What is it that makes Marxists so tightly entangled in their own folly, and so self-satisfied and proud of it?

Here is T Eagleton reviewing a book by the ‘indomitable’ E Hobsbawm:

In 1976, a good many people in the West thought that Marxism had a reasonable case to argue. By 1986, most of them no longer felt that way.

What had happened in the meanwhile? Were these people now buried under a pile of toddlers? Had Marxism been unmasked as bogus by some world-shaking new research? Had someone stumbled on a lost manuscript by Marx confessing that it was all a joke?

Good questions, not then answered.

Instead we get this:

Seventy years after Marx’s death, for better or for worse, one third of humanity lived under political regimes inspired by his thought. Well over 20 per cent still do.

Let go, Terry, let go.

For better or worse? Worse.

Watch a 23-year old North Korean woman die of malnutrition:

 

Then contemplate the evil of Terry sitting comfortably as Distinguished Professor of English Literature at Lancaster University reviewing a plump Marxist book on sale at a knock-down price:

Little, Brown, 470 pp, £25.00, January 2011

Terry Eagleton’s latest book is On Evil:

Eagleton investigates the frightful plight of those doomed souls who apparently destroy for no reason. In the process, he poses a set of intriguing questions.

Is evil really a kind of nothingness? Why should it appear so glamorous and seductive? Why does goodness seem so boring? Is it really possible for human beings to delight in destruction for no reason at all?

Again. Good questions.

He should track down the N Korean relatives of the young woman in that video and send them a complimentary copy.

They might find it useful in case they have nothing to eat, thanks to K Marx as cheered on by E Hobsbawm.