'This Crisis is the Spectacle: Where is the real?' from 'The communist hypothesis' by Alain Badiou

Having read the article by A. Badiou, I immediately had an allusion to the film “Inside Job”, which provides a comprehensive analysis of the global financial crisis of 2008, which at a cost over $20 trillion, caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worst recession since the Great Depression, and nearly resulted in a global financial collapse. Through exhaustive research and extensive interviews with key financial insiders, politicians, journalists, and academics, the film traces the rise of a rogue industry which has corrupted politics, regulation, and academia.

The huge difference, however, was in the personal opinion the author tries to get across. In the film we see naked facts and the author lets us decide ourselves what conclusions to draw from interviews, whereas in the article we read about the disastrous society and what it got itself into. I find it quite strange to read that `the only desirable outcome of all this is the hope that the real will still be what it was before the crisis`. We all know that the process of evolution through learning from mistakes is essential for future development. We do not need to go back to what it was before, but analyse the mistakes made and change the system so it starts responding to people`s needs and situations.

Nevertheless, in my opinion, A.Badiou is right in noticing that the politics is far removed from the state power, and will probably remain so for a long time. But again, that is just one other issue that needs to be analysed and changed. Yes, the politics in nearly any county nowadays is detached from common people`s lives, and it is them having the most troubles when things go wrong. People at power are pursuing their own interests and quite often avoid regulation for their own sake of profit. My fear is that despite recent financial regulations, the underlying system has not changed; rather the remaining banks are only bigger, while all the incentives remain the same, and not a single top executive has been prosecuted for their role in the global financial meltdown.

I quite like Badiou`s comparison the current world to the cinema, giving the banks, world leaders and common people a key roles. The sad part is that we actually live this scenario without even thinking that nothing is predefined and even small actors should be the ones who make changes. It`ll be interesting to see in some years’ time which theory will work for so much corrupted European world.