Summary of Terry Eagleton's Why Marx Was Right

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 Marxism is a critique of capitalism, the most comprehensive and rigorous critique of its kind. It is also the only such critique that has ever been successful in transforming large sectors of the globe. As long as capitalism exists, therefore, Marxism must as well.
#2 The Western system underwent some vital changes in the mid-1970s, when the world suddenly went into a depression. The new information technologies played a key role in the increasing globalisation of the system.
#3 The fall of the Soviet bloc in the late 1980s served to deepen the disenchantment among many on the left, as they had witnessed the system exultant and impregnable in 2008, and knew that the political odds were always on the system in power. #4 Marxism was wrong, but its predictions were right on the mark. Today, there are more extreme inequalities of wealth and power than ever before.

Sujets

• Theory
• Economics

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 13 mars 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669353416
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Terry Eagleton's Why Marx Was Right
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Marxism is a critique of capitalism, the most comprehensive and rigorous critique of its kind. It is also the only such critique that has ever been successful in transforming large sectors of the globe. As long as capitalism exists, therefore, Marxism must as well.

#2

The Western system underwent some vital changes in the mid-1970s, when the world suddenly went into a depression. The new information technologies played a key role in the increasing globalisation of the system.

#3

The fall of the Soviet bloc in the late 1980s served to deepen the disenchantment among many on the left, as they had witnessed the system exultant and impregnable in 2008, and knew that the political odds were always on the system in power.

#4

Marxism was wrong, but its predictions were right on the mark. Today, there are more extreme inequalities of wealth and power than ever before.

#5

Marxism is not outdated, but capitalism itself. It has brought about great material advances, but it seems no closer to satisfying human demands than it ever was.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

The so-called socialist system had its achievements, but it also had its failures. China and the Soviet Union dragged their citizens out of economic backwardness into the modern industrial world, but at a human cost. The capitalist West was hostile towards the Soviet Union, and this led to an arms race that crippled the economy even further.

#2

While communism was able to provide cheap housing, fuel, transport, and culture for its citizens, it was also responsible for bringing about stupendous increases in poverty and inequality.

#3

The idea that socialism can be achieved in impoverished conditions is a bizarre loop in time. You cannot eliminate social classes if there is not enough wealth to eliminate them. The most effective way to accumulate capital is through the profit motive, but this may amass spectacular poverty at the same time.

#4

To go socialist, you need to be well-off in both the literal and metaphorical senses of the word. You cannot do this if people have no shoes, and to distribute shoes among millions of citizens will require a centralized bureaucratic state.

#5

The building of socialism cannot be done in deprived conditions. Without material resources, it will tend to twist into the monstrous caricature of socialism known as Stalinism.

#6

There is a paradoxical sense in which Stalinism, rather than discrediting Marx’s work, bears witness to its validity.