Thank you Net Galley. This short piece by Alain Badiou is an intense, thought provoking read. While I am not in complete agreement with his opinions, I enjoyed reading it and recommend it to all interested in the issues of terrorism, globalization, identity, etc.

A transcript of a seminar given 10 days after the Bataclan attacks in Paris, this is passionate without being hysterical. Badiou is an academic philosopher with Left (now post-party) roots and reflects France's unique political heritage: Revolution, Republic, Nazi Occupation - and so it's significant that he both names the Bataclan terrorists 'contemporary fascists' and reiterates the important ways in which religion, any religion, may be co-opted to fascism: 'Franco's fascism was literally glued to the Catholic religion. Franco's armed gangs were blessed by priests, and one spoke of the great Catholic Spain that was going to replace the terrible republican Spain'.

With a passionate analysis of late global capitalism and the way 'neoliberal' economics has replaced, in lots of cases, states and social justice, this locates the current state of the world against a backdrop where 86% of global wealth and resources is owned by 10% of the global population, and where 50% of the global population own nothing and thus are counted as nothing within a global capitalist system: they neither produce nor have the capital to consume. Is it any wonder, Badiou asks, that these monstrous inequalities lead to nihilistic acts of atrocity?

I suspect Badiou will be preaching to the converted but it would be nice to think that this short, quick read might work as an antidote to the knee-jerk scapegoating, divisive identity politics and general promotion and legitimisation of hatred that we have seen, not least in 2016.

Posted on Amazon.co.uk and Goodreads