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4973dc5 After all, if you do not resist the apparently inevitable, you will never know how inevitable the inevitable was. capitalism inevitability inspirational marxism resistance socialism apathy Terry Eagleton
a989ac7 In a time in which Communist regimes have been rightfully discredited and yet alternatives to neoliberal capitalist societies are unwisely dismissed, I defend the fundamental claim of Marxist theory: there must be countervailing forces that defend people's needs against the brutality of profit driven capitalism. marxism Cornel West
cbc093d Genuine equality means not treating everyone the same, but attending equally to everyone's different needs. equality marxism social-justice socialism Terry Eagleton
3b9f6d2 Caution in handling generally accepted opinions that claim to explain whole trends of history is especially important for the historian of modern times, because the last century has produced an abundance of ideologies that pretend to be keys to history but are actually nothing but desperate efforts to escape responsibility. antisemitism communism final-solution historians history ideology marxism race-theory sophism totalitarianism Hannah Arendt
e2d4922 "1. Bangladesh.... In 1971 ... Kissinger overrode all advice in order to support the Pakistani generals in both their civilian massacre policy in East Bengal and their armed attack on India from West Pakistan.... This led to a moral and political catastrophe the effects of which are still sorely felt. Kissinger's undisclosed reason for the 'tilt' was the supposed but never materialised 'brokerage' offered by the dictator Yahya Khan in the course of secret diplomacy between Nixon and China.... Of the new state of Bangladesh, Kissinger remarked coldly that it was 'a basket case' before turning his unsolicited expertise elsewhere. 2. Chile.... Kissinger had direct personal knowledge of the CIA's plan to kidnap and murder General Rene Schneider, the head of the Chilean Armed Forces ... who refused to countenance military intervention in politics. In his hatred for the Allende Government, Kissinger even outdid Richard Helms ... who warned him that a coup in such a stable democracy would be hard to procure. The murder of Schneider nonetheless went ahead, at Kissinger's urging and with American financing, just between Allende's election and his confirmation.... This was one of the relatively few times that Mr Kissinger (his success in getting people to call him 'Doctor' is greater than that of most PhDs) involved himself in the assassination of a single named individual rather than the slaughter of anonymous thousands. His jocular remark on this occasion--'I don't see why we have to let a country go Marxist just because its people are irresponsible'--suggests he may have been having the best of times.... 3. Cyprus.... Kissinger approved of the preparations by Greek Cypriot fascists for the murder of President Makarios, and sanctioned the coup which tried to extend the rule of the Athens junta (a favoured client of his) to the island. When despite great waste of life this coup failed in its objective, which was also Kissinger's, of enforced partition, Kissinger promiscuously switched sides to support an even bloodier intervention by Turkey. Thomas Boyatt ... went to Kissinger in advance of the anti-Makarios putsch and warned him that it could lead to a civil war. 'Spare me the civics lecture,' replied Kissinger, who as you can readily see had an aphorism for all occasions. 4. Kurdistan. Having endorsed the covert policy of supporting a Kurdish revolt in northern Iraq between 1974 and 1975, with 'deniable' assistance also provided by Israel and the Shah of Iran, Kissinger made it plain to his subordinates that the Kurds were not to be allowed to win, but were to be employed for their nuisance value alone. They were not to be told that this was the case, but soon found out when the Shah and Saddam Hussein composed their differences, and American aid to Kurdistan was cut off. Hardened CIA hands went to Kissinger ... for an aid programme for the many thousands of Kurdish refugees who were thus abruptly created.... The of the day was: 'foreign policy should not he confused with missionary work.' Saddam Hussein heartily concurred. 1971-bangladesh-atrocities 1972-nixon-visit-to-china 1973-chilean-coup-d-etat 1974 1975 assassination athens bangladesh bangladesh-liberation-war central-intelligence-agency chile china china-pakistan-relations civil-war coup-d-état cyprus democracy diplomacy doctors doctors-of-philosophy east-timor ecclesiastical-coup fascism foreign-policy foreign-policy-of-the-us greece greek-cypriots henry-kissinger india indo-pakistani-war-of-1971 indonesia indonesian-national-armed-forces international-law iran iran-iraq-war iraq iraqi-kurdistan israel israeli-lebanese-conflict jakarta junta kurdish-iraqi-conflict kurdish-people kurdistan lebanon makarios-iii marxism military-of-chile missionaries mohammad-reza-pahlavi monroe-leigh morality murder news-leaks pakistan pakistan-united-states-relations partition politics portugual portuguese-empire refugees rene-schneider richard-nixon saddam-hussein salvador-allende schneider-doctrine second-kurdish-iraqi-war shah sino-american-relations slaughter thomas-d-boyatt turkey turkish-invasion-of-cyprus united-states walter-isaacson war war-crimes yahya-khan Christopher Hitchens
e14f054 Historical determinism is a recipe for political quietism. apathy apolitical determinism historical-determinism history marxism politics Terry Eagleton
ea38497 Successful revolutions are those which end up by erasing all traces of themselves. marxism politics revolution Terry Eagleton
117d60c Should I, too, prefer the title of 'non-Jewish Jew'? For some time, I would have identified myself strongly with the attitude expressed by Rosa Luxemburg, writing from prison in 1917 to her anguished friend Mathilde Wurm: An inordinate proportion of the Marxists I have known would probably have formulated their own views in much the same way. It was almost a point of honor not to engage in 'thinking with the blood,' to borrow a notable phrase from D.H. Lawrence, and to immerse Jewishness in other and wider struggles. Indeed, the old canard about 'rootless cosmopolitanism' finds a perverse sort of endorsement in Jewish internationalism: the more emphatically somebody stresses that sort of rhetoric about the suffering of others, the more likely I would be to assume that the speaker was a Jew. Does this mean that I think there are Jewish 'characteristics'? Yes, I think it must mean that. africans compassion dh-lawrence empathy europeans internationalism jewish-question jews marxism mathilde-verne plantations prison race racism rootless-cosmopolitanism rosa-luxemburg suffering victims Christopher Hitchens
23f60ad What we are dealing with here is another version of the Lacanian ' ...': if, for Lacan, there is no sexual relationship, then, for Marxism proper, there is no 'meta-language' enabling us to grasp the two levels from the same neutral standpoint, although--or, rather, --these two levels are inextricably intertwined. lacan marxism politics sex Slavoj Žižek
c70c4f6 It is capitalism, not Marxism, that trades in futures. capitalism criticisms-of-marxism future futures-exchange marxism utopianism Terry Eagleton
33a41ac Trotsky was so much an intellectual that in the final analysis, Marxism was not quite enough for him. leon-trotsky marxism trotskyism Christopher Hitchens
d12b120 The last time I heard an orthodox Marxist statement that was music to my ears was from a member of the Rwanda Patriotic Front, during the mass slaughter in the country. 'The terms Hutu and Tutsi,' he said severely, 'are merely ideological constructs, describing different relationships to the means and mode of production.' But of course! ideology marxism rwanda rwandan-genocide rwandan-patriotic-front tutsis Christopher Hitchens
a1bd446 "As it happens I am comfortable with the Michael Laskis of this world, with those who live outside rather than in, those in whom the sense of dread is so acute that they turn to extreme and doomed commitments; I know something about dread myself, and appreciate the elaborate systems with which some people manage to fill the void, appreciate all the opiates of the people, whether they are as accessible as alcohol and heroin and promiscuity or as hard to come by as faith in God or History. But of course I did not mention dread to Michael Laski, whose particular opiate is History. I did suggest "depression," did venture that it might have been "depressing" for him to see only a dozen or so faces at his last May Day demonstration, but he told me that depression was an impediment to the revolutionary process, a disease afflicting only those who do not have ideology to sustain them." marxism Joan Didion
7be5caf Had Heidegger attached his great ego to the cause of international socialism, he would have enjoyed the whitewash granted to Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Hobsbawm and the other apologists for the Gulag.1 But the cause of national socialism could enjoy no such convenient excuse, and the sin was compounded, in Heidegger's case, by the fact that it was precisely the national, rather than the socialist aspect of the creed that had attracted him. marxism national-socialism Roger Scruton
5af9bf6 The sectarian divisions which plagued Marxism are manifestations of an urge for purity which the Left would be better off without. marxism patriotism puritanism purity sectarianism unity Richard M. Rorty
8de9e5f It was not Marxism that made Lenin a revolutionary but Lenin who made Marxism revolutionary. lenin marxism Orlando Figes
649c95d If he had stayed in Slovenia, and Slovenia had stayed Communist, Zizek would not have been the nuisance he has since become. Indeed, if there were no greater reason to regret the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, the release of Zizek on to the world of Western scholarship would perhaps already be a sufficient one. marxism slavoj-zizek Roger Scruton
4a0767e In a moment of doubt about the socialist record Eric Hobsbawm once wrote: 'If the left have to think more seriously about the new society, that does not make it any the less desirable or necessary or the case against the present one any less compelling.'1 There, in a nutshell, is the sum of the New Left's commitment. We know nothing of the socialist future, save only that it is both necessary and desirable. Our concern is with the 'compelling' case against the present, which leads us to destroy what we lack the knowledge to replace. marxism Roger Scruton
8838436 Your leaders must know powerful magic. Yes, said one of the women. The magic is called Marx, Stalin, Lenin and Class Dialectics. It didn't sound like very powerful magic to me. marxism David Mitchell
f1e7532 Whereas the property-owning middle class could win freedom for themselves on the basis of rights to property--thus excluding others from the freedom they gain--the property-less working class possess nothing but their title as human beings. Thus they can liberate themselves only by liberating all humanity. marxism proletariat property-rights Peter Singer
5d7c342 So let us replace the word with a true description. People in our societies own things, their labour included, and can trade those things freely with others. They can buy, sell, accumulate, save, share and give. They can enjoy all that their freely exercised labour can secure for them and even, if they choose, do nothing and still survive. You can take away the freedom to buy and sell; you can compel people to work on terms that they would not freely accept; you can confiscate property or forbid this or that form of it. But if those are the alternatives to 'capitalism' there is, now, no real alternative save slavery. marxism Roger Scruton
d042bd6 A society whose members are helpless need idols. marxism psychology sociology Erich Fromm
4f143d6 Lenin's Personal life was extraordinarily dull. He dressed and lived like a middle-aged provincial clerk, with precisely fixed hours for meals, sleep, work and leisure. He liked everything to be neat and orderly. dull lenin marxism provinvial-clerk russian-revolution Orlando Figes
6c1014c He claimed to be a Marxist, the only one of his claims I believed. He had that Marxist passion for oysters and good Sancerre, and that Marxist paralysis when the waiter brought the check. Already it's obvious how much the Communists got wrong, overbetting on human high-mindedness, lowballing human desire. marxism Francine Prose
5a16a48 I was happiest when I was working for myself. Setting my own goals. Improving my own skills... Take control of your world. capitalism globalization marxism revolution Warren Ellis
39112a5 Those who imagined, in 1989, that never again would an intellectual be caught defending the Leninist Party, or advocating the methods of Josef Stalin, had reckoned without the overwhelming power of nonsense. In the urgent need to believe, to find a central mystery that is the true meaning of things and to which one's life can be dedicated, nonsense is much to be preferred to sense. For it builds a way of life around something that cannot be questioned. No reasoned assault is possible against that which denies the possibility of a reasoned assault. marxism Roger Scruton