'on an apocalyptic tone recently adopted in politics'

'a kind of apocalypticism reigns among the contemporary conceptions of power, with warnings of new imperialisms and new fascisms.  everything is explained by sovereign power and the state of exception...'  hardt and negri, commonwealth.

'I shall speak then of/ in an apocalyptic tone in philosophy.' - jacques derrida, of an apocalyptic tone recently adopted in philosophy.

here hardt and negri write against the then popular conceptions of agamben, hobbes, schmitt (but the section title is taken (and modified) from an essay by derrida - now to find it and read it). horsemouth was very interested in this stuff 3 years ago - he had discovered a university library with literally tons (no that's not literally true, but a lot) of this sch(m)itt.

schmitt was (eventually) a nazi - but more he provided a juridical means by which issues of legality and democracy could be evaded to permit the refounding of the german state (or for the german state to take action in its own defence). 

but then the contemporary apocalypse (the  pandemic) hit and horsemouth watched the entire university close down and then migrate online (it has presumably migrated back to permit it to better attack its workers).

for hardt and negri the state of exception is not of interest - it is a fantasy of fascism  ignoring the way in which capitalism and democracy structure almost all of life on earth and allowing radicals an escape from actual politics into terrorism.  

similarly with the popular accusations of fascism - note that they weaken it into plurals fascisms. for hardt and negri capitalism is producing its own succession and replacement from within itself thank you very much there is no need to revisit its originary foundational moments in sovereignty - that is not where the main story is. 

by accident horsemouth came across this documentary on bbc about the popularity of the term fascism - horsemouth's opinion is that by the time something turns up that is indisputably fascism it will already be too late. 

horsemouth's copy of commonwealth (powerscroft road book-box free) has clearly been up on the shelves a long time - the sun has burned the mustard of the title lettering on the spine  to a pale yellow - but the book has also been rested in a pile face up - the c  and the h of the title on the front cover are similarly burned, the atomic shadow of the smaller book placed on top of it can be seen.  

horsemouth was encouraged to think about this stuff again when he bumped into his editor at mute josie at max's booklaunch. it becomes harder to write about these kinds of topics without access to university libraries and their studious atmosphere. but this was not why horsemouth stopped writing - he stopped writing much earlier. he stopped writing because, while what he had written read well (he thought), he was not satisfied with it. (and tbh they also stopped paying - small sums of money were necessary for horsemouth's psychic economy to render things 'work').

hardt and negri are also tendentious about the position of the poor -'the poor is defined not by lack but by possibility'.

the apocalyptic tone has faded back down (as abu ghraib becomes a footnote of history) but so has the easy boosterism of a globalising capitalism that is lifting us all up towards a new condition together. we have participated in or watched with horror the wild ride of anti-globalisation populist leaders and we are now into a filthy era of claims to boring competence and a retour a normal. 

it is, of course, not over.