Critique of the Situationist International (12)
| Radical Subjectivity |
| The S.I. had in relation to classical revolutionary marxism (of which Chaulieu was a good example) the same function, and the same limits, as Feuerbach had in relation to Hegelianism. To escape from the oppressive dialectic of alienation/ objectification, Feuerbach constructed an anthropological vision which placed Man, and in particular love and the senses, at the center of the world. To escape from the economism and factory-fetishism (usinisme) of the ultra-left; the S.I. elaborated a vision of which human relations were the center and which is consonant with "reality", is materialist, if these relations are given their full weight so that they include production, labor. Feuerbachian anthropology prepared the way for theoretical communism such as Marx was able to synthesize during his own time, via the transition of the 1844 Manuscripts. In the same way, the theory of "situations" has been integrated into a vision of communism of which the S.I. was incapable such as is shown today in Un monde sans argent. [23] |
| For the same reason, Debord read Marx in the light of Cardan, considering the "mature" Marx to have been submerged in political economy, which is false. Debord's vision of communism is narrow in comparison to the whole problem. The S.I. did not see the human species and its reconciliation with Nature. It was limited to a very Western, industrial urban universe. It located automation wrongly. It spoke of "dominating nature" which also bespeaks the influence of S ou B. When it dealt with material conditions, in relation to the organization of space, it was still a matter of "relations between people". S ou B was limited by the enterprise, the S.I. by subjectivity. It went as far as it could, but on its original trajectory. Theoretical communism is more than a revolutionary anthropology. The 1844 Manuscripts assimilate Feuerbach's vision by putting Man back into the totality of his relations. |
| The S.I. owed a great deal to the texts of the young Marx, but it failed to see one of their important dimensions. While other communists rejected political economy as a justification of capitalism, Marx superseded it. The comprehension of the proletariat presupposes a critique of political economy. The S.I. had much more in common with Moses Hess and Wilhelm Weitling, with Feuerbach and Stirner, the expression of a moment in the emergence of the proletariat. The period which produced them (1830-48) greatly resembles the one in which we live. Putting forward a radical subjectivity against a world of commodity objects and reified relationships, the S.I. expressed an exigency which was fundamental, yet had to be superseded. Becker, a friend of Weitling's, wrote in 1844 : |
| "We want to live, to enjoy, to understand everything... communism concerns itself with matter only so as to master it and subordinate it to the mind and spirit..." |
| A large part of current discussions reproduces these pre-1848 debates. Like Invariance today, Feuerbach made humanity into a being which permits the breaking of isolation : |
| "Isolation signifies a narrow and constricted life, while community, by contrast, signifies an infinite and free one." |
| Though he conceptualized the relation between Man and Nature (reproaching Hegel for having neglected it), Feuerbach made the human species into a being over and above social life : "The unity of I and Thou is God." The 1844 Manuscripts gave the senses their place in human activity. By contrast, Feuerbach made sensualism (sic) into the primary problem : |
| The new philosophy rests on the truth of feelings. In love, and in a more general way, in his feelings, every man affirms the truth of the new philosophy. |
| The theoretical renaissance around 1968 renewed the old concept within the same limits. Stirner opposed the "will" of the individual to Hess's moralism and Weitling's denunciation of "egoism", just as the S.I. opposed revolutionary pleasure to militant self-sacrifice. The insistence on subjectivity testifies to the fact that proletarians have not yet succeeded in objectifying a revolutionary practice. When the revolution remains at the stage of desire, it is tempting to make desire into the pivot of the revolution. |
| [23] Le communisme : un monde sans argent (3 vols.) by Organization des jeunes Travailleurs Revolutionnaires. Paris, 1975. [John Gray note : Online at this link] |