Alain Badiou’s ‘This Crisis is the Spectacle: Where is the real?’

I have just finished reading the first text for Theory 1 – Alain Badiou’s ‘This Crisis is the Spectacle: Where is the real?’

I wasn’t expecting to be reading texts like this at the start of the Theory course, but I’m glad that I am. Politics, the financial crisis, and everything else that goes along with it, has been something that I have always wanted to know more about. Unfortunately, in the past I haven’t given my time to reading into these topics, and only just keep up-to-date with what’s happening in the world by watching the news every now and then, and flicking onto the BBC news home page. As soon as I have started to find out more, I have been distracted by something else, and too many references to things that I do not know enough about stop me from fully understanding what I am reading.

Now I am being ‘forced’ to learn about it, and I like it. As I read through this text I kept looking up definitions, and looking into the histories of different political groups, and actually enjoying learning about it!

Badiou’s text has really made me think. He seems to simplify and clarify everything that that I have been hearing about briefly in the news. His ideas make sense, and make me question our Government’s interests. However, I am only just getting in to this – I have a lot to learn. I do not want to make a judgment too soon, as I tend to be quite easily convinced by a strong argument like this. I hope that we continue to read into this more in our theory lectures, and I want to make more of an effort with researching in my own time.

Hopefully, it won’t be long until I can confidently form my own opinion on all of this, and completely understand these important issues.