Is the multitude valorized by Antonio Negri dying into solitude of Byung Chul Han. Negri like Karl Marx saw an emancipative future where the multitude will bring down the Empire. What makes the multitude of course is different for both Marx and Negri. Why is the resistance not coming in an economically uneven world of today. The condition is almost like Marx whose projection of the revolution of the working class did not come in all its fullness. There is almost little or no resistance to the Empire. What has happened to the masses? Are the masses massified and atomized to the point of passivity?
Despite the growing divide between the rich and poor, revolution seems to be nowhere on the horizon. Right from the birth of neoliberalism resistance was nipped in the bud. Margaret Thatcher, the torch bearer of neoliberalism treated unions as internal enemies and subdued them vehemently. Neoliberalism does not survive on coercive power. It depends on seductive and not repressive power. We can clearly see it in the manner the BJP uses the intoxication of Hindu nationalism to seduce the masses. The success of this seduction invisiblizes the Empire (which identifies with the multitude or nation) and produces a politics of loyalty and betrayal.
The oppressor then hides under the cover of Hindu nationalism. One who has to be disciplined then become the traitor who betrays the nation. Hence, the enemies of the nation are then located inside the nation. It is the minoritized other who is seen as the traitor of the nation . This means the Empire to becomes invisible and nation takes entire ocular space. Big business then appears to look nation building as the case of the likes of Adani and Ambani in India. Under this scenario every Indian is to become a self-sacrificing nation builder ( entrepreneurs of the nation) . The divide between the friends and enemies that belongs to the political scheme of Schmitt then takes control of our society.
The subject of the nation, the entrepreneur of the nation is not aware that he/ she is seduced and subjugated by a yoke of neoliberalism that is draining him/ her by the day. The disciplining of the betrayers of the nation becomes the job of the new entrepreneur of the nation. We can clearly see how some Indians belonging to the majority community have taken it on themselves to discipline the minorities that are thought to be the traitors of the nation. When citizen thus, becomes the entrepreneur of the nation, the Empire becomes invisible and we do not have any multitude that resists the empire.
The multitude is the nation and nation focused but scattered entrepreneur of the nation then builds the nation by disciplining those that are thought to be the enemies of the nation. The majority community seems to have built a consensus and one cannot trace any echo of dissensus in this regard. We might call it the Hindu consensus under Modi’s regime. This does not mean that every Hindu agrees with what I have called Hindu consensus. But most of us seem to surrender to injustice without questioning like people languishing in our jails without any trial. National security as Slavoj Zizek cautions us has indeed become our ideology. We are drinking the soma of Aldous Huxley’ s The brave new world .
We being entrepreneurs of the nation enjoy being what we are . Our jouissance makes us enjoy our own loss as we put nation first and accept unreasonable surveillance that leaves us with little or no privacy. Not just national security. Nation has become our ideology in Zizekean sense. State is no longer seen as a dominating external agency. The entrepreneur of the nation sees himself / herself as part of the nation state. He/she has become a statizen. Hence, he/ she condones the Government for its misadventures in our economy sphere. Forgives India China foreign policy. Accepts the godigiri of godi media etc. While we live our seduction as if our life is dependent on it, Empire continues to pauperize our nation. This means both the nation and the entrepreneur of the nation are losers. The seduced entrepreneur of the nation is not aware of this subjugation and exploitation of nation. We seem to have surrendered to what Gilles Deleuze calls society of control and given the control of resources to Big Business (Empire).
May the steady fall of Adani on an international scale is an opportunity to reprogram our society. Even this is not easy as any criticism of Adani is made to look like an attack on our nation by the powers that be. Adanism is made to appear congruent with nationalism so that the seduction of the entrepreneur of the nation continues and the Empire wriggles out of the present crises. But Indians appear to be smarter. Last national elections showed it clearly.
Adanism and Modism seem to be fast hitting the expiry of its shelf life. Will that mean that the massified Indians will become the multitude of Negri and Indians come out to take charge of their destiny as citizens? This revolution is still not around the corner. But the seeds of discontent are visible, audible and palpable. The boiling point of the blood of Indian has not yet reached. With adanism taking a big blow in USA , the Empire may begin to be visible and its distanciation from the nation and nationalism may also become apparent.
It is simply a possibility that the self entrepreneur of the nation might wake up from his/her dogmatic slumber which fails to distinguish adanism from the good of the nation. It is possible that self entrepreneur of the nation might metamorphize and become the citizen of the nation guided by our constitution. The seduction of the ideology of nationalism seems to have converted the self entrepreuner of the nation into a statizen. It is just that the new development in Adanism has possibilities of letting the statizen stand aside for the resurrection the citizen in every Indian.
It is only with rise of the citizen that the parasitic Empire will see resistance. The citizen in us , therefore, has to embrace the constitution and reject nationalisms of all hues and colors. Neoliberalization has sold Hindu nationalism as a commodity to us. With the steady fall of Adanism, we might be able to see how Hindu nationalism is operating within the frame of neoliberalism. As we consume Hindu nationalism , several Adanisms are eating into our resources and we seem to be blissfully unaware of it. Even if we are aware of it, we do not suspect it but see it within frame that sees Adanism as a necessary part of nation building.
