Response to Mazzini

Abstract

We agree with Silvia Mazzini when she points out that there are four central concepts (“specter” and “Hermes”) and figures (“Hamlet” and Nietzsche’s “Übermensch”) in Hermeneutic Communism whose common weakness imply a call for action. This common weakness is not simply interesting from a theoretical point of view, as all four strive against impositions from above, but also given their call to “act” against a common enemy. This is probably why her contribution focuses on the problem of communication among the weak, that is, how a “hermeneutic-communist-specter” interferes “with the human historical process.” This is a problem for everyone dealing with the return of communism in the twenty-first century, whether they interpret it as an idea (Alain Badiou), a horizon (Jodi Dean), or a problem (Slavoj Žižek), has to confront. Jacques Derrida, who was the first to call for a return of communism after the fall of the Soviet Union, also faced this problem when he called for a “New International.”