Response to Mendieta

Abstract

Eduardo Mendieta’s claim that Hermeneutic Communism reads like a manifesto is not only philosophically accurate, but also touching as we never thought of the text in these terms. We knew this was going to be a book of political philosophy, but it never occurred to us it would be interpreted as a manifesto or proclamation. If Mendieta is correct, readers will continue to interpret this book in the future. And it is precisely for this future that we have written it. A future which, similarly to Heidegger’s other “inception,” Derrida’s “democracy to come,” and Richard Rorty “social hope” must still arrive. While this might sound paradoxical, as we took Latin American progressive governments as a model for our Western neoliberal democracies, the book was not written for them, but rather for us. The “hermeneutic communism” we deem is still taking place in Latin America has not ended with the passing of its charismatic leader (Hugo Chavez) or recent political changes in Argentina, Cuba, and Brazil during 2014 and 2015, but rather begun there.