Alain Badiou Interview (1 of 2)

In a BBC HARDtalk interview broadcast on 24 March 2009, Stephen Sackur talks to French socialist philospher Alain Badiou. As the world's richest economies plunge deeper into recession could there be a whiff of revolution in the air? Alain Badiou has been an intellectual hero of France's anti-capitalist left since the Paris street protests of 1968. His recent book 'The Meaning of Sarkozy', in which he attacked the French President, has caused a storm in France. But does anyone beyond Parisian café society believe communism is the answer to the current crisis?

[@ProxyErgoCogito]

God everything about this is great...these ridiculous Anglo questions "do you want to overthrow the system" the indirect responses, Badiou pronouncing every cognate like in French (admittedly his English is good besides). Perfectly typifies Anglo-French everything

[@michelangelocaravaggio261]

no it's not great, ,the Anglo questions are honest, straight and to the point, the French responses are not, and when they are, they're weak, I could have come up with something better and I'm not even a communist, although I sympathize with some of its ideas and ideals.

[@stephen0793]

"Philosophers never concede to popular opinion, even if that opinion is the dominant one"

[@tonegoober]

LOL this is why you never ask a Yes or No question to a Hegelian philosopher.

[@jakekhawaja5101]

Badiou is far from a Hegelian philosopher. He calls the inclusive/"True" infinite promulgated by Hegel a "hallucination." I think his rejection of Hegel hinges on a failure to distinguish between the Hegel which does and does not see a distinction between determination and finitude. But he rejects him nonetheless.

[@Helena-dt6bc]

"I never accept the world as it is, because it is as it is" - if more of us were like that the world might be a different place.

[@jacquescoeur6355]

Thanks!

[@TroutMaskReplicaa]

so let me get this straight, the interviewer spends half the interview trying to coax some sort of communist confession from badiou (a man who since time in memorial has promoted communism). then once he had 'cleverly' deduced this fact he moves onto 'well... look at modern communism'. a typical straw man argument... Leninism was a success, so was chavez's work in Venezuela.. but of course he implies stalinism. Yet what of the atrocities of modern capitalism... slavery, genocide, exploitation.

[@thetumans1394]

Well put, even if I say so nine years later -- the struggle continues.

[@zoobiewa]

How juvenile and educationally devoid that who can only launch bored, gigantic caricatures at a mind focused on nuance. How argumentative is this smart, oh so smart interviewer.

[@Beebop121]

Listening to a wise old man, something you don't get very often.

[@Elfos64]

Eldos84? By some weird coincidence, our screen names are eerily similar.

[@euclid901]

Could you subtitle this? He has a very, very strong accent!

[@dondemp]

the fella changed my perspective on st paul

[@tabinekoman]

"philosopher never accept the world as it is because it is as it is.." hahaha,nice sir.

[@liguten]

C'est super, je comprends presque tout ce que dit Badiou. Pourquoi les anglophones ne parlent-ils pas tous aussi clairement,?

[@peterj2518]

Good interview. Solid practical questioning of communism by one of its more interesting proponents.... Many of the comments below just show the writer's biases - not wanting their guy to have to explain himself under critical questioning. Badiou is quite capable of explaining himself even if he will expose vagueness and flaws in his philosophical conclusions by doing so.....

[@LOLERXP]

The format of this show was to ask bad questions while looking tough and sounding snooty?

[@SunsetStorm1]

Left marxism or left communism is a number of schools of thought considered "left wing" inside marxism. They include Council Communism and Luxemburgism. They are anti-Leninist whilst still being Marxist and not Anarchist. Search up "left communism" and "libertarian socialism" on Wikipedia.

[@Helena-dt6bc]

Important point about communis as a first attempt. Sackur is so obviously biased in his thinking or at least constrained by the accepted ideology.

[@ahmedeox]

that's because he was born in the 19th century.

[@weweredoodshey]

@bodnarism i saw that too...jaw-dropping

[@ram4546]

Man his laughing fuckin spooky!

[@bodnarism]

@importfilta Have you just celebrated Badiou and reference 9/11 conspiracy theories in the same paragraph? What

[@AirSandFire]

Google exactly this: badiou hardtalk "best world possible"

[@importfilta]

That comment is not a fetish for Alain Badiou but for a fetish of philosophy and time. Which when psychoanalytically analyzed is an addiction for a return to philosophy from the point of view of philosophy and time (dialectically of course).

[@lee_dias3830]

Why talking Philosophy to journalists is such a waist of time?

[@Pitchouchkine]

je me disait la même chose :) et pourtant son accent est pas si mauvais :) dans une globalité d'accents.

[@liguten]

Ben c'est très bien pour mon niveau d'anglais. Un peu comme de Funès.

[@daveboothroyd3421]

Ha ha ha - Sakozy reference. Crook, criminal and corrupt. Let off a prison sentence.

[@SunsetStorm1]

Can someone please tell me what this Badiou is? Is he a Classical Marxist? Is he a Left Marxist? A Marxist Leninist? A Stalinist?

[@youtubecustodian4872]

Maoist

[@Proudnuggets]

Why would he? Could you see this man actually sitting down and reading something like Being and Event? It's interesting that Badiou would even go on a show so stacked against substantive thought as opposed to easily digestable soundbites. He might have done it just to amuse himself. Any "news show" with a name like Hardtalk you know is going to be the sort of "edgy" banality that middle brows lap up like milk in order to regurgitate at their next snorefest of a dinner party.

[@albertarthurparsnips5141]

You just have to adore all those beeb-beloved signposts,..’ far left ‘ , ‘ sort of ‘ philosopher, and so forth and so on. Just about as slightly nuanced as their coverage of Venezuela, President Putin, or the supposed ‘ civil war ‘ in Syria..

[@jonahfox]

0:18

[@ThangNeihsial]

I cant under.....

[@smerdyakovkb]

@bodnarism Let's pretend that he wasn't referencing conspiracy theories but pointing out the manifestation of the problems inherent in capitalism.

[@weweredoodshey]

@importfilta you should really look up the psychoanalytical notion of fetish, it sounds like you might have a bad case yourself.

[@Ontologistics]

Very slow...

[@ahmedeox]

the interviewer is spot on. If all you have as an argument against him is that "he is ignorant/stupid/idiot", then you are a fanatic. Just learn to deal with the failings of your ideology, whatever that might be, and move on.

[@lostintime519]

if you are still as dumb as you were 5 years ago then it would be tragic

[@Minarchiste]

T'as tout compris parce qu'il parle à 2km/h avec un accent français dégueulasse.

[@Minarchiste]

Son accent est à gerber

[@novan08]

no he wasn't man?

[@speaksistereasy1]

Typical great editing from this Bozo: don't like the answer edit it out!

[@ahmedeox]

joke....he's old....get it?

[@Minarchiste]

He's a maoist.

[@LucasPerez1421]

Badiou looks pretty bad in this interview. Of course communism is the opportunity for a better society. But he cant give a chance to someone who states communism did exist, that stalinism was communism, that has no clue about Marx original ideas. The interviewer does believe that liberal democracies of and for the rich countries are the best achievement of human kind. He cant answer to that by sayin hes a philosopher, he had to take discussion to a political level where liberals have no chance.