One of the more disturbing moments in Terry Eagleton’s
Why Marx Was Right—no small thing in a treatise teeming with disturbing moments—is this:
Was capitalist modernity really
necessary? How does one weigh the value of modern science and human
liberty against the spiritual goods of tribal societies? What happens
when we place democracy in the scales along with the Holocaust?
It might take a second for the full implication of Eagleton’s last
question to sink in, but when it does the reader finds himself
confronted with an allegation both absurd and without any moral
seriousness. Like some kind of malignant Quincy McGoo, Eagleton actually
believes that democracy and the Holocaust are two sides of the same
modern capitalist coin. How could a fellow who is the current
Distinguished Professor of English Literature at the University of
Lancaster entertain such a notion? How can a man who entertains such a
notion be the current Distinguished Professor of English Literature at
the University of Lancaster? If nothing else,
Why Marx Was Right more than adequately explains Terry Eagleton.
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