My first encounter with Badiou& #39;s thought was ten years ago, when I enthusiastically read BE over the course of a week. It took me a while to stop approaching him as a disciple, and I am skeptical about many aspects of his work, but I remain grateful that he introduced me to

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a version of Leninism that could stand up to sophisticated contemporary criticisms. In an academic environment where if Marxism existed it had been domesticated beyond recognition, Badiou& #39;s Leninism was unafraid to slaughter sacred cows, both theoretically and practically.

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His polemic against complexity is a good example:

"We are told every day how & #39;the complexity of modern society& #39; prevents us from making any cut, any intervention. Contemporary conservatism no longer argues from the sacredness of the established order, but from

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its density. Every local cut, it says, is really a & #39;tear in the social fabric& #39;. Leave natural laws (the market, appetite, domination) to operate - because it is impossible to interrupt them at any point. Every point is too dependent on all the others

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to permit the precision of an interrupting cut."
-Number and Numbers, Cuts

tl;dr - happy belated birthday Lenin, you would have loved (and ruthlessly critiqued) Badiou& #39;s polemical evisceration of those hiding behind the veil of complexity

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