
of th
e m
anifestation
of
dread
-pan
ic, an
gst,path
ologies of various kin
ds. E
ither an
“I” that n
o longer h
as a world
or aworld
that n
o longer h
as an “I”: th
ese are the tw
o extremes of an
oscillationwhich
, thou
gh ap
pearin
g in m
ore contain
ed form
s, is never totally ab
sent.
This oscillation
is prom
inen
tly signaled
, accordin
g to Simon
don
, by feelin
gsan
d p
assions. T
he relation
betw
een p
re-individ
ual an
d in
divid
uated
is, infact, m
ediated
by feelin
gs.
79
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
Incid
entally, th
e not alw
ays harm
onio
us in
terweavin
g of p
re-individ
ual
and sin
gularized
aspects o
f the su
bject, u
pon clo
se examin
ation, co
ncern
sth
e relation b
etween
each o
ne o
f the “m
any” an
d th
e general in
tellect. On
the first d
ay of o
ur sem
inar w
e emphasized
as much
as necessary th
e har-
rowin
g physio
gnom
y that can
be assu
med
by th
e “general in
tellect” in th
eeven
t that th
e general in
tellect is not tran
slated in
to a p
ublic sp
here an
den
ds u
p, in
stead, o
ppressin
g in th
e form
of an
imperso
nal an
d d
espotic
pow
er. In su
ch case, th
e pre-in
divid
ual b
ecom
es men
acing an
d overw
helm
-in
g. Tw
entieth
cen
tury
critical th
ough
t—ab
ove
all, th
e Fran
kfu
rtSch
ool—
main
tained
that u
nhap
pin
ess derives fro
m th
e separatio
n o
f the
individ
ual fro
m th
e universal p
roductive fo
rces. We im
agine an
individ
ual
confin
ed to
a cold
and d
amp n
iche, w
hile, far aw
ay from
this in
divid
ual,
there gleam
s forth
the an
onym
ous p
ower o
f society (an
d o
f the sp
ecies).This is a to
tally erroneo
us id
ea. Unhap
pin
ess and in
security d
o n
ot d
erivefro
m th
e separatio
n b
etween
individ
ual existen
ce and p
re-individ
ual p
ow-
ers, but fro
m th
eir abso
lute in
terweavin
g, when
this in
terweavin
g man
ifestsitself as d
isharm
ony, p
atholo
gical oscillatio
n, an
d crisis.
Let u
s now
turn
to the secon
d of Sim
ondon’s th
eses. It states that th
e col-lective, th
e collective experien
ce, the life of th
e group, is n
ot, as we u
sually
believe, the sp
here w
ithin
which
the salien
t traits of a singu
lar individ
ual d
imin
-ish
or disap
pear; on
the con
trary, it is the terrain
of a new
and m
ore radical
individ
uation
. By p
articipatin
g in a collective, th
e subject, far from
surren
der-
ing th
e most u
niqu
e individ
ual traits, h
as the op
portu
nity to in
divid
uate, at
least in p
art, the sh
are of pre-in
divid
ual reality w
hich
all individ
uals carry w
ith-
in th
emselves. A
ccordin
g to Simon
don
, with
in th
e collective we en
deavor to
refine ou
r singu
larity, to bring it to its clim
ax. Only w
ithin
the collective, cer-
tainly n
ot with
in th
e isolated su
bject, can p
erception
, langu
age, and p
roductive
forces take on th
e shap
e of an in
divid
uated
experien
ce.This th
esis allows u
s to have a b
etter understan
din
g of the op
position
betw
een “p
eople” an
d “m
ultitu
de.” F
or the m
ultitu
de, th
e collective is not
centrip
etal or coalescent. It is n
ot the locu
s in w
hich
the “gen
eral will” is
formed
and state u
nity is p
refigu
red. Sin
ce the collective exp
erience of th
em
ultitu
de rad
icalizes, rather th
an d
ullin
g, the p
rocess of individ
uation
, the
idea th
at from su
ch exp
erience on
e could
extrapolate a h
omogen
eous trait is
to be exclu
ded
as a matter of p
rincip
le; it is also to be exclu
ded
that on
e could
“delegate” or “tran
sfer” someth
ing to th
e sovereign. T
he collective of the m
ul-titude,
seen as
ulterior
or secon
d degree
individ
uation
, estab
lishes
the
feasibility of a n
on-represen
tational democracy. C
onversely, w
e can d
efine a
“non
-represen
tational d
emocracy” as an
individ
uation
of the h
istorical-socialpre-in
divid
ual:
science,
know
ledge,
prod
uctive
cooperation
, and gen
eral
80
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
intellect. T
he “m
any” p
ersevere as “man
y” with
out asp
iring to th
e unity of th
estate b
ecause: 1
) as individ
uated
singu
larities they h
ave already left b
ehin
d th
eunity/u
niversality in
trinsic to th
e diverse sp
ecies of the p
re-individ
ual; 2
)th
rough
their collective action
they u
nderscore an
d fu
rther th
e process of
individ
uation
.
The social in
dividual. In th
e “Fragm
ent on
Mach
ines” (G
rundrisse: 7
05) M
arxcoin
s a concep
t which
, in m
y view, is cen
tral to compreh
endin
g the su
bjec-
tivity of
the
contem
porary
multitu
de.
This
is a
concep
t, let
me
sayim
med
iately, which
is objectively related
to Simon
don’s th
esis on th
e inter-
weavin
g of pre-in
divid
ual reality an
d sin
gularity. It is th
e concep
t of the
“social individ
ual.” It is n
ot by accid
ent, it seem
s to me, th
at Marx u
tilizesth
is expression
in th
e same p
ages where h
e discu
sses the gen
eral intellect, th
epublic in
tellect. The in
divid
ual is socialb
ecause w
ithin
the in
divid
ual th
e gen-
eral intellect
is presen
t. Or also, to retu
rn to M
arx in h
is Econ
omic an
dPhilosophic M
anuscripts of 1
844, th
e individ
ual is social b
ecause th
e individ
-ual
is an
op
en m
anifestation
, stan
din
g alon
gside
the
singu
lar “I,”
the
Gattun
gswesen
, “generic existen
ce,” the totality of req
uisites an
d facu
lties ofth
e Homo sapien
s species.
The term
“social individ
ual” is an
oxymoron
, a unity of op
posites: it
could
appear to b
e some sort of H
egelian w
him
sy, suggestive an
d in
substan
-tial, w
ere we n
ot able to b
enefi
t from Sim
ondon
in d
ecipherin
g its sense.
“Social” shou
ld b
e translated
as pre-in
divid
ual, an
d “in
divid
ual” sh
ould
be
seen as th
e ultim
ate result of th
e process of in
dividuation. Sin
ce the term
“pre-
individ
ual”
must
inclu
de
sensory
percep
tion,
langu
age, an
d prod
uctive
forces, we cou
ld also say th
at the “social in
divid
ual” is th
e individ
ual w
ho
open
ly exhib
its a uniq
ue on
togenesis, a u
niq
ue d
evelopm
ent (w
ith its ow
ndifferen
t layers or constitu
ent elem
ents).
There is a sort of lexical ch
ain th
at ties together th
e bein
g-man
y, the
ancien
t question
of the p
rincip
le of individ
uation
, the M
arxian n
otion of
“social individ
ual,” Sim
ondon’s th
esis on th
e cohab
itation w
ithin
each su
b-
ject of
pre-in
divid
ual
elemen
ts (lan
guage,
social coop
eration,
etc.) an
din
divid
uated
elemen
ts. I prop
ose calling th
e combin
ation of “social in
divid
-uals” th
e multitu
de. W
e could
say—with
Marx, b
ut again
st the grain
of alarge segm
ent of M
arxism—
that th
e radical tran
sformation
of the p
resent
state of thin
gs consists in
bestow
ing m
aximum
prom
inen
ce and m
aximum
value on
the existen
ce of every single m
ember of th
e species. It m
ay seemparad
oxical, but I b
elieve that M
arx’s theory cou
ld (or rath
er shou
ld) b
eunderstood
, today, as a realistic an
d com
plex th
eory of the in
divid
ual, as a
rigorous in
divid
ualism
: thus, as a th
eory of individ
uation
.
81
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
An eq
uivo
cal concep
t: bio-politics
Fou
cault in
troduced
the term
“bio-p
olitics” in som
e courses h
e taugh
t in th
eSeven
ties at the C
ollège de F
rance (see F
oucau
lt). The term
was ap
plied
to the
chan
ges which
took place in
the con
cept of “p
opulation” b
etween
the en
d of
the eigh
teenth
and th
e begin
nin
g of the n
ineteen
th cen
tury. In
Fou
cault’s
view, it is d
urin
g this p
eriod th
at life, life as such
, life as mere b
iologicalprocess, b
egins to b
e governed
and ad
min
istered p
olitically. The con
cept of
“bio-p
olitics” has recen
tly becom
e fashion
able: it is often
, and en
thusiastical-
ly, invoked
in every kin
d of con
text. We sh
ould
avoid th
is autom
atic and
unrefl
ective use of th
e term. L
et us ask ou
rselves, then
, how
and w
hy life
breaks th
rough
to the cen
ter of the p
ublic scen
e, how
and w
hy th
e State reg-ulates an
d govern
s it.In
my op
inion
, to compreh
end th
e rational core of th
e term “b
io-politics,”
we sh
ould
begin
with
a differen
t concep
t, a much
more com
plicated
concep
tfrom
a philosop
hical stan
dpoin
t: that of labor-pow
er. This is a con
cept d
is-cu
ssed everyw
here in
the social scien
ces, where its h
arsh an
d p
aradoxical
character is h
owever, carelessly avoid
ed. If p
rofessional p
hilosop
hers w
ere toget in
volved in
someth
ing seriou
s here, th
ey wou
ld h
ave to devote m
uch
effortan
d atten
tion to it. W
hat d
oes “labor-p
ower” m
ean? It m
eans potentialto p
ro-duce.
Poten
tial, th
at is
to say,
aptitu
de,
capacity,
dynam
is. G
eneric,
undeterm
ined
poten
tial: where on
e particu
lar type of lab
or or anoth
er has n
otbeen
design
ated, b
ut any
kind of lab
or is taking p
lace, be it th
e man
ufactu
r-in
g of a car door, or th
e harvestin
g of pears, th
e bab
ble of som
eone callin
g into a p
hon
e “party-lin
e,” or the w
ork of a proofread
er. Lab
or-pow
er is “the
aggregate of those m
ental an
d p
hysical cap
abilities existin
g in th
e physical
form, th
e living p
ersonality, of a h
um
an b
eing” (C
apital, Volu
me 1
: 270). A
llof those capabilities, w
e shou
ld n
ote well. B
y talking ab
out lab
or-pow
er we
implicitly refer to every sort of facu
lty: lingu
istic competen
ce, mem
ory, motil-
ity, etc.
Only
in tod
ay’s world
, in
th
e post-F
ord era,
is th
e reality
oflab
or-pow
er fully u
p to th
e task of realizing itself. O
nly in
today’s w
orld, th
atis to say, can
the n
otion of lab
or-pow
er not b
e reduced
(as it was at th
e time
of Gram
sci) to an aggregate of p
hysical an
d m
echan
ical attributes; n
ow,
instead
, it encom
passes w
ithin
itself, and righ
tfully so, th
e “life of the m
ind.”
But let u
s get to the p
oint h
ere. The cap
italistic prod
uction
relation is
based
on th
e differen
ce betw
een lab
or-pow
er and effective lab
or. Lab
or-pow
er, I repeat, is p
ure poten
tial, quite d
istinct from
its correspon
den
t acts.M
arx writes: “W
hen
we sp
eak of capacity for lab
our, w
e do n
ot speak of
labou
r, any m
ore than
we sp
eak of digestion
when
we sp
eak of capacity for
digestion” (C
apital, Volu
me 1
: 277). W
e are dealin
g here, h
owever, w
ith a
82
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
poten
tial which
boasts of th
e extremely con
crete prerogatives of com
mod
i-ties.
Poten
tial is
someth
ing
non
-presen
t, non
-real; but
in th
e case
oflab
or-pow
er, this n
on-p
resent som
ethin
g is subject to th
e laws of su
pply an
ddem
and (V
irno, Il ricordo: 1
21-3
). Cap
italists buy th
e capacityfor p
roducin
gas su
ch (“th
e sum
of all physical an
d in
tellectual ap
titudes w
hich
exist in th
em
aterial world
”), and n
ot simply on
e or more sp
ecific services. A
fter the sale
has occu
rred, cap
italists can u
se as they p
lease the com
mod
ity which
has b
eenacq
uired
. “The p
urch
aser of labou
r-pow
er consu
mes it b
y setting th
e seller ofit to w
ork. By w
orking, th
e latter becom
es in actu
ality what p
reviously h
eon
ly was p
otentially “(C
apital, Volu
me 1
: 283). L
abor w
hich
has actu
allybeen
paid
out d
oes not sim
ply reim
burse th
e capitalist for th
e mon
ey spen
tpreviou
sly in ord
er to assure th
e other’s p
otential for w
orking; it con
tinues for
an ad
dition
al period
of time. H
ere lies the gen
esis of surp
lus-valu
e, here lies
the m
ystery of capitalistic accu
mulation
.Lab
or-pow
er incarn
ates (literally) a fundam
ental category of p
hilosop
hi-
cal thou
ght: sp
ecifically, th
e poten
tial, the dyn
amis. A
nd “p
otential,” as I h
aveju
st said, sign
ifies th
at which
is not
curren
t, that w
hich
is not
presen
t. Well
then
, someth
ing w
hich
is not p
resent (or real) b
ecomes, w
ith cap
italism, an
exception
ally importan
t comm
odity. T
his p
otential, dyn
amis, n
on-p
resence,
instead
of remain
ing an
abstract con
cept, takes on
a pragm
atic, empirical,
socioeconom
ic dim
ension
. The p
otential as su
ch, w
hen
it still has n
ot been
applied
, is at the core of th
e exchan
ge betw
een cap
italist and w
orker. The
object of th
e sale is not a real en
tity (labor services actu
ally executed
) but
someth
ing w
hich
, in an
d of itself, d
oes not h
ave an au
tonom
ous sp
acial-tem-
poral existen
ce (the gen
eric ability to w
ork).The p
aradoxical ch
aracteristics of labor-p
ower (som
ethin
g unreal w
hich
is, how
ever, bou
ght an
d sold
as any oth
er comm
odity) are th
e prem
ise of bio-
politics. In
order to u
nderstan
d it, h
owever, w
e must go th
rough
anoth
er stepin
the argu
men
t. In th
e Grun
drisseM
arx writes th
at “the u
se value w
hich
the
worker h
as to offer to the cap
italist, which
he h
as to offer to others in
gener-
al, is not m
aterialized in
a prod
uct, d
oes not exist ap
art from h
im at all, th
us
exists not really, b
ut on
ly in poten
tiality, as his capacity” (G
rundrisse: 2
67;
Virn
o’s italics). Here is th
e crucial p
oint: w
here som
ethin
g which
exists only
as possibilityis sold
, this som
ethin
g is not sep
arable from
the livin
g person of
the seller. T
he livin
g bod
y of the w
orker is the su
bstratu
m of th
at labor-p
ower
which
, in itself, h
as no in
dep
enden
t existence. “L
ife,” pure an
d sim
ple bios,
acquires a sp
ecific im
portan
ce in as m
uch
as it is the tab
ernacle of dyn
amis,
of mere p
otential.
Cap
italists are interested
in th
e life of the w
orker, in th
e body of th
e work-
er, only for an
indirect reason
: this life, th
is body, are w
hat con
tains th
e faculty,
83
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
the p
otential, th
e dynamis. T
he livin
g body becom
es an object to be govern
ednot for its in
trinsic valu
e, but becau
se it is the su
bstratum
of what really m
at-ters: labor-p
ower as th
e aggregate of the m
ost diverse h
um
an facu
lties (the
poten
tial for speakin
g, for thin
king, for rem
emberin
g, for acting, etc.). L
ife liesat th
e center of p
olitics when
the p
rize to be won
is imm
aterial (and in
itselfnon
-presen
t) labor-pow
er. For this reason
, and th
is reason alon
e, it is legitimate
to talk about “bio-p
olitics.” The livin
g body w
hich
is a concern
of the ad
min
-istrative ap
paratu
s of the State, is th
e tangible sign
of a yet unrealized
poten
tial,th
e semblan
ce of labor not yet objectifi
ed; as M
arx says eloquen
tly, of “labor assu
bjectivity.” The p
otential for w
orking, bou
ght an
d sold
just like an
other com
-m
odity, is labor n
ot yet objectified
, “labor as subjectivity.” O
ne cou
ld say th
atwhile m
oney is th
e universal rep
resentation
of the valu
e of exchan
ge—or rath
erof th
e exchan
geability itself of prod
ucts—
life, instead
, takes the p
lace of the
prod
uctive p
otential, of th
e invisible dynam
is.The n
on-m
ythological origin
of that m
echan
ism of exp
ertise and p
ower
which
Fou
cault d
efines as b
io-politics can
be traced
back, w
ithou
t hesitation
,to th
e mod
e of bein
g of the lab
or-pow
er. The p
ractical importan
ce taken on
by poten
tial as poten
tial (the fact th
at it is bou
ght an
d sold
as such
), as well as
its insep
arability from
the im
med
iate corporeal existen
ce of the w
orker, is the
real foundation
of bio-p
olitics. Fou
cault m
ocks libertarian
theoretician
s likeW
ilhelm
Reich
(the h
eterodox p
sychiatrist), w
ho claim
s that a sp
asmod
icatten
tion to life is th
e result of a rep
ressive inten
tion: d
isciplin
ing th
e bod
y inord
er to raise the level of p
roductivity of lab
or. Fou
cault is totally righ
t, but h
eis takin
g aim at an
easy target. It is true: th
e governm
ent of life is extrem
elyvaried
and articu
lated, ran
ging from
the con
finem
ent of im
pulses to th
e most
unrestrain
ed laxity, from
punctiliou
s proh
ibition
to the sh
owy d
isplay of tol-
erance, from
the gh
etto for the p
oor to extravagant K
eynesian
incom
es, fromth
e high
-security p
rison to th
e Welfare State. H
aving said
this, w
e still have to
address a cru
cial question
: why is life, as su
ch, m
anaged
and con
trolled? T
he
answ
er is absolu
tely clear: becau
se it acts as the su
bstratu
m of a m
ere faculty,
labor-p
ower, w
hich
has taken
on th
e consisten
cy of a comm
odity. It is n
ot aqu
estion, h
ere, of the p
roductivity of actu
al labor, b
ut of th
e exchan
geability
of the p
otential to w
ork. By th
e mere fact th
at it can b
e bou
ght an
d sold
, this
poten
tial calls into qu
estion th
e repository from
which
it is indistin
guish
able,
that is, th
e living b
ody. W
hat is m
ore, it shed
s light on
this rep
ository as anob
ject of innum
erable an
d d
ifferentiated
governm
ental strategies.
One sh
ould
not b
elieve, then
, that b
io-politics in
cludes w
ithin
itself, asits ow
n d
istinct articu
lation, th
e man
agemen
t of labor-p
ower. O
n th
e con-
trary: bio-p
olitics is
merely
an effect,
a reverb
eration,
or, in
fact,
one
articulation
of that p
rimary fact—
both
historical an
d p
hilosop
hical—
which
84
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
consists of th
e comm
erce of poten
tial as poten
tial. Bio-p
olitics exists wherev-
er that w
hich
pertain
s to the p
otential d
imen
sion of h
um
an existen
ce comes
into th
e forefront, in
to imm
ediate exp
erience: n
ot the sp
oken w
ord, b
ut th
ecap
acity for speakin
g as such
; not th
e labor w
hich
has actu
ally been
com-
pleted
, but th
e generic cap
ability of p
roducin
g. The p
otential d
imen
sion of
existence b
ecomes con
spicu
ous on
ly, and exclu
sively, under th
e guise of
labor-p
ower. In
this p
otential w
e see the com
pen
diu
m of all th
e differen
t fac-ulties an
d p
otentials of th
e hum
an an
imal. In
fact, “labor-p
ower” d
oes not
design
ate one sp
ecific facu
lty, but th
e entirety
of hum
an facu
lties in as m
uch
as they are in
volved in
prod
uctive p
raxis. “Lab
or-pow
er” is not a p
roper
nou
n; it is a com
mon
nou
n.
The em
otio
nal to
nalities o
f the m
ultitu
de
Now
I wou
ld like to sp
eak briefl
y abou
t the em
otional situation
in w
hich
the
contem
porary m
ultitu
de fi
nds itself. W
ith th
e expression
“emotion
al situa-
tion” I do n
ot refer, let it be clear, to a clu
ster of psych
ological tenden
cies, but
to ways of b
eing an
d feelin
g so pervasive th
at they en
d u
p b
eing com
mon
toth
e most d
iverse contexts of exp
erience (w
ork, leisure, feelin
gs, politics, etc.).
The em
otional situ
ation, over an
d ab
ove bein
g ubiq
uitou
s, is always am
biva-lent. T
hat is, it can
man
ifest itself as a form of con
sent as often
as it can as a
form of con
flict, as often
with
the ch
aracteristics of resignation
as with
those
of critical unease. T
o put it an
other w
ay: the em
otional situ
ation h
as a neu-
tral coresu
bject to d
iverse, and even
contrary, elab
orations.
This n
eutral core p
oints tow
ard a fu
ndam
ental m
ode of b
eing. N
ow, it is
certain th
at the em
otional situ
ation of th
e multitu
de tod
ay man
ifests itselfwith
“b
ad sen
timen
ts”: op
portu
nism
, cyn
icism,
social in
tegration,
inex-
hau
stible recan
ting, ch
eerful resign
ation. Yet it is n
ecessary to rise up from
these “b
ad sen
timen
ts” to the n
eutral core, n
amely to th
e fundam
ental m
ode
of bein
g, which
, in p
rincip
le, could
give rise even to d
evelopm
ents very d
if-feren
t from th
ose prevailin
g today. W
hat is d
ifficu
lt to understan
d is th
at the
antid
ote, so to speak, can
be tracked
dow
n on
ly in w
hat for th
e mom
ent
appears to b
e poison
.The em
otional situ
ation of th
e multitu
de in
the p
ost-Ford
era is charac-
terized by
the immediate
connection
betw
een prod
uction
an
d eth
icality,“stru
cture” an
d “su
perstru
cture,” th
e revolution
izing of th
e work p
rocess and
sentim
ents, tech
nologies an
d th
e emotion
al tonalities, m
aterial develop
men
tsan
d cu
lture. L
et us p
ause for a m
omen
t to consid
er this con
nection
. What are
the p
rincip
al requirem
ents of d
epen
den
t workers tod
ay? To b
e accustom
ed to
mob
ility, to be ab
le to keep u
p w
ith th
e most su
dden
conversion
s, to be ab
le
85
PAO
LO
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NO
to adap
t to various en
terprises, to b
e flexib
le in sw
itchin
g from on
e set ofru
les to anoth
er, to have an
aptitu
de for a kin
d of lin
guistic in
teraction as
ban
alized as it is u
nilateral, to b
e familiar w
ith m
anagin
g amon
g a limited
amou
nt of p
ossible altern
atives. Now
, these req
uirem
ents are n
ot the fru
it ofin
dustrial d
isciplin
e; rather, th
ey are the resu
lt of a socialization th
at has its
center of gravity
outside of the workplace. T
he “p
rofessionalism
” which
is actu-
ally req
uired
an
d offered
con
sists of
the
abilities
one
acquires
durin
g a
prolon
ged sojou
rn in
a pre-w
ork, or precariou
s, stage. That is to say: in
the
period
of waitin
g for a job, those gen
erically social talents are d
eveloped
, as isgettin
g in th
e hab
it of not d
evelopin
g lasting h
abits, all of w
hich
, once w
orkis fou
nd, w
ill act as true an
d real “tools of th
e trade.”
The p
ost-Ford
ist undertakin
g puts to good
use th
is practice of n
ot hav-
ing rou
tines, th
is trainin
g in p
recariousn
ess and variab
ility. But th
e decisive
fact is a kind of socialization
(and b
y this term
I mean
the relation
ship
with
the w
orld, w
ith oth
ers, and w
ith on
eself) which
essentially com
es abou
t out-
side of th
e workp
lace, socialization essen
tially beyondwork. T
hese are th
eurb
an sh
ocks which
Ben
jamin
was talkin
g abou
t, the p
roliferation of lin
guis-
tic gam
es, th
e unin
terrupted
variation
of
rules
and tech
niq
ues,
which
constitu
te the aren
a in w
hich
we fi
nd th
e formation
of abilities an
d q
ualifi
-cation
s which
, on
ly later
on,
will
becom
e “p
rofessional”
abilities
and
qualifi
cations. A
closer look reveals that th
is outsid
e-of–th
e-workp
lace social-ization
(which
then
combin
es with
the “offi
cial duties” in
job d
escription
s inth
e post-F
ord era) con
sists of experien
ces and sen
timen
ts in w
hich
the great
philosop
hers an
d sociologists of th
e last centu
ry, from H
eidegger an
d Sim
mel
on, h
ave recognized
the d
istinctive traits of n
ihilism
. Nih
ilism is a p
raxiswhich
no lon
ger enjoys a solid
foundation
, one m
ade u
p of su
pport stru
ctures
and p
rotective practices u
pon
which
one can
rely. Durin
g the tw
entieth
cen-
tury, n
ihilism
seemed
to be a collateral cou
nterp
oint to th
e processes of
rationalization
both
of prod
uction
and of th
e State. That is to say: on
one
side, lab
or, on th
e other, th
e precariou
sness an
d ch
angeab
le natu
re of urb
anlife. N
ow, h
owever, n
ihilism
(the p
ractice of not h
aving estab
lished
practices,
etc.) has en
tered in
to prod
uction
, has b
ecome a p
rofessional q
ualifi
cation,
and h
as been
put to work. O
nly on
e who is exp
erienced
in th
e hap
hazard
chan
ging n
ature of th
e forms of u
rban
life know
s how
to beh
ave in th
e justin tim
efactories [A
uth
or’s English
term].
It is almost u
seless to add th
at, in th
is way, th
e mod
el used
by a large part
of the sociological an
d p
hilosop
hical trad
ition to rep
resent th
e processes of
“mod
ernization” goes to p
ieces. Accord
ing to th
at mod
el, innovation
(techno-
logical, emotion
al, ethical) sh
akes up trad
itional societies in
which
repetitive
custom
s prevailed
. Philom
en an
d B
aucis, th
e serene farm
ers whom
Goeth
e
86
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
describ
es in Faust, w
ould
be u
prooted
by the m
odern
entrep
reneu
r. Non
e ofth
is, today. O
ne can
no lon
ger speak of “m
odern
ization” where in
novation
interven
es with
an in
creasingly con
tracted regu
larity upon
a scene ch
aracter-ized
by rootlessness, by con
tingen
cy, by anon
ymity, etc. T
he cru
cial poin
t isth
at the cu
rrent p
roductive com
motion
ben
efits from
, and fi
nds its m
ostprized
resource in
, all those elem
ents w
hich
the m
odel of m
odern
ization lists,
instead
, amon
g its conseq
uen
ces: the u
ncertain
ty of expectation
s, the u
npre-
dictab
ility of
assignm
ents,
fragile id
entities,
ever ch
angin
g valu
es. The
advan
ced tech
nologies d
o not p
rovoke a “disp
lacemen
t,” such
as to dissip
ate apre-existin
g “familiarity”; rath
er, they red
uce to a professional profile
the exp
e-rien
ce of the m
ost radical kin
d of d
isplacem
ent itself. N
ihilism
, once h
idden
in th
e shad
ow of tech
nical-p
roductive p
ower, b
ecomes a fu
ndam
ental in
gredi-
ent of th
at pow
er, a quality h
ighly p
rized by th
e marketp
lace of labor.
This is th
e backgrou
nd u
pon
which
, above all, tw
o not exactly ed
ifying
emotion
al tonalities stan
d ou
t: opportunism
and cyn
icism. L
et us try to sift
throu
gh th
ese “bad
sentim
ents,” recogn
izing in
them
a way of b
eing, w
hich
,in
and of itself n
eed n
ot necessarily exp
ress itself in u
nap
pealin
g forms.
Opportun
ism: T
he roots of op
portu
nism
lie in an
outsid
e-of-the-w
orkplace
socialization m
arked b
y unexp
ected tu
rns, p
erceptib
le shocks, p
erman
ent
innovation
, chron
ic instab
ility. Opportu
nists are th
ose who con
front a fl
owof
ever-interch
angeab
le possib
ilities, m
aking
them
selves availab
le to
the
greater num
ber of th
ese, yieldin
g to the n
earest one, an
d th
en q
uickly sw
erv-in
g from on
e to anoth
er. This is a stru
ctural, sob
er, non
-moralistic d
efinition
of opportu
nism
. It is a question
of a sensitivity sh
arpen
ed b
y the ch
angeab
lechan
ces, a familiarity w
ith th
e kaleidoscop
e of opportu
nities, an
intim
ate rela-tion
ship
with
the p
ossible, n
o matter h
ow vast. In
the p
ost-Ford
era mod
e ofprod
uction
, opportu
nism
acquires a certain
technical
importan
ce. It is the
cognitive an
d b
ehavioral reaction
of the con
temporary m
ultitu
de to th
e factth
at routin
e practices are n
o longer organ
ized alon
g uniform
lines; in
stead,
they p
resent a h
igh level of u
npred
ictability. N
ow, it is p
recisely this ab
ility tom
aneu
ver amon
g abstract an
d in
terchan
geable op
portu
nities w
hich
consti-
tutes profession
al qualityin
certain sectors of p
ost-Ford
ist prod
uction
, sectorswhere th
e labor p
rocess is not regu
lated b
y a single p
articular goal, b
ut b
y aclass of eq
uivalen
tpossibilities to b
e specifi
ed on
e at a time. T
he in
formation
mach
ine, rath
er than
bein
g a mean
s to a single en
d, is an
introd
uction
to suc-
cessive and “op
portu
nistic” elab
orations. O
pportu
nism
gains in
value as an
indisp
ensab
le resource w
hen
ever the con
crete labor p
rocess is perm
eated b
y adiffu
se “comm
unicative action” an
d th
us n
o longer id
entifi
es itself solely with
mute “in
strum
ental action
.” Or, to retu
rn to a th
eme tou
ched
upon
durin
g
87
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
the secon
d d
ay of the sem
inar, w
hen
ever Lab
or inclu
des in
itself the salien
ttraits of p
olitical Action
. After all, w
hat else is op
portu
nism
if not on
e of the
talents of th
e politician
?
Cynicism
: Cyn
icism is also con
nected
with
the ch
ronic in
stability of form
s oflife an
d lin
guistic gam
es. This ch
ronic in
stability p
laces in fu
ll view, d
urin
glab
or time as w
ell as durin
g free time, th
e naked
rules which
artificially stru
c-tu
re the b
oundaries of action
. The em
otional situ
ation of th
e multitu
de is
characterized
, precisely, b
y the extrem
e proxim
ity of the “m
any” to th
e ruleswhich
anim
ate individ
ual con
texts. At th
e base of con
temporary cyn
icism lies
the fact th
at men
and w
omen
first of all exp
erience ru
les, far more often
than
“facts,” and far earlier th
an th
ey experien
ce concrete even
ts. But to exp
erience
rules d
irectly mean
s also to recognize th
eir conven
tionality an
d grou
ndless-
ness. T
hus, on
e is no lon
ger imm
ersed in
a pred
efined
“game,” p
articipatin
gth
erein w
ith tru
e allegiance. In
stead, on
e catches a glim
pse of on
eself in in
di-
vidual “gam
es” which
are destitu
te of all seriousn
ess and ob
viousn
ess, havin
gbecom
e noth
ing m
ore than
a place for im
med
iate self-affirmation
—a self-
affirm
ation w
hich
is all the m
ore bru
tal and arrogan
t, in sh
ort, cynical, th
em
ore it draw
s upon
, with
out illu
sions b
ut w
ith p
erfect mom
entary allegian
ce,th
ose same ru
les which
characterize con
vention
ality and m
utab
ility.I b
elieve there is a very stron
g relationsh
ip b
etween
the gen
eral intellectan
d con
temporary cyn
icism. O
r to put it b
etter: I thin
k that cyn
icism is on
eof th
e possib
le ways of reactin
g to the gen
eral intellect (n
ot the on
ly way, cer-
tainly; th
e them
e of the am
bivalen
ce of the em
otional situ
ation retu
rns h
ere).Let u
s give a clearer explan
ation of th
is connection
. The gen
eral intellect is
social know
ledge tu
rned
into th
e prin
cipal p
roductive force; it is th
e complex
of cognitive p
aradigm
s, artificial lan
guages, an
d con
ceptu
al clusters w
hich
anim
ate social comm
unication
and form
s of life. The gen
eral intellect d
istin-
guish
es itself from th
e “real abstraction
s” typical of m
odern
ity, which
are allan
chored
to the prin
ciple of equivalence. “R
eal abstraction” is, ab
ove all,m
oney, w
hich
represen
ts the com
men
surab
ility of labor, of p
roducts, of su
b-
jects. Thus, th
e general in
tellecthas n
othin
g to do w
ith th
e prin
ciple of
equivalen
ce. The m
odels of social kn
owled
ge are not u
nits of m
easurem
ent;
instead
, they con
stitute th
e prem
ise for operative h
eterogeneou
s possib
ilities.Tech
no-scien
tific cod
es and p
aradigm
s presen
t them
selves as an “im
med
iateprod
uctive force,” as constructive prin
ciples. They d
o not eq
ualize an
ythin
g;in
stead, th
ey act as prem
ise to every type of action
.The fact th
at abstract kn
owled
ge, rather th
an th
e exchan
ge of equivalen
ts,provid
es order for social relation
s is reflected
in th
e contem
porary fi
gure of
the cyn
ic. Why? B
ecause th
e prin
ciple of eq
uivalen
cy constitu
ted th
e base,
88
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
even th
ough
a contrad
ictory one, for egalitarian
ideologies w
hich
supported
the id
eal of a reciprocal recogn
ition w
ithou
t constrain
ts, let alone th
e ideal of
universal an
d tran
sparen
t lingu
istic comm
unication
. Vice versa, th
e generalintellect, as a clear in
troduction
to social practice, d
oes not offer an
y unit of
measu
remen
t for comparison
. Cyn
ics recognize, in
the p
articular con
text inwhich
they op
erate, both
the p
reemin
ent role p
layed b
y certain cogn
itiveprem
isesas w
ell as the sim
ultan
eous ab
sence of real equivalen
ces. As a p
recau-
tion, th
ey repress th
e aspiration
for a dialogu
e on eq
ual term
s. From
the
outset th
ey renou
nce an
y search for an
inter-su
bjective fou
ndation
for their
praxis, as w
ell as any claim
to a standard
of judgem
ent w
hich
shares th
enatu
re of a moral evalu
ation. T
he fall of th
e prin
ciple of equivalen
cy, so inti-
mately related
to the exch
ange of com
mod
ities, can b
e seen in
the b
ehavior
of the cyn
ic, in th
e impatien
t aban
don
men
t of the ap
peal for equality. C
yn-
ics reach th
e poin
t where th
ey entru
st their self-affi
rmation
precisely to th
em
ultip
lication (an
d fl
uid
ification
) of hierarch
ies and in
equalities w
hich
the
unexp
ected cen
trality of prod
uction
know
ledge seem
s to entail.
Opportu
nism
and cyn
icism: w
ithou
t a dou
bt, “b
ad sen
timen
ts.” Never-
theless, w
e can h
ypoth
esize that every con
flict or p
rotest on th
e part of th
em
ultitu
de w
ill take root in th
e same m
anner of b
eing (th
e aforemen
tioned
“neu
tral core”) which
, for the m
omen
t, man
ifests itself in th
ese rather rep
ug-
nan
t form
s. The
neu
tral core
of th
e con
temporary
emotion
al situ
ation,
suscep
tible to op
posin
g man
ifestations, con
sists of a familiarity w
ith th
e pos-
sible,
in so
far as
it is
possib
le, an
d of
an extrem
e proxim
ity to
the
conven
tional ru
les which
give structu
re to the d
iffering con
texts of action.
This fam
iliarity and th
is proxim
ity, from w
hich
opportu
nism
and cyn
icismnow
derive, m
ake up an
indelib
le, distin
ctive sign of th
e multitu
de.
Idle talk
and cu
riosity
To con
clude, I w
ould
like to reflect u
pon
two n
oted an
d in
famou
s phen
om-
ena of everyd
ay life upon
which
Martin
Heid
egger has con
ferred th
e rank of
philosop
hical th
emes. F
irst of all, idle talk, that is to say, a con
tagious an
dprolifi
c discou
rse with
out an
y solid stru
cture, in
differen
t to conten
t, which
iton
ly touch
es on from
time to tim
e. Next, curiosity, w
hich
is the in
satiable
voracity for the n
ew in
so far as it is new
. It seems to m
e that th
ese are two
more p
redicates in
heren
t in th
e gramm
atical subject “m
ultitu
de,” p
rovided
that, as w
ill be seen
, one u
ses at times H
eidegger’s w
ords again
st Heid
eggerhim
self. In d
iscussin
g “idle talk” I w
ould
like to focus u
pon
a furth
er facet ofth
e relationsh
ip m
ultitu
de/verb
al langu
age; “curiosity,” in
stead, h
as to do
with
certain ep
istemological virtu
es of the m
ultitu
de (it goes w
ithou
t saying
89
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
that w
hat is in
question
here is on
ly a spon
taneou
s epistem
ology, one w
hich
has n
ot been
thou
ght ou
t).Id
le talk and cu
riosity were an
alyzed b
y Heid
egger in Being an
d Time
(Heid
egger, Sections 3
5 an
d 3
6). T
hese w
ere singled
out as typ
ical man
ifes-tation
s of the “u
nau
then
tic life,” which
is characterized
by a con
formist
leveling of all feelin
g and all u
nderstan
din
g. In th
e “unau
then
tic life” the
imperson
al pron
oun “on
e” dom
inates u
ncon
tested: on
esays, one
does, on
ebelieves th
is or that. In
the w
ords of Sim
ondon
, it is the p
re-individ
ual w
ho
dom
inates th
e scene, in
hib
iting an
y individ
uation
whatsoever. T
his “on
e” isan
onym
ous an
d p
ervasive. It nurtu
res reassurin
g certainties; it d
iffuses op
in-
ions
that
are alw
ays alread
y sh
ared.
It is
the
faceless su
bject
of m
edia
comm
unication
. This “on
e” feeds u
s idle talk an
d u
nleash
es a curiosity th
atcan
not b
e restrained
.This an
onym
ous “on
e,” chatty an
d n
osy, conceals th
e salient trait of
hum
an existen
ce: bein
g in th
e world
. Take h
eed: to b
elong to th
e world
does
not m
ean con
templatin
g it in a d
isinterested
fashion
. Rath
er, this b
elongin
gin
dicates a p
ragmatic in
volvemen
t. The relation
with
my vital con
text does
not con
sist, above all, of acts of com
preh
ension
and rep
resentation
, but of an
adap
tive practice, in
the search
for protection
, of a practical orien
tation, of a
man
ipulative in
tervention
upon
surrou
ndin
g objects. F
or Heid
egger, the
auth
entic life seem
s to find its ad
equate exp
ression in
labor. In th
e first p
lace,th
e world
is a world
-worksh
op, a complex of p
roductive m
eans an
d goals, th
eth
eater of a general read
iness for en
tering th
e world
of labor. A
ccordin
g toH
eidegger, th
is fundam
ental con
nection
with
the w
orld is d
istorted b
y idle
talk and cu
riosity. One w
ho ch
atters and ab
andon
s oneself to cu
riosity doesnot w
ork, is diverted
from carryin
g out a d
etermin
ed task, an
d h
as susp
end-
ed every seriou
s respon
sibility “for takin
g care of thin
gs.” This “on
e,” along
with
bein
g anon
ymou
s, is also idle. The w
orld-w
orkshop
is transform
ed in
toa w
orld-sp
ectacle.Let u
s ask ourselves th
is question
: is it then
true th
at idle talk an
d cu
rios-ity rem
ain con
fined
to the realm
of free time an
d relaxation
, outsid
e of labor?
On th
e basis of w
hat h
as been
argued
throu
ghou
t this sem
inar, sh
ould
it not
be su
pposed
, rather, th
at these attitu
des h
ave becom
e the p
ivot of contem
-porary p
roduction
in w
hich
the act of com
munication
dom
inates, an
d in
which
the ab
ility to man
age amid
contin
ual in
novation
s is most valu
ed?
Let u
s begin
with
this id
le talk which
position
s itself in th
e preem
inen
trole of social com
munication
, with
its indep
enden
ce from every b
ond or p
re-su
pposition
, with
its full auton
omy. A
uton
omy from
pred
efined
goals, fromlim
iting tasks, from
the ob
ligation of givin
g a faithfu
l reprod
uction
of the
truth
. With
idle talk th
e den
otative correspon
den
ce betw
een th
ings an
d
90
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
word
s reaches a n
ew low
. Discou
rse no lon
ger requires an
external legit-
imization
, based
upon
the even
ts which
it concern
s. It constitu
tes in itself an
eventcon
sisting of itself, w
hich
is justifi
ed solely b
y the fact th
at it hap
pen
s.H
eidegger w
rites: “In th
e langu
age which
is spoken
when
one exp
resses one-
self, th
ere lies
an average
intelligib
ility; […
] th
e disco
urse
which
is
comm
unicated
can b
e understood
to a consid
erable exten
t, even if th
e hear-
er does n
ot brin
g him
self into su
ch a kin
d of B
eing tow
ards w
hat th
ediscou
rse is abou
t as to have a p
rimord
ial understan
din
g of it” (Being an
dTime: 2
12). A
nd h
e contin
ues: “id
le talk is the p
ossibility of u
nderstan
din
geveryth
ing w
ithou
t previou
sly makin
g the th
ing on
e’s own”(ib
id., 2
13).
Idle talk d
amages th
e referential p
aradigm
. The crisis of th
is parad
igm lies
at the origin
of the m
ass media. O
nce th
ey have b
een freed
from th
e burd
enof corresp
ondin
g poin
t by p
oint to th
e non
-lingu
istic world
, terms can
mul-
tiply in
defi
nitely, gen
erating on
e from th
e other. Id
le talk has n
o foundation
.This lack of fou
ndation
explain
s the fl
eeting, an
d at tim
es vacuou
s, character
of daily in
teraction. N
evertheless, th
is same lack of fou
ndation
auth
orizesin
vention
and th
e experim
entation
of new
discou
rses at every mom
ent. C
om-
munication
, instead
of reflectin
g and tran
smittin
g that w
hich
exists, itselfprod
uces th
e states of thin
gs, uned
ited exp
eriences, n
ew facts. I am
tempted
to say that id
le talk resembles backgroun
d noise: in
signifi
cant in
and of itself
(as opposed
to noises lin
ked to p
articular p
hen
omen
a, such
as a runnin
gm
otorbike or a d
rill), yet it offers a sketch from
which
signifi
cant varian
ces,unusu
al mod
ulation
s, sudden
articulation
s can b
e derived
.It seem
s to me th
at idle talk m
akes up th
e prim
ary subject of th
e post-Fordist virtuosity
discu
ssed in
the secon
d d
ay of our sem
inar. V
irtuosos, as you
will recall, are th
ose who p
roduce som
ethin
g which
is not d
istingu
ishab
le,nor even
separab
le, from th
e act of prod
uction
itself. Virtu
osos are simple
locuters p
ar excellence. B
ut, n
ow I w
ould
add to th
is defi
nition
the n
on-ref-
erenced
speakers; th
at is, the sp
eakers who, w
hile sp
eaking, refl
ect neith
er one
nor an
other state of affairs, b
ut d
etermin
e new
states of affairs by m
eans of
their very ow
n w
ords: th
ose who, accord
ing to H
eidegger, en
gage in idle talk.
This id
le talk is performative: w
ords d
etermin
e facts, events, states of affairs
(Austin
, How to D
o Thin
gs with W
ords). Or, if you
wish
, it is in id
le talk that
it is possib
le to recognize th
e fundam
ental n
ature of p
erforman
ce: not “I b
et,”or “I sw
ear,” or “I take this w
oman
as my w
ife,” but, ab
ove all, “I speak.” In
the assertion
“I speak,” I do
someth
ing b
y saying
these w
ords; m
oreover, Ideclare w
hat it is th
at I do w
hile I d
o it.C
ontrary to w
hat H
eidegger p
resum
es, not on
ly is idle talk n
ot a poor
experien
ce and on
e to be d
eprecated
, but it d
irectly concern
s labor, an
d social
prod
uction
. Thirty years ago, in
man
y factories there w
ere signs p
osted th
at
91
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
comm
anded
: “Silence, m
en at w
ork!” Whoever w
as at work kep
t quiet. O
ne
began
“chattin
g” only u
pon
leaving th
e factory or the offi
ce. The p
rincip
lebreakth
rough
in p
ost-Ford
ism is th
at it has p
laced lan
guage in
to the w
ork-place. T
oday, in
certain w
orkshop
s, one cou
ld w
ell put u
p sign
s mirrorin
gth
ose of the p
ast, but d
eclaring: “M
en at w
ork here. T
alk!”A certain
num
ber of standard
utteran
ces is not w
hat is requ
ired of th
eworker; rath
er, an in
formal act of com
munication
is required
, one w
hich
is flex-
ible, capable of con
frontin
g the m
ost diverse p
ossibilities (along w
ith a good
dose of opportunism
, how
ever). Usin
g terms from
the p
hilosop
hy of lan
guage,
I wou
ld say it is n
ot the parole
but th
e languewhich
is mobilized
, the very fac-
ulty of lan
guage, n
ot any of its sp
ecific ap
plication
s. This facu
lty, which
is the
generic p
ower of articu
lating every sort of u
tterance, takes on
an em
pirical
importan
ce precisely in
computer lan
guage. T
here, in
fact, it is not so m
uch
“what is said
,” as much
as the p
ure an
d sim
ple “ability to say” th
at counts.
Let u
s move on
to curiosity. T
his th
eme also h
as as its subject th
e anon
y-m
ous
“one,”
the
uncon
tested protagon
ist of
the
“unau
then
tic life.”
And
curiosity, for H
eidegger, also takes p
lace outsid
e of the lab
or process. T
he “see-
ing,” w
hich
in th
e process of lab
or is completed
at the con
clusion
of aparticu
lar task, in free tim
e becom
es agitated, m
obile, fi
ckle. Heid
egger writes:
“Con
cern m
ay come to rest in
the sen
se of one’s in
terruptin
g the p
erforman
cean
d takin
g a rest, or it can d
o so by getting it fi
nish
ed. In
rest, concern
does
not d
isappear; circu
msp
ection, h
owever, b
ecomes free an
d is n
o longer b
ound
to the w
orld of w
ork” (ibid
., 217). T
he lib
eration from
the w
orld of lab
orm
eans th
at the “circu
msp
ection” feeds on
any in
divid
ual th
ing, fact, or even
t,all of w
hich
are reduced
, how
ever, to so man
y mere sp
ectacles.H
eidegger cites A
ugu
stine, w
ho d
rew a w
onderfu
l analysis, in
the ten
thbook of th
e Confessions, from
the n
otion of cu
riosity. The cu
rious p
erson,
accordin
g to Augu
stine, is th
e person
who in
dulges in
the concupiscentia oculo-
rum, in
the greed
of sight, lon
ging to w
itness u
nusu
al and even
horrible
spectacles: “W
hen
the sen
ses dem
and p
leasure, th
ey look for objects of visual
beauty, h
armon
ious sou
nds, fragran
t perfu
mes, an
d th
ings th
at are pleasan
t toth
e taste or soft to the tou
ch. B
ut w
hen
their m
otive is curiosity, th
ey may look
for just th
e reverse of these th
ings […
] from a relish
for investigation
and d
is-covery. W
hat p
leasure can
there be in
the sigh
t of a man
gled corp
se, which
canon
ly horrify? Yet p
eople w
ill flock to see on
e lying on
the grou
nd, sim
ply for
the sen
sation of sorrow
and h
orror that it gives th
em” (C
onfessions: Book X
, Sec-tion
35). Both
Augu
stine an
d H
eidegger con
sider cu
riosity to be a degrad
edan
d p
erverse form of love for kn
owled
ge. In su
m, a deductive passion. It is th
eplebeian
parod
y of the bios theoretikos, of th
e contem
plative life d
evoted to p
ure
know
ing. N
either th
e philosop
her n
or the cu
rious p
erson h
as practical in
terests;
92
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
both aim
toward
a learnin
g experien
ce for its own sake, tow
ard a vision
with
-ou
t extrinsic goals. B
ut, w
ith cu
riosity the sen
ses usu
rp th
e prerogatives of
thou
ght: th
e eyes of the bod
y, not th
e metap
horical eyes of th
e min
d, are th
eon
es which
observe, search, evalu
ate all phen
omen
a. The aesth
etic theoriais
transform
ed in
to thevoyeur’s
“craving for exp
erience, for kn
owled
ge.” H
eidegger’s ju
dgem
ent is d
efinitive: in
curiosity a rad
ical estrangem
ent
lies hid
den
; the cu
rious sp
irit “lets itself be carried
along [m
itneh
men
] sole-ly b
y the looks of th
e world
; in th
is kind of B
eing, it con
cerns itself w
ithbecom
ing rid
of itself as Bein
g-in-th
e-world
” (Being an
d Time: 2
16). I w
ould
like to compare H
eidegger’s ju
dgem
ent w
ith W
alter Ben
jamin’s p
osition. In
“The W
ork of Art in
the A
ge of Mech
anical R
eprod
uction” (B
enjam
in, Illu
-mination
s: 217–251) B
enjam
in p
roposes a d
iagnosis of th
e “one,” of th
eways of b
eing of m
ass societies, in su
m, of th
e “unau
then
tic life.” Of cou
rse,he u
ses differen
t termin
ology. And h
e arrives at conclu
sions th
at are very dif-
ferent w
ith resp
ect to Heid
egger’s. That w
hich
Heid
egger consid
ers to be a
threat, B
enjam
in u
nderstan
ds to b
e a prom
ise, or at least an im
portan
top
portu
nity. T
he tech
nical rep
roduction
of art and of every sort of exp
eri-en
ce, mad
e possib
le throu
gh th
e mass m
edia, is n
othin
g other th
an th
ein
strum
ent w
hich
can m
ost adeq
uately satisfy a u
niversal an
d om
nivorou
scu
riosity. But B
enjam
in p
raises that “cravin
g for know
ledge” b
y mean
s of the
senses, th
at “greed of sigh
t” which
Heid
egger, instead
, den
igrates. Let u
slook at th
is in m
ore detail.
Both
curiosity (for H
eidegger) an
d tech
nical rep
roduction
(for Ben
jamin
)strive to abolish distan
ces, to place everyth
ing w
ithin
han
d’s reach
(or better,
with
in view
ing d
istance). T
his in
clination
toward
s closeness assu
mes, h
owev-
er, an op
posite m
eanin
g for the tw
o auth
ors. For H
eidegger, in
the ab
sence
of a laboriou
s “taking care of th
ings,” th
e approach
ing of w
hat is d
istant an
destran
ged h
as the sole resu
lt of ruin
ously can
celing p
erspective: th
e gaze canno lon
ger distin
guish
betw
een “foregrou
nd” an
d “b
ackground.” W
hen
allth
ings con
verge in an
undifferen
tiated closen
ess (as hap
pen
s, accordin
g toH
eidegger, to th
ose who are cu
rious), th
ere is less chan
ce of havin
g a stable
center from
which
to observe th
ese thin
gs. Curiosity resem
bles a fl
ying car-
pet w
hich
, eludin
g the force of gravity, circles arou
nd at low
altitude ab
ovephen
omen
a (w
ithou
t takin
g root
in th
em).
With
regard
to
mass-m
edia
curiosity, B
enjam
in, on
the oth
er han
d, sp
eaks of “the d
esire of contem
porary
masses to b
ring th
ings ‘closer’ sp
atially and h
um
anly, w
hich
is just as ard
ent
as their b
ent tow
ard overcom
ing th
e uniq
uen
ess of every reality by accep
ting
its rep
roduction”
(Illumination
s: 223).
For
Ben
jamin
, cu
riosity, as
anap
proach
to the w
orld, exp
ands an
d en
riches h
um
an p
erceptive cap
abilities.
The m
obile vision
of the cu
rious on
es, mad
e possib
le throu
gh th
e mass-
93
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
media, d
oes not lim
it itself to taking in
a given sp
ectacle passively; on
the con
-trary, it d
ecides an
ew each
time w
hat to w
atch, w
hat d
eserves to come to th
eforegrou
nd an
d w
hat sh
ould
remain
in th
e backgrou
nd. T
he m
edia train
s the
senses to con
sider the known as if it w
ere unknown, to d
istingu
ish “an
enor-
mou
s and su
dden
margin
of freedom
” even in
the m
ost trite and rep
etitiveasp
ects of daily life. A
t the sam
e time, h
owever, th
e med
ia trains th
e senses
also for the op
posite task: to consider the un
known as if it w
ere known, to
becom
e familiar w
ith th
e unexp
ected an
d th
e surp
rising, to b
ecome accu
s-tom
ed to th
e lack of establish
ed h
abits.
Let u
s look at anoth
er signifi
cant an
alogy. For b
oth H
eidegger an
d B
en-
jamin
, those w
ho are cu
rious are forever distracted. T
hey w
atch, learn
, try out
everythin
g, but w
ithou
t payin
g attention
. And in
this regard
as well, th
e judg-
men
t of the tw
o auth
ors diverges. F
or Heid
egger, distraction
, which
is the
correlate of curiosity, is th
e eviden
t proof of a total u
prootin
g and of a total
unau
then
ticity. The d
istracted are th
ose who p
ursu
e possib
ilities which
arealw
ays differen
t, but equ
al and in
terchan
geable (op
portu
nists in
the p
riorm
eanin
g of the w
ord, if you
like). On th
e contrary, B
enjam
in clearly p
raisesdistraction
itself, distin
guish
ing in
it the m
ost effective mean
s for taking in
anartifi
cial experien
ce, technically con
structed
. He w
rites: “Distraction
[…] p
re-sen
ts a covert control of th
e extent to w
hich
new
tasks have b
ecome solu
ble by
appercep
tion. […
] The fi
lm m
akes the cu
lt value reced
e into th
e backgrou
nd
[that is to say, th
e cult for a w
ork of art which
is consid
ered to b
e someth
ing
uniqu
e] not on
ly by puttin
g the p
ublic in
the p
osition of th
e critic [decid
ing
what is b
ackground an
d w
hat is, in
stead, foregrou
nd, as w
e discu
ssed earlier],
but also by th
e fact that at th
e movies th
is position
requires n
o attention
. The
public [or, if you
prefer: th
e multitu
de as p
ublic] is an
examin
er, but an
absen
tm
inded
one” (ib
id., 2
40–241; com
men
ts in b
rackets by Virn
o).It goes w
ithou
t saying th
at distraction
is an ob
stacle to intellectual
learn-
ing. T
hin
gs chan
ge radically, h
owever, if sen
sorylearn
ing is p
ut in
to play: th
istyp
e of learnin
g is absolu
tely favored an
d em
pow
ered b
y distraction
; it laysclaim
to a certain level of d
ispersion
and in
constan
cy. Thus, m
ass med
iacu
riosity is the sen
sory learnin
g of technically rep
roducib
le artifices, th
eim
med
iate percep
tion of in
tellectual p
roducts, th
e corporeal vision
of scien-
tific p
aradigm
s. The sen
ses—or
better,
the “greed
of sigh
t”—su
cceed in
approp
riating an
abstract reality, th
at is to say, concep
ts materialized
in tech
-nology; an
d th
ey do so n
otlean
ing forw
ard w
ith cu
riositybut
makin
g a show
ydisp
lay of distraction
.Thus, (ab
sent-m
inded
) curiosity an
d (n
on-referen
tial) idle talk are attrib
-utes of th
e contem
porary m
ultitu
de: attrib
utes load
ed w
ith am
bivalen
ce,natu
rally; but u
navoid
able attrib
utes.
95
Ten Theses on the Multitude
and Post-Fordist Capitalism
Day Four
97
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
I have attem
pted
to d
escribe th
e natu
re of co
ntem
porary p
roductio
n, so
-called
post-F
ord
ism, o
n th
e basis o
f categories d
rawn fro
m p
olitical p
hi-
loso
phy, eth
ics, epistem
olo
gy, and th
e philo
sophy o
f langu
age. I have d
one
so n
ot as a p
rofessio
nal exercise, b
ut b
ecause I am
truly co
nvin
ced th
at, inord
er for it to
be d
escribed
clearly, the m
ode o
f contem
porary p
roductio
ndem
ands this
variety of an
alyses, thisbread
th o
f views. O
ne can
not u
nder-
stand p
ost-F
ord
ism w
ithout h
aving reco
urse to
a cluster o
f ethical-lin
guis-
tic concep
ts. As is o
bvio
us, m
oreover, th
is is where th
e matter of fact
lies inth
e pro
gressive iden
tification b
etween
poiesis an
d lan
guage, p
roductio
nan
d co
mm
unicatio
n.
In o
rder to
nam
e with
a unifyin
g term th
e form
s of life an
d th
e lin-
guistic
games
which
ch
aracterize our
era, I
have
used
th
e notio
n of
“multitu
de.” T
his n
otio
n, th
e polar o
pposite o
f that o
f “peo
ple,” is d
efined
by a co
mplex o
f break
s, landslid
es, and in
novatio
ns w
hich
I have tried
topoin
t out. L
et me cite so
me o
f them
here, in
no p
articular o
rder: th
e lifeof th
e stranger (bios xen
ikos) bein
g experien
ced as an
ord
inary co
nditio
n;
the p
revalence o
f “com
mon p
laces” in d
iscourse over “sp
ecial” places; th
epublicn
ess of th
e intellect, as m
uch
an ap
otro
paic d
evice as a pillar o
fso
cial pro
ductio
n; activity w
ithout en
d p
roduct (th
at is, virtuosity); th
ecen
trality of th
e prin
ciple o
f individ
uatio
n; th
e relation w
ith th
e possib
lein
as much
as it is possib
le (opportu
nism
); the h
ypertro
phic d
evelopm
ent
of th
e non-referen
tial aspects o
f langu
age (idle talk
). In th
e multitu
de
98
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
there is a fu
ll historical, phen
om
enolo
gical, empirical d
isplay o
f the o
nto
-lo
gical co
nditio
n of
the
hum
an an
imal:
bio
logical
artlessness,
the
indefin
ite or poten
tialch
aracter of its existen
ce, lack o
f a determ
ined
envi-
ronm
ent, th
e lingu
istic intellect as “co
mpen
sation” fo
r the sh
ortage o
fsp
ecialized in
stincts. It is as if th
e root h
as risen to
the su
rface, finally
revealing itself to
the n
aked
eye. That w
hich
has alw
ays been
true, is o
nly
now
unveiled
. The m
ultitu
de is th
is: a fundam
ental b
iolo
gical configu
ra-tio
n w
hich
beco
mes a h
istorically d
etermin
ed w
ay of b
eing, o
nto
logy
revealing itself p
hen
om
enolo
gically. One co
uld
even say th
at the p
ost-
Ford
ist m
ultitu
de
man
ifests anthropogen
esisas
such
on
ahisto
rical-empirical level; th
at is to say, th
e genesis itself o
f the h
um
an an
i-m
al, its
distin
guish
ing
characteristics.
The
multitu
de
epito
mizes
this
genesis, it su
ms it u
p. U
pon reflectio
n, th
ese rather ab
stract consid
erations
are only an
oth
er way o
f saying th
at the p
rimary p
roductive reso
urce o
fco
ntem
porary
capitalism
lies
in th
e lin
guistic-relatio
nal
abilities
of
hum
ankin
d, in
the co
mplex o
f com
municative an
d co
gnitive facu
lties(dyn
ameis, p
owers) w
hich
distin
guish
hum
ans.
Our sem
inar is n
ow over. T
hat w
hich
could
be said
, has b
een (eith
erwell o
r poorly) said
. Now
, at the en
d o
f our circu
mnavigatio
n o
f the co
n-
tinen
t of th
e “multitu
de,” w
e need
only to
insist u
pon a few
qualifyin
gasp
ects of o
ur an
alysis. Tow
ards th
at end, I p
ropose ten
statemen
ts on th
em
ultitu
de an
d p
ost-F
ord
ist capitalism
. I call these statem
ents theses
only
for th
e sake o
f conven
ience. T
hey d
o n
ot claim
to b
e exhau
stive, nor d
oth
ey seek to
oppose o
ther p
ossib
le analyses o
r defin
itions o
f post-F
ord
ism.
They h
ave only th
e apodip
tic appearan
ce, and (I h
ope) th
e precisio
n o
fau
then
tic theses. So
me o
f these statem
ents co
uld
possib
ly have co
nverged
,m
akin
g of th
emselves o
ne “th
esis.” Furth
ermore, th
e sequen
ce is arbitrary:
that w
hich
figures as “th
esis x” would
lose n
oth
ing if it figu
red as “th
esisy” (an
d vice versa). F
inally, it m
ust b
e understo
od th
at often
I affirm o
rden
y with
more p
recision, o
r less nuan
ce, than
what m
ight b
e correct o
r(p
ruden
t) to d
o. In so
me cases I shall say
more th
an I thin
k.
Thesis 1
Post-F
ordism (an
d with it the m
ultitude) appeared, in Italy, w
ith thesocial un
rest which is gen
erally remembered as the “m
ovement of 1
977.”
Post-F
ord
ism, in
Italy arose fro
m th
e tum
ults o
f labor-p
ower w
hich
was
educated
, uncertain
, mobile; o
ne w
hich
hated
the w
ork
ethic an
d o
pposed
,at tim
es head
on, th
e traditio
n an
d th
e cultu
re of th
e histo
rical left, mark
-
99
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
ing a clear d
iscontin
uity w
ith resp
ect to assem
bly-lin
e work
ers, with
their
practices an
d cu
stom
s, with
their w
ays of life. P
ost-F
ord
ism aro
se from
conflicts cen
tered u
pon so
cial figures w
hich
, desp
ite their ap
paren
t mar-
ginal statu
s, were ab
out to
beco
me th
e auth
entic fu
lcrum
of th
e new
cycleof cap
italistic develo
pm
ent. B
esides, it h
ad alread
y hap
pen
ed b
efore th
at arad
ical revolu
tion in
the m
anner o
f pro
ductio
n w
as accom
pan
ied b
y pre-
matu
re political strife am
ong th
ose strata o
f labor-p
ower w
hich
, a littlelater, w
ould
mak
e up th
e supportin
g axis of th
e pro
ductio
n o
f surp
lus-
value. It is en
ough
to recall th
e dan
gerousn
ess attributed
in th
e eighteen
thcen
tury to
the B
ritish vagab
onds, already
throw
n o
ut o
f the field
s and on
the vergeof b
eing let in
to th
e first factories. O
r thin
k o
f the stru
ggles of
the u
nsk
illed A
merican
work
ers from
1910 to
1920, stru
ggles which
pre-
ceded
the H
enry F
ord
and F
rederick
Taylo
r turn
ing p
oin
t, a turn
ing p
oin
tbased
precisely o
n th
e systematic rem
oval of sk
ill from
labor. E
very drastic
metam
orp
hosis o
f pro
ductive o
rganizatio
n is d
estined
from
the start, to
conju
re up th
e pan
gs of th
e “origin
al accum
ulatio
n,” fo
rcing, all over
again, th
e transfo
rmatio
n o
f a relationsh
ip am
ong thin
gs(n
ew tech
nolo
-gies, a d
ifferent allo
cation o
f investm
ents, etc.) in
to a social
relationsh
ip. It
is exactly in th
is delicate in
terval that, at tim
es, thesubjective aspect, w
hich
will later b
ecom
e an irrefu
table co
urse o
f fact, reveals itself.The m
asterpiece o
f Italian cap
italism co
nsists o
f havin
g transfo
rmed
into
a pro
ductive reso
urce p
recisely those m
odes o
f beh
avior w
hich
, atfirst, m
ade th
eir appearan
ce under th
e semblan
ce of rad
ical conflict. T
he
conversio
n o
f the co
llective pro
pen
sities of th
e 1977 m
ovemen
t (exit from
the facto
ries, indifferen
ce to stead
y employm
ent, fam
iliarity with
learnin
gan
d co
mm
unicatio
n n
etwork
s) into
a renew
ed co
ncep
t of p
rofessio
nalism
(opportu
nism
, idle talk
, virtuosity, etc.): th
is is the m
ost p
recious resu
lt of
the Italian
counter-revolu
tion(“co
unter-revo
lutio
n” mean
ing n
ot th
e sim-
ple resto
ration o
f a previo
us state o
f affairs, but, literally, a revolu
tion to the
contrary, th
at is, a drastic in
novatio
n o
f the eco
nom
y and in
stitutio
ns in
ord
er to re-lau
nch
pro
ductivity an
d p
olitical d
om
inatio
n).
The 1
977 m
ovemen
t had
the m
isfortu
ne o
f bein
g treated as if it w
erea m
ovemen
t of m
arginal p
eople an
d p
arasites. How
ever, margin
al and p
ar-asitical w
as the p
oin
t of view
adopted
by th
ose m
akin
g these accu
sations.
In fact, th
ey iden
tified th
emselves en
tirely with
the F
ord
ist parad
igm,
believin
g that o
nly a secu
re job in
factories m
akin
g lasting co
nsu
mer go
ods
was “cen
tral” and “p
roductive.” T
hus th
ey iden
tified w
ith a p
roductio
ncycle alread
y in d
ecline. L
ookin
g at it closely, th
e 1977 m
ovemen
t antici-
pated
certain traits o
f the p
ost-F
ord
ist multitu
de. A
s angry an
d co
arse as itwas, h
owever, th
e virtuosity o
f this m
ovemen
t was n
ot servile.
100
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
Thesis 2
Post-F
ordism is the em
pirical realization of the “F
ragment on
Machin
es”by M
arx.
Marx w
rites: “The theft of alien labour tim
e, on which the present w
ealth is based,ap
pears a m
iserable foundation
in face of th
is new
one [(th
e autom
ated system
of mach
ines) V
irno ad
dition
, trans.] created
by large-scale industry itself. A
ssoon
as labour in
the d
irect form h
as ceased to be th
e great well-sp
ring of
wealth
, labou
r tim
e ceases
and m
ust
cease to
be its
measu
re, an
d hen
ceexch
ange valu
e [must cease to be th
e measu
re] of use valu
e. (Italics and brack-
ets from
N
icolaus’s
English
tran
slation,
trans.)”
(Grundrisse:
705). In
th
e“Fragm
ent on
Mach
ines” from
the G
rundrisse, from w
hich
I drew
that citation
,M
arx uphold
s a thesis th
at is hard
ly Marxist: abstract kn
owled
ge—scien
tific
know
ledge, fi
rst and forem
ost, but n
ot only th
at—m
oves toward
s becomin
gnoth
ing less th
an th
e prin
cipal p
roductive force, relegatin
g parceled
and rep
et-itive labor to a resid
ual p
osition. W
e know
that M
arx turn
s to a fairly suggestive
image to in
dicate th
e complex of kn
owled
ge which
makes u
p th
e epicen
ter ofsocial p
roduction
and at th
e same tim
e prearran
ges its vital confines: general
intellect. The ten
den
tial pre-em
inen
ce of know
ledge m
akes of labor time a “m
is-erable fou
ndation
.” The so-called
“law of valu
e” (accordin
g to which
the valu
eof a p
roduct is d
etermin
ed by th
e amou
nt of labor tim
e that w
ent in
to it),which
Marx con
siders th
e keystone of m
odern
social relations, is, h
owever,
shattered
and refu
ted by cap
italist develop
men
t itself.It is at th
is poin
t that M
arx prop
oses a hyp
othesis on
surp
assing th
e rateof
dom
inan
t prod
uction
which
is
very differen
t from
th
e m
ore fam
ous
hyp
otheses p
resented
in h
is other w
orks. In th
e “Fragm
ent,” th
e crisis of cap-
italism is n
o longer
attributed
to the d
isprop
ortions in
heren
t in a m
eans of
prod
uction
truly b
ased on
labor tim
e supplied
by in
divid
uals (it is n
o longer
attributed
, therefore, to th
e imbalan
ces connected
to the fu
ll force of the law
,for exam
ple, to th
e fall of the rate of p
rofit). In
stead, th
ere comes to th
e fore-grou
nd th
e sp
litting
contrad
iction betw
een a
prod
uctive
process
which
directly an
d exclu
sively calls upon
science, an
d a u
nit of m
easurem
ent of
wealth
which
still coincid
es with
the q
uan
tity of labor in
corporated
in th
eprod
ucts. T
he p
rogressive wid
enin
g of thisdifferen
tial mean
s, accordin
g toM
arx, that “p
roduction
based
on exch
ange valu
e breaks d
own” (G
rundrisse:
705) an
d lead
s thus to com
munism
.W
hat is m
ost obviou
s in th
e post-F
ord era is th
e full factu
al realization of
the ten
den
cy describ
ed b
y Marx w
ithou
t, how
ever, any em
ancip
ating con
se-quen
ces. The d
isprop
ortion b
etween
the role accom
plish
ed b
y know
ledge
101
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
and th
e decreasin
g importan
ce of labor tim
e has given
rise to new
and stab
leform
s of pow
er, rather th
an to a h
otbed
of crisis. The rad
ical metam
orphosis
of the very con
cept of p
roduction
belon
gs, as always, in
the sp
here of w
ork-in
g under a b
oss. More th
an allu
din
g to the overcom
ing of w
hat alread
yexists, th
e “Fragm
ent” is a toolb
ox for the sociologist. It d
escribes an
empiri-
cal reality which
lies in fron
t of all our eyes: th
e empirical reality of th
epost-F
ordist stru
cture.
Thesis 3
The crisis of the society of labor is reflected in
the multitude itself.
The crisis of th
e society of labor certain
ly does n
ot coincid
e with
a linear
shrin
king of lab
or time. In
stead, th
e latter exhib
its an u
nheard
of pervasive-
ness in
today’s w
orld. T
he p
ositions of G
orz and R
ifkin on
the “en
d of w
ork”(G
orz, Reclaim
ing W
ork; Rifkin
, The E
nd of W
ork) are mistaken
; they sp
readm
isunderstan
din
gs of all kinds; an
d even
worse, th
ey preven
t us from
focus-
ing on
the very q
uestion
they raise.
The crisis of th
e society of labor con
sists in th
e fact (brou
ght u
p in
thesis
2) th
at social wealth
is prod
uced
from scien
ce, from th
e general in
tellect,rath
er than
from th
e work d
elivered b
y individ
uals. T
he w
ork dem
anded
seems red
ucib
le to a virtually n
egligible p
ortion of a life. Scien
ce, inform
a-tion
, know
ledge in
general, coop
eration, th
ese presen
t them
selves as the key
support system
of prod
uction
—th
ese, rather th
an lab
or time. N
evertheless,
this lab
or time con
tinues to b
e valid as a p
arameter of social d
evelopm
ent an
dof social w
ealth. T
hus, th
e overflow
of labor from
society establish
es a con-
tradictory p
rocess, a theater of violen
t opposition
s and d
isturb
ing p
aradoxes.
Lab
or time is th
e unit of m
easurem
ent in
use, but n
o longer th
etrue on
e unit
of measu
remen
t. To ign
ore one or th
e other of th
e two sid
es—th
at is, toem
phasize eith
er the valid
ity alone, or th
e lack of veracity alone—
does n
ottake u
s far: in th
e first case, on
e does n
ot becom
e aware of th
e crisis of the
society of labor, in
the secon
d case on
e ends u
p gu
aranteein
g conciliatory rep
-resen
tations in
the m
anner of G
orz or Rifkin
.The surpassing of the society of labor occurs in the form
s prescribed by the socialsystem
based on wage labor. O
vertime, w
hich
is a poten
tial source of w
ealth,
man
ifests itself as poverty: w
ages compen
sation, stru
ctural u
nem
ploym
ent
(brou
ght on
by investm
ents, n
ot by the lack th
ereof), unlim
ited fl
exibility in
the u
se of labor-p
ower, p
roliferation of h
ierarchies, re-estab
lishm
ent of arch
a-ic d
isciplin
ary measu
res to control in
divid
uals n
o longer su
bject to th
e rules of
the factory system
. This is th
e magn
etic storm w
hich
allows, on
the p
hen
om-
102
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
enological p
lane, for th
e “surp
assing” w
hich
is parad
oxical to the p
oint of tak-
ing p
lace upon
the very fou
ndation
of that w
hich
was to b
e surp
assed.
Let m
e repeat th
e key-phrase: th
e surp
assing of th
e society of labor com
esab
out in
complian
ce with
the ru
les of wage lab
or. This p
hrase can
be ap
plied
to th
e post-F
ordist
situation
in
th
e sam
e m
anner
as M
arx’s ob
servationregard
ing th
e first stock com
pan
ies. Marx w
rites: “the join
t-stock system […
]is an
abolition
of capitalist p
rivate industry on
the b
asis of the cap
italist sys-tem
itself” (Capital, V
olum
e 3: 5
70). T
hat is to say: th
e stock compan
iesassert th
e possib
ility of escapin
g the regim
e of private p
roperty, b
ut th
is asser-tion
always takes p
lace with
in th
e realm of p
rivate prop
erty and, in
deed
,in
creases disp
roportion
ately the p
ower of th
e latter. The d
ifficu
lty, with
ref-eren
ce to post-F
ordism
as well as to th
e stock compan
ies, lies in con
siderin
gsim
ultan
eously th
e two con
tradictory p
oints of view
, that is to say, su
bsis-
tence an
d en
din
g, validity an
d su
rmou
ntab
ility.The crisis of th
e society of labor (if correctly u
nderstood
) implies th
at allof
post-F
ordist lab
or-pow
er can b
e describ
ed u
sing th
e categories with
which
Marx an
alyzed th
e “industrial reserve arm
y,” that is, u
nem
ploym
ent. M
arxbelieved
that th
e “industrial reserve arm
y” was d
ivisible in
to three typ
es orfigu
res: fluid(tod
ay we w
ould
speak of tu
rn-over, early retirem
ent, etc.),
latent
(where at an
y mom
ent a tech
nological in
novation
could
interven
e,red
ucin
g employm
ent), stagn
ant(in
curren
t terms: w
orking u
nder th
e table,
temporary w
ork, atypical w
ork). Accord
ing to M
arx, it is the m
ass of the
unem
ployed
which
is fluid
, latent or stagn
ant, certain
ly not th
e employed
labor class; th
ey are a margin
al sector of labor-p
ower, n
ot its main
sector. Yet,th
e crisis of the society of lab
or (with
the com
plex ch
aracteristics which
Itried
to outlin
e earlier) causes th
ese three d
etermin
ing categories to ap
ply, in
effect, to
all lab
or-pow
er. Flu
id,
or laten
t, or
stagnan
t, ap
plies
to th
eem
ployed
labor class as su
ch. E
ach allocation
of wage lab
or allows th
e non
-necessity of th
at labor an
d th
e excessive social cost inheren
t in th
at labor to
leak out. B
ut th
is non
-necessity, as alw
ays, man
ifests itself as a perp
etuation
of wage lab
or in tem
porary or “fl
exible” form
s.
Thesis 4
For the post-F
ordist multitu
de every qualitative differen
ce between
labor time an
d non-labor tim
e falls short.
Social tim
e, in to
day’s w
orld
, seems to
have co
me u
nhin
ged b
ecause th
ereis n
o lo
nger an
ythin
g which
distin
guish
es labor fro
m th
e rest of h
um
anactivities. T
herefo
re, since w
ork ceases to
constitu
te a special an
d sep
arate
103
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
praxis, w
ith d
istinctive criteria an
d p
roced
ures in
effect at its center, co
m-
pletely
differen
t fro
m th
ose
criteria an
d pro
cedures
which
regu
latenon-lab
or tim
e, there is n
ot a clean
, well-d
efined
thresh
old
separatin
g labor
time fro
m n
on-lab
or tim
e. In F
ord
ism, acco
rdin
g to G
ramsci, th
e intellect
remain
s outsid
e of p
roductio
n; o
nly w
hen
the w
ork h
as been
finish
ed d
oes
the F
ord
ist worker read
the n
ewsp
aper, go
to th
e local p
arty head
quarters,
thin
k, have co
nversatio
ns. In
post-F
ord
ism, h
owever, sin
ce the “life o
f the
min
d” is in
cluded
fully w
ithin
the tim
e-space o
f pro
ductio
n, an
essential
hom
ogen
eity prevails.
Lab
or an
d n
on-lab
or d
evelop an
iden
tical form
of p
roductivity, b
asedon th
e exercise of gen
eric hum
an facu
lties: langu
age, mem
ory, so
ciability,
ethical an
d aesth
etic inclin
ations, th
e capacity fo
r abstractio
n an
d learn
ing.
Fro
m th
e poin
t of view
of “w
hat” is d
one an
d “h
ow” it is d
one, th
ere is no
substan
tial differen
ce betw
een em
ploym
ent an
d u
nem
ploym
ent. It co
uld
be said
that: u
nem
ploym
ent is n
on-rem
unerated
labor an
d lab
or, in
turn
, isrem
unerated
unem
ploym
ent. W
orkin
g endlessly can
be ju
stified w
ith go
od
reasons, an
d w
orkin
g less and less freq
uen
tly can b
e equally ju
stified. T
hese
parad
oxical form
ulas, co
ntrad
icting each
oth
er, when
put to
gether d
emon-
strate how
social tim
e has co
me u
nhin
ged.
The o
ld d
istinctio
n b
etween
“labor” an
d “n
on-lab
or” en
ds u
p in
the
distin
ction b
etween
remunerated
life and n
on-rem
unerated
life. The b
or-
der b
etween
these tw
o lives is arb
itrary, chan
geable, su
bject to
political
decisio
n m
akin
g.The p
roductive co
operatio
n in
which
labor-p
ower p
articipates is alw
ayslarger an
d rich
er than
the o
ne p
ut in
to p
lay by th
e labor p
rocess. It in
cludes
also th
e world
of n
on-lab
or, th
e experien
ces and kn
owled
ge matu
red o
ut-
side o
f the facto
ry and th
e office. L
abor-p
ower in
creases the valu
e of cap
italonly b
ecause it n
ever loses its q
ualities o
f non-lab
or (th
at is, its inheren
tco
nnectio
n to
a pro
ductive co
operatio
n rich
er than
the o
ne im
plicit in
the
labor p
rocess in
the strictest sen
se of th
e term).
Since so
cial cooperatio
n p
recedes an
d exceed
s the w
ork
pro
cess, post-
Ford
ist labor is alw
ays, also, hidden
labor. This exp
ression sh
ould
not b
etaken
here to
mean
labor w
hich
is un-co
ntracted
, “under th
e table.” H
id-
den
labor is, in
the first p
lace, non-rem
unerated
life, that is to
say the p
artof h
um
an activity w
hich
, alike in every resp
ect to th
e activity of lab
or, is
not, h
owever, calcu
lated as p
roductive fo
rce.The cru
cial poin
t here is to
recogn
ize that in
the realm
of lab
or, exp
eri-en
ces which
matu
re outsid
e of lab
or h
old
pred
om
inan
t weigh
t; at the sam
etim
e, we m
ust b
e aware th
at this m
ore gen
eral sphere o
f experien
ce, once
inclu
ded
in th
e pro
ductive p
rocess, is su
bord
inate to
the ru
les of th
e mode
104
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
of cap
italistic pro
ductio
n. H
ere also th
ere is a double risk: eith
er to d
eny
the b
readth
of w
hat is in
cluded
in th
e mode o
f pro
ductio
n, o
r, in th
e nam
eof th
is bread
th, to
den
y the existen
ce of a sp
ecific mode o
f pro
ductio
n.
Thesis 5
In post-F
ordism there exists a perm
anent disproportion
between
“labortim
e” and the m
ore ample “produ
ction tim
e.”
Marx d
istingu
ishes b
etween
“labor tim
e” and “p
roductio
n tim
e” in ch
apters
XII an
d X
III of th
e second b
ook o
f the C
apital.Thin
k of th
e cycle of sow
-in
g and h
arvesting. T
he farm
laborer w
orks fo
r a month
(labor tim
e); then
a long in
terval follow
s for th
e growin
g of th
e grain (p
roductio
n tim
e, but
no lo
nger lab
or tim
e); and at last, th
e perio
d o
f harvestin
g arrives (once
again, lab
or tim
e). In agricu
lture an
d o
ther secto
rs, pro
ductio
n is m
ore
extensive th
an lab
or activity, in
the p
roper sen
se of th
e term; th
e latterm
akes up h
ardly a fractio
n o
f the overall cycle. T
he p
airing o
f the term
s“lab
or tim
e”/ “pro
ductio
n tim
e” is an extrao
rdin
arily pertin
ent co
ncep
tual
tool
for
understan
din
g post-F
ord
ist reality,
that
is to
say,
the
modern
expressio
n o
f the so
cial workin
g day. B
eyond th
e examples fro
m agricu
lture
adopted
by M
arx, the d
ispro
portio
n b
etween
“pro
ductio
n” and “lab
or” fits
fairly well th
e situatio
n d
escribed
in “F
ragmen
t on M
achin
es”; in o
ther
word
s, it fits a situatio
n in
which
labor tim
e presen
ts itself as “miserab
leresid
ue.”
The d
ispro
portio
n takes o
n tw
o d
ifferent fo
rms. In
the first p
lace, it isrevealed
with
in every sin
gle workin
g day o
f every single w
orker. T
he w
ork-
er oversees and co
ord
inates (lab
or tim
e) the au
tom
atic system o
f mach
ines
(whose fu
nctio
n d
efines p
roductio
n tim
e); the w
orker’s activity o
ften en
ds
up b
eing a so
rt of m
ainten
ance. It co
uld
be said
that in
the p
ost-F
ord
isten
vironm
ent p
roductio
n tim
e is interru
pted
only at in
tervals by lab
or tim
e.W
hile sow
ing is a n
ecessary conditio
n fo
r the su
bseq
uen
t phase o
f the
grain’s grow
th,
the
modern
activity
of
overseeing
and co
ord
inatin
g is
placed
, from
begin
nin
g to en
d, alon
gsideth
e auto
mated
pro
cess.There is a seco
nd, an
d m
ore rad
ical, way o
f conceivin
g this d
ispro
por-
tion. In
post-F
ord
ism “p
roductio
n tim
e” inclu
des n
on-lab
or tim
e, durin
gwhich
social co
operatio
n takes its ro
ot (see th
esis 4). H
ence I d
efine “p
ro-
ductio
n tim
e” as
that
indisso
luble
unity
of
remunerated
life
and
non-rem
unerated
life, labor an
d n
on-lab
or, em
erged so
cial cooperatio
n an
dsu
bm
erged so
cial cooperatio
n. “L
abor tim
e” is only o
ne co
mponen
t, and
not n
ecessarily the m
ost p
rom
inen
t one, o
f “pro
ductio
n tim
e” understo
od
105
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
in th
is way. T
his evid
ence d
rives us to
reform
ulate, in
part o
r entirely, th
eth
eory o
f surp
lus-valu
e. Acco
rdin
g to M
arx, surp
lus-valu
e sprin
gs from
sur-
plu
s-labor, th
at is, from
the d
ifference b
etween
necessary lab
or (w
hich
com
pen
sates the cap
italist for th
e expen
se sustain
ed in
acquirin
g the lab
or-
pow
er) and th
e entirety o
f the w
orkin
g day. So
then
, one w
ould
have to
sayth
at in th
e post-F
ord
ist era, surp
lus-valu
e is determ
ined
above all b
y the gap
betw
een p
roductio
n tim
e which
is not calcu
lated as lab
or tim
e and lab
or
time in
the tru
e sense o
f the term
. What m
atters is not o
nly th
e disp
ropor-
tion, in
heren
t in lab
or tim
e, betw
een n
ecessary labor an
d su
rplu
s-labor, b
ut
also, an
d p
erhap
s even m
ore, th
e disp
roportio
n b
etween
pro
ductio
n tim
e(w
hich
inclu
des n
on-lab
or, its ow
n d
istinctive p
roductivity) an
d lab
or tim
e.
Thesis 6
In on
e way, post-F
ordism is characterized by the co-existen
ce of themost diverse produ
ctive models an
d, in an
other way, by essen
tiallyhom
ogeneou
s socialization which takes place ou
tside of the workplace.
Differen
tly from
the F
ord
ist organ
ization o
f labor, to
day’s o
rganizatio
n o
flab
or is alw
ays spotty. T
echnolo
gical innovatio
n is n
ot u
niversal: m
ore
than
determ
inin
g an u
neq
uivo
cal and lead
ing p
roductive m
odel, it k
eeps
a myriad
of d
ifferent m
odels alive, in
cludin
g the resu
scitation o
f som
e out-
dated
and an
achro
nistic m
odels. P
ost-F
ord
ism re-ed
its the en
tire histo
ry of
labor, fro
m islan
ds o
f mass lab
or to
enclaves
of p
rofessio
nal w
ork
ers, from
re-inflated
indep
enden
t labor to
reinstated
form
s of p
ersonal p
ower. T
he
pro
ductio
n m
odels w
hich
have fo
llowed
one an
oth
er durin
g this lo
ng p
eri-od re-p
resent th
emselves syn
chronically, as if acco
rdin
g to th
e standard
s of
a World
’s Fair. T
he b
ackgro
und an
d th
e hyp
oth
esis beh
ind th
is pro
lifera-tio
n o
f differen
ces, this sh
attering o
f organ
izing fo
rms, is estab
lished
,how
ever, by th
e general in
tellect, by co
mputerized
data co
mm
unicatio
ntech
nolo
gy, by p
roductive co
operatio
n w
hich
inclu
des w
ithin
itself the
time
of
non-lab
or.
Parad
oxically,
just
when
know
ledge
and lan
guage
beco
me th
e prin
cipal p
roductive fo
rce, there is an
unrestrain
ed m
ultip
li-catio
n o
f the m
odels o
f labor o
rganizatio
n, n
ot to
men
tion th
eir eclecticco
-existence.
We m
ay well ask
what th
e softw
are engin
eer has in
com
mon w
ith th
eFiat w
ork
er, or w
ith th
e temporary w
ork
er. We m
ust h
ave the co
urage to
answ
er: precio
us
little, with
regard
to
jo
b descrip
tion,
to pro
fessional
skills, to
the n
ature o
f the lab
or p
rocess. B
ut w
e can also
answ
er: every-th
ing, w
ith regard
to th
e mak
e-up an
d co
nten
ts of th
e socializatio
n o
f
106
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
single in
divid
uals o
utsid
e of th
e work
place. T
hat is to
say, these w
ork
ershave in
com
mon em
otio
nal to
nalities, in
terests, men
tality, expectatio
ns.
Excep
t that, w
hile in
the ad
vanced
sectors th
is hom
ogen
eous ethos
(oppor-
tunism
, id
le talk
, etc.)
is in
cluded
in
pro
ductio
n an
d delin
eatespro
fessional p
rofiles, th
is ethos stren
gthen
s, instead
, the “w
orld
of life” fo
rth
ose w
ho fall in
to th
e traditio
nal secto
rs, as well as fo
r the border-w
orkerswho sw
ing b
etween
work
and u
nem
ploym
ent. T
o p
ut it su
ccinctly: th
eseam
is to b
e found b
etween
the opportu
nism
at work
and th
e universal
opportu
nism
dem
anded
by th
e urb
an exp
erience. T
he essen
tially unitary
character o
f socializatio
n d
etached
from
the lab
or p
rocess stan
ds in
coun-
terpoin
t to th
e fragmen
tation o
f pro
ductive m
odels, to
their W
orld
’s Fair
style co-existen
ce.
Thesis 7
In Post-Fordism
, thegen
eral intellect does not coincide w
ith fixed capital,but m
anifests itself principally as a linguistic reiteration of living labor.
As w
as already said
on th
e second d
ay of o
ur sem
inar, M
arx, with
out
reserve, equated
the gen
eral intellect
(that is, k
now
ledge as p
rincip
al pro
-ductive fo
rce) with
fixed cap
ital, with
the “o
bjective scien
tific capacity”
inheren
t in th
e system o
f mach
ines. In
this w
ay he o
mitted
the d
imen
sion,
abso
lutely p
reemin
ent to
day, in
which
the gen
eral intellect
presen
ts itself aslivin
g labor. It is n
ecessary to an
alyze post-F
ord
ist pro
ductio
n in
ord
er tosu
pport th
is criticism. In
so-called
“second-gen
eration in
dep
enden
t labor,”
but also
in th
e operatio
nal p
roced
ures o
f a radically refo
rmed
factory su
chas th
e Fiat facto
ry in M
elfi, it is not d
ifficult to
recogn
ize that th
e con-
nectio
n b
etween
know
ledge an
d p
roductio
n is n
ot at all exh
austed
with
inth
e system o
f mach
ines; o
n th
e contrary, it articu
lates itself in th
e lingu
is-tic co
operatio
n o
f men
and w
om
en, in
their actu
ally acting in
concert. In
the P
ost-F
ord
ist enviro
nm
ent, a d
ecisive role is p
layed b
y the in
finite vari-
ety of co
ncep
ts and lo
gical schem
es which
cannot ever b
e set with
in fixed
capital, b
eing in
separab
le from
the reiteratio
n o
f a plu
rality of livin
g sub-
jects. The gen
eral intellect
inclu
des, th
us, fo
rmal an
d in
form
al know
ledge,
imagin
ation, eth
ical pro
pen
sities, min
dsets, an
d “lin
guistic gam
es.” Inco
ntem
porary lab
or p
rocesses, th
ere are though
ts and d
iscourses w
hich
functio
n as p
roductive “m
achin
es,” with
out h
aving to
adopt th
e form
of a
mech
anical b
ody o
r of an
electronic valve.
The gen
eral intellect
beco
mes an
attribute o
f living lab
or w
hen
the
activity of th
e latter consists in
creasingly o
f lingu
istic services. Here w
e
107
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
touch
upon th
e lack o
f foundatio
n in
Jürgen
Hab
ermas’s p
ositio
n. In
spired
by H
egel’s teachin
gs in Jen
a (Hab
ermas, A
rbeit und In
teraktion), h
e con-
trasts lab
or
with
in
teraction,
“instru
men
tal or
‘strategic’ actio
n” with
“com
municative actio
n.” In
his ju
dgm
ent, th
e two sp
heres an
swer to
stan-
dard
s that are m
utu
ally inco
mm
ensu
rable: lab
or co
mes straigh
t from
the
logic o
f mean
s/ends, lin
guistic in
teraction rests u
pon exch
ange, u
pon rec-
ipro
cal recogn
ition, u
pon th
e sharin
g of an
iden
tical ethos. Today, h
owever,
wage lab
or (em
ployed
, surp
lus-valu
e pro
ducin
g labor) is
interactio
n. T
he
labor
pro
cess is
no lo
nger
taciturn
, but
loquacio
us.
“Com
municative
action” n
o lo
nger h
old
s its privileged
, even exclu
sive, place w
ithin
ethical-
cultu
ral relations o
r with
in p
olitics, n
o lo
nger lies o
utsid
e the sp
here o
f the
material rep
roductio
n o
f life. To th
e contrary, th
e dialo
gical word
is seat-ed
at the very h
eart of cap
italistic pro
ductio
n. In
short: to
understan
d fu
llyth
e rules o
f post-F
ord
ist labor, it is n
ecessary to tu
rn m
ore an
d m
ore to
Sau
ssure an
d W
ittgenstein
. It is true th
at these au
thors lo
st interest in
the
social relatio
ns o
f pro
ductio
n; n
evertheless, sin
ce they reflected
so d
eeply
on lin
guistic exp
erience, th
ey have m
ore to
teach u
s about th
e “loquacio
us
factory” th
an d
o th
e pro
fessional eco
nom
ists.It h
as already b
een stated
that o
ne p
art of th
e labor tim
e of an
indi-
vidual is d
estined
to en
rich an
d stren
gthen
pro
ductive co
operatio
n itself,
the m
osaic in
which
the in
divid
ual serves as o
ne tessera. T
o p
ut it m
ore
clearly: the task
of a w
ork
er is that o
f renderin
g better an
d m
ore varied
the
connectio
n b
etween
individ
ual lab
or an
d th
e services of o
thers. It is th
isreflective
character o
f labor activity w
hich
insists th
at in lab
or th
e lingu
is-tic-relatio
nal asp
ects assum
e an in
creasing im
portan
ce; it also in
sists that
opportu
nism
and id
le talk b
ecom
e tools o
f great importan
ce. Hegel sp
oke
of an
“astuten
ess of lab
or,” m
eanin
g by th
is expressio
n th
e capacity to
fur-
ther n
atural cau
sality, with
the aim
of u
tilizing its p
ower in
view o
f adeterm
ined
go
al. Acco
rdin
gly, in
th
e realm
of
post-F
ord
ism,
Hegel’s
“astuten
ess” has b
een su
pplan
ted b
y Heid
egger’s “idle talk
.”
Thesis 8
The w
hole of post-Fordist labor-pow
er, even the m
ost unskilled, is an
intellectu
al labor-power, the “in
tellectuality of the m
asses.”
I use th
e term “in
tellectuality of th
e masses” for th
e whole of p
ost-Ford
eralivin
g labor (n
ot inclu
din
g certain sp
ecially qualifi
ed in
dustries of th
e tertiarysector) in
that it is a d
epository of cogn
itive and com
municative skills w
hich
cannot b
e objectifi
ed w
ithin
the system
of mach
ines. T
he in
tellectuality of
108
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
the m
asses is the p
reemin
ent form
in w
hich
, today, th
e general in
tellectreveals
itself (see thesis 7
). I hard
ly need
to say that I d
o not refer in
any w
ay to any
imagin
ary erudition
of subord
inate lab
or; I certainly d
o not th
ink th
at today’s
workers are exp
erts in th
e field
s of molecu
lar biology or classical p
hilology. A
swas alread
y men
tioned
in th
e preced
ing d
ays, what stan
ds ou
t is rather th
eintellect in
general, th
e most gen
eric aptitu
des of th
e min
d: th
e faculty of lan
-gu
age, th
e in
clination
to
learn,
mem
ory, th
e ab
ility to
abstract
and to
correlate, the in
clination
toward
self-reflection
. The in
tellectuality of th
em
asses has n
othin
g to do w
ith acts
of thou
ght (b
ooks, algebraic form
ulas,
etc.) but w
ith th
e simple faculty
of thou
ght an
d verb
al comm
unication
. Lan
-gu
age (like intellect or m
emory) is m
uch
more d
iffuse an
d less sp
ecializedth
an w
hat h
as been
thou
ght. It is n
ot the scien
tists, but th
e simple sp
eakerswho are a good
example of th
e intellectu
ality of the m
asses. They h
ave noth
-in
g to do w
ith th
e new
“worker aristocracy”; rath
er, they stan
d at th
e opposite
pole. U
pon
close reflection
, the in
tellectuality of th
e masses d
oes noth
ing less
than
prove com
pletely tru
e, for the fi
rst time, th
e Marxist d
efinition
of labor-
pow
er already cited
: “the aggregate of th
ose men
tal and p
hysical cap
abilities
existing in
the p
hysical form
, the livin
g person
ality, of a hum
an b
eing” (C
ap-ital, V
olum
e 1: 2
70).
With
regard to
the in
tellectuality o
f the m
asses, it is necessary to
avoid
those d
eadly sim
plificatio
ns th
at befall th
ose w
ho are alw
ays searchin
g for
com
fortab
le repetitio
ns o
f past exp
eriences. A
way o
f bein
g that h
as its ful-
crum
in
know
ledge
and lan
guage
cannot
be
defin
ed acco
rdin
g to
econom
ic-pro
ductive catego
ries. In su
m, w
e are not d
ealing h
ere with
the
last link o
f that ch
ain w
hose p
recedin
g links are, as far as I k
now
, the w
ork
-er b
y trade an
d th
e assembly-lin
e work
er. The ch
aracteristic aspects o
f the
intellectu
ality of th
e masses, its id
entity, so
to sp
eak, can
not b
e found in
relation to
labor, b
ut, ab
ove all, on th
e level of life fo
rms, o
f cultu
ral con-
sum
ptio
n, o
f lingu
istic practices. N
evertheless, an
d th
is is the o
ther sid
e of
the co
in, ju
st when
pro
ductio
n is n
o lo
nger in
any w
ay the sp
ecific locu
sof th
e form
ation o
f iden
tity, exactly at that pointdoes it p
roject itself in
toevery
aspect
of
experien
ce, su
bsu
min
g lin
guistic
com
peten
cies, eth
icalpro
pen
sities, and th
e nuan
ces of su
bjectivity.
The in
tellectuality o
f the m
asses lies at the h
eart of th
is dialectic.
Becau
se it is difficu
lt to d
escribe in
econom
ic-pro
ductive term
s, for th
isreaso
n exactly (an
d n
ot in
spite o
f this reaso
n), it is a fu
ndam
ental co
m-
ponen
t of
today’s
capitalistic
accum
ulatio
n. T
he
intellectu
ality of
the
masses (an
oth
er nam
e for th
e multitu
de) is at th
e center o
f the p
ost-F
ord
econom
y precisely b
ecause its m
ode o
f bein
g com
pletely avo
ids th
e con-
cepts o
f the p
olitical eco
nom
y.
109
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
Thesis 9
The m
ultitu
de throws the “theory of proletarian
ization” out of the m
ix.
In M
arxist theoretical d
iscussion
, the com
parison
betw
een “com
plex” (in
tel-lectu
al, that is) lab
or and “sim
ple” (u
nskilled
) labor h
as provoked
more th
ana few
prob
lems. W
hat is th
e unit of m
easurem
ent w
hich
perm
its this com
-parison
? The p
revalent an
swer is: th
e unit of m
easurem
ent coin
cides w
ith“sim
ple” lab
or, along w
ith th
e pure w
aste of psych
ophysical en
ergy; “com-
plex” lab
or is merely a m
ultip
le of “simple” lab
or. The ratio b
etween
one an
dth
e other can
be d
etermin
ed b
y consid
ering th
e differen
t cost of education
(school,
varied sp
ecializations,
etc.) for
the
intellectu
al lab
or-pow
er as
opposed
to the u
nskilled
labor-p
ower. L
ittle of this old
and con
troversialquestion
interests m
e; here I w
ould
like, how
ever, to capitalize on
the term
i-nology u
sed in
its regard. I h
old th
at the in
tellectuality of th
e masses (see
thesis 8
) in its totality is “com
plex” lab
or—but, n
ote carefully—
“complex”
labor w
hich
is not reducible
to “simple” lab
or. The com
plexity, as w
ell as the
irreducib
ility, comes from
the fact th
at this lab
or-pow
er mob
ilizes, in th
e ful-
fillin
g of
its work
duties,
lingu
istic-cognitive
competen
cies which
are
generically h
um
an. T
hese com
peten
cies, or faculties, cau
se the d
uties of th
ein
divid
ual to b
e characterized
always
by a h
igh rate of sociab
ility and in
telli-gen
ce, even th
ough
they are n
ot all specialized
duties (w
e are not sp
eaking of
engin
eers or philologists h
ere, but of ord
inary w
orkers). That w
hich
is not
reducib
le to “simple” lab
or is, if you w
ill, the cooperative quality
of the con
-crete op
erations carried
out b
y the in
tellectuality of th
e masses.
To say th
at all post-F
ord era lab
or is complex lab
or, irreducib
le to simple
labor, m
eans also to con
firm
that tod
ay the “th
eory of proletarian
ization” iscom
pletely ou
t of the m
ix. This th
eory had
its peak of h
onor in
signalin
g the
poten
tial comparab
ility of intellectu
al labor to m
anual lab
or. Precisely for th
isreason
, the th
eory ends u
p u
nsu
ited for accou
ntin
g for the in
tellectuality of
the m
asses or, and th
is is the sam
e thin
g, for accountin
g for living lab
or asgen
eral intellect. T
he th
eory of proletarian
ization fails w
hen
intellectu
al (orcom
plex) lab
or cannot b
e equated
with
a netw
ork of specialized
know
ledge,
but b
ecomes on
e with
the u
se of the gen
eric lingu
istic-cognitive facu
lties ofth
e hum
an an
imal. T
his is th
e concep
tual (an
d p
ractical) movem
ent w
hich
mod
ifies all th
e terms of th
e question
.The lack o
f pro
letarianizatio
n certain
ly does n
ot m
ean th
at qualified
workers retain
privileged
nich
es. Instead
it mean
s that th
e sort o
f homo-
geneity by su
btractionwhich
the co
ncep
t of “p
roletariat” u
sually im
plies d
oes
not ch
aracterize all post-F
ord
ist labor-p
ower, as co
mplex o
r intellectu
al as
110
A G
RAM
MAR
OF
TH
EM
ULT
ITU
DE
it may b
e. In o
ther w
ord
s, the lack o
f pro
letarianizatio
n m
eans th
at post-
Ford
labor is m
ultitu
de, not people.
Thesis 1
0
Post-F
ordism is the “com
munism
of capital.”
The m
etamorp
hosis o
f social system
s in th
e West, d
urin
g the 1
930’s, h
as attim
es been
design
ated w
ith an
expressio
n as clear as it is ap
paren
tly para-
doxical: socialism
of capital. With
this term
one allu
des to
the d
etermin
ing
role taken
on b
y the State w
ithin
the eco
nom
ic cycle, to th
e end o
f the lais-
sez-fairelib
eralist, to th
e pro
cesses of cen
tralization an
d p
lannin
g guid
ed b
ypublic in
dustry, to
the p
olitics o
f full em
ploym
ent, to
the b
eginnin
g of W
el-fare. T
he cap
italistic response to
the O
ctober R
evolu
tion an
d th
e crisis of
1929 w
as the gigan
tic socializatio
n (o
r better, n
ationalizatio
n) o
f the m
eans
of p
roductio
n. T
o p
ut it in
the w
ord
s of M
arx which
I cited a little w
hile
ago, th
ere was “an
abolitio
n o
f the cap
italist private in
dustry o
n th
e basis o
fth
e capitalist system
itself” (Capital, V
olu
me 3
: 570).
The
metam
orp
hosis
of
social
systems
in th
e W
est, durin
g th
e1980’s an
d 1
990’s, can
be syn
thesized
in a m
ore p
ertinen
t man
ner w
ith th
eexp
ression: com
munism
of capital. This m
eans th
at the cap
italistic initiative
orch
estrates for its ow
n b
enefit p
recisely those m
aterial and cu
ltural co
ndi-
tions w
hich
would
guaran
tee a calm versio
n o
f realism fo
r the p
oten
tialco
mm
unist. T
hin
k of th
e objectives w
hich
constitu
te the fu
lcrum
of su
ch a
pro
spect: th
e abolitio
n o
f that in
tolerab
le scandal, th
e persisten
ce of w
agelab
or; th
e extinctio
n o
f the State as an
industry o
f coercio
n an
d as a
“monopoly o
f political d
ecision-m
aking”; th
e valorizatio
n o
f all that w
hich
renders th
e life of an
individ
ual u
niq
ue. Y
et, in th
e course o
f the last tw
en-
ty years, an in
sidio
us an
d terrib
le interp
retation o
f these sam
e objectives h
asbeen
put fo
rth. F
irst of all, th
e irreversible sh
rinkin
g of so
cially necessary
labor tim
e has taken
place, w
ith an
increase in
labor tim
e for th
ose o
n th
e“in
side” an
d th
e alienatio
n o
f those o
n th
e “outsid
e.” Even
when
squeezed
by tem
porary w
orkers, th
e entity o
f employed
workers p
resents itself as
“overpopulatio
n” or as th
e “industrial reserve arm
y.” Secondly, th
e radical
crisis, or actu
ally the d
esegregation, o
f the n
ational States exp
resses itself asth
e m
iniatu
re rep
roductio
n,
like a
Chin
ese box,
of
the
form
-of-State.
Third
ly, after the fall o
f a “universal eq
uivalen
t” capab
le of o
peratin
g effec-tively,
we
witn
ess a
fetishistic
cult
of differen
ces—excep
t th
at th
esedifferen
ces, claimin
g a substan
tial surrep
titious fo
undatio
n, give rise to
allso
rts of d
om
ineerin
g and d
iscrimin
ating h
ierarchies.
111
PAO
LO
VIR
NO
If we can
say that F
ord
ism in
corp
orated
, and rew
rote in
its own w
ay,so
me asp
ects of th
e socialist exp
erience, th
en p
ost-F
ord
ism h
as fundam
en-
tally dism
issed b
oth
Keyn
esianism
and
socialism
. Post-F
ord
ism, h
ingin
g asit d
oes u
pon th
e general in
tellectan
d th
e multitu
de, p
uts fo
rth, in
its own
way, typ
ical dem
ands o
f com
munism
(abolitio
n o
f work, d
issolu
tion o
f the
State, etc.). Post-F
ord
ism is th
e com
munism
of cap
ital.Follow
ing o
n th
e heels o
f the F
ord
era, there w
as the so
cialist revolu
tion
in Russia
(and,
even if
defeated
, an
attem
pt
at revo
lutio
n in
western
Euro
pe). It is ap
pro
priate to
ask which
experien
ce of so
cial unrest served
asth
e prelu
de to
post-F
ord
ism. W
ell, I believe th
at durin
g the 1
960’s an
d1970’s th
ere was, in
the W
est, a defeated
revolu
tion—
the first revo
lutio
naim
ed n
ot again
st poverty an
d b
ackward
ness, b
ut sp
ecifically against th
em
eans o
f capitalistic p
roductio
n, th
us, again
st wage lab
or. If I sp
eak of a
defeated
revolu
tion, it is n
ot b
ecause a lo
t of p
eople w
ere blath
ering o
nab
out revo
lutio
n. I am
not referrin
g to th
e circus o
f subjectivity, b
ut to
aso
ber fact: fo
r a long p
eriod o
f time, b
oth
in th
e factories an
d in
the low
erin
com
e urb
an areas, in
the sch
ools as in
certain fragile state in
stitutio
ns,
two o
pposin
g pow
ers confro
nted
one an
oth
er, resultin
g in th
e paralysis o
fpolitical d
ecision-m
aking. F
rom
this p
oin
t of view
—objective, serio
us—
itcan
be m
aintain
ed th
at in Italy an
d in
oth
er Western
countries th
ere was a
defeated
revolu
tion. P
ost-F
ord
ism, o
r the “co
mm
unism
of cap
ital,” is the
answ
er to this
defeated
revolu
tion, so
differen
t from
those o
f the 1
920’s.
The q
uality o
f the “an
swer” is eq
ual to
and o
pposed
to th
e quality o
f the
“questio
n.” I b
elieve that th
e social stru
ggles of th
e 1960’s an
d 1
970’s
expressed
non-so
cialist dem
ands,
indeed
an
ti-socialist
dem
ands:
radical
criticism o
f labor; an
accentu
ated taste fo
r differen
ces, or, if yo
u p
refer, arefin
ing o
f the “p
rincip
le of in
divid
uatio
n”; no lo
nger th
e desire to
takepossessio
n o
f the State, b
ut th
e aptitu
de (at tim
es violen
t, certainly) fo
rdefen
din
g oneself fro
m th
e State, for d
issolvin
g the b
ondage to
the State as
such
. It is not d
ifficult to
recogn
ize com
munist in
spiratio
n an
d o
rientatio
nin
the failed
revolu
tion o
f the 1
960’s an
d 1
970’s. F
or th
is reason, p
ost-
Ford
ism, w
hich
constitu
tes a response to
that revo
lutio
n, h
as given life to
aso
rt of p
aradoxical “co
mm
unism
of cap
ital.”
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