The document summarizes the key points of the book "Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire" by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. It outlines that the book argues war is used as an instrument of control by powers like states and corporations to maintain the current global order and prevent the rise of true global democracy. However, the "multitude," an alternative to the people/masses, has the potential to achieve global democracy if its power is recognized. The book aims to educate readers and spur social revolution, examining terms like Empire, multitude, biopower, immaterial labor and providing a history of resistance movements. It is divided into sections on war, multitude and democracy.

1. MULTITUDE War and Democracy in the Age of Empire by Michael Hardt Antonio Negri

2. THESIS NOW is the time for democracy, for a global peaceful life in common. The greatest obstacle to global, absolute democracy is war. War is an instrument of biopower used by the dominant nation-states, major capitalist corpo- -rations, and other powers to maintain the current global political order of fear, insecurity, and domination; it “functions as an instrument of rule.” The “multitude” is the alternative to this hierarchical system of exploitation, and it is only through recognizing it and harnessing its power that we can achieve democracy on a global scale.

3. GOAL EDUCATION. AGITATION.SOCIAL REVOLUTION. This book may be theoretical, but it is not a textbook. The authors want their readers to use the text. The book is not static, but active. In this sense, it is more of a handbook than anything else. Therefore, Hardt and Negri try to make it as accessible as possible by thoroughly explaining the terms they use and by supplementing their ideas with literary examples. Not this: But this: In Their Own Words: “It is up to us in the remainder of this book to convince you that a democracy of the multitude is not only necessary but possible.”

4. TERMS Empirea new, post-modern, global form of sovereignty, different in that it operates outside of the nation-state paradigm. It is characterized by globalism and “a global order that is fractured not only by internal divisions and hierarchies, but also plagued by perpetual war.” Multitude an alternative to “the people” and “the masses,” it allows each individual to remain distinct and autonomous without rejecting the commonalities that enable communication and action; “composed of singularities that cannot be reduced to sameness”War the primary impediment to global democracy. Because of Empire, there are no more “singular” wars, which means that every war is a civil war. Democracy and war are INCOMPATIBLE. Biopowerthe way in which capitalist states exert control over people to better promote their own agendas; it is a full spectrum of dominance that exercises social, economic, political, psychological, and ideological control – it produces docile subjects; it “stands above society as a sovereign power to impose its order” and uses war as a tool to threaten us with death.

5. Biopolitics[cal] is in opposition to biopower; social relationships; collaborative forms of labor; the commonality in multitude, or what produces it; produces new subjectivities (points of view) and forms of lifeNetwork think of the internet (or a swarm of bees)  apply human beings  now you have a network. Multitude is a network body. * Pg 91 Excerpt Immaterial Labor labor that creates immaterial products like knowledge, information, and communication, a relationship, or an emotional response; hegemonic in qualitative terms, meaning that it transforms other forms of labor (other forms of labor have to informationalize, become communicative, and effective) Otpor!: (resistance) The youth/university movement in Serbia that led the way to the NONVIOLENT overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. An excellent documentary of the movement was made by PBS in 2002 called Bringing Down A Dictator. It’s available at thelibrary: DR1318.B74 2002/Video.

6. THE BOOK 1. WARin which the authors explain what war is, how it has changed from the modern era to the post modern era, what role the U.S. plays in maintaining the global state of war, how war is being waged today, and they also provide a history of resistance movements 2. MULTITUDE in which the authors reject some tenants of classical Marxism by including classes (poor, peasants, migrants) that have traditionally been demonized, introduce their ideas about the hegemony of immaterial labor/ goods, and look at poverty from both economic and geographical standpoints, and theorize on the production of the common 3. DEMOCRACY in which the authors give a history of the “modern concept of democracy,” explain the various ways in which people have tried and failed to reach democracy, how currently there is confusion over what democracy even is, list grievances of the current global system and proposed reforms that show how democracy is working currently, and then finally look into the future for a world beyond sovereignty