For those of us who have been waiting impatiently for the publication of his book “The Liberal Defense of Murder” (which apparently has been delayed for a few weeks), Richard Seymour has kindly thrown us a bone by posting at Lenin’s Tomb an audio recording of the first 15 minutes or so of his presentation on “liberal imperialism” at Marxism 2008.
The photo above is either evidence of his charmingly self-deprecating sense of humor or of his true feelings toward most of his fellow human beings.
It is of course possible to reject and denounce some of the cringe-inducing comments by Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, etc., which Seymour cherry-picks for ridicule. (However I think Seymour wrenches some of those comments out of context or unfairly paraphrases them). But then, to paraphrase (fairly) Frank and Nancy Sinatra, Seymour goes and spoils it all by saying something stupid; e.g., “On examination it transpires not only that are we witnessing the revival in some quarters of antique dogmas of empire, but that the precise formula for so-called humanitarian intervention and liberal imperialism were developed in the age of global white supremacy and of slavery and colonialism.”
Yes, he really did say that.
I’ll leave it to others more knowledgeable than myself to make fun of his accent.