Why Marx Was Right Why Marx Was Right

Why Marx Was Right Why Marx Was Right TERRY EAGLETON New Haven & London Published with assistance from the Louis Stern Memorial Fund. Copyright ∫ 2011 by Yale University. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustra- tions, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educational, business, or promotional use. For information, please e-mail sales.press@ yale.edu (U.S. office) or [email protected] (U.K. office). Designed by James J. Johnson and set in Granjon Roman type by Keystone Typesetting, Inc. Printed in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Eagleton, Terry, 1943– Why Marx was right / Terry Eagleton. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-300-16943-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Marx, Karl, 1818–1883. 2. Communism. 3. Capitalism. I. Title. hx39.5e234 2011 335.4—dc22 2010041471 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992 (Permanence of Paper). 10987654321 For Dom and Hadi Contents Preface ix Chapter One 1 Chapter Two 12 Chapter Three 30 Chapter Four 64 Chapter Five 107 Chapter Six 128 Chapter Seven 160 Chapter Eight 179 Chapter Nine 196 Chapter Ten 211 Conclusion 238 Notes 241 Index 251 terry eagleton viii Preface This book had its origin in a single, striking thought: What if all the most familiar objections to Marx’s work are mistaken? Or at least, if not totally wrongheaded, mostly so? This is not to suggest that Marx never put a foot wrong. I am not of that leftist breed that piously proclaims that every- thing is open to criticism, and then, when asked to produce three major criticisms of Marx, lapses into truculent silence. That I have my own doubts about some of his ideas should be clear enough from this book. But he was right enough of the time about enough important issues to make calling oneself a Marxist a reasonable self-description. No Freudian imagines that Freud never blundered, just as no fan of Alfred Hitch- ix cock defends the master’s every shot and line of screenplay. I am out to present Marx’s ideas not as perfect but as plausible. To demonstrate this, I take in this book ten of the most standard criticisms of Marx, in no particular order of impor- tance, and try to refute them one by one. In the process, I also aim to provide a clear, accessible introduction to his thought for those unfamiliar with his work. The Communist Manifesto has been described as ‘‘without doubt the single most influential text written in the nine- teenth century.’’∞ Very few thinkers, as opposed to statesmen, scientists, soldiers, religious figures and the like, have changed the course of actual history as decisively as its author. There are no Cartesian governments, Platonist guerilla fighters or Hegelian trade unions. Not even Marx’s most implacable critics would deny that he transformed our understanding of human history. The antisocialist thinker Ludwig von Mises described socialism as ‘‘the most powerful reform movement that history has ever known, the first ideological trend not limited to a section of mankind but supported by people of all races, nations, religions and civilisations.’’≤ Yet there is a curious notion abroad that Marx and his theories can now be safely buried—and this in the wake of one of the most devas- tating crises of capitalism on historical record. Marxism, for long the most theoretically rich, politically uncompromising critique of that system, is now complacently consigned to the primeval past. terry eagleton x That crisis has at least meant that the word ‘‘capitalism,’’ usually disguised under some such coy pseudonym as ‘‘the modern age,’’ ‘‘industrialism’’ or ‘‘the West,’’ has become current once more. You can tell that the capitalist system is in trouble when people start talking about capitalism. It indi- cates that the system has ceased to be as natural as the air we breathe, and can be seen instead as the historically rather recent phenomenon that it is. Moreover, whatever was born can always die, which is why social systems like to present themselves as immortal. Rather as a bout of dengue fever makes you newly aware of your body, so a form of social life can be perceived for what it is when it begins to break down. Marx was the first to identify the historical object known as capitalism—to show how it arose, by what laws it worked, and how it might be brought to an end. Rather as Newton discovered the invisible forces known as the laws of gravity, and Freud laid bare the workings of an invisible phenomenon known as the unconscious, so Marx unmasked our every- day life to reveal an imperceptible entity known as the capitalist mode of production. I say very little in this book about Marxism as a moral and cultural critique. This is because it is not generally raised as an objection to Marxism, and so does not fit my format. In my view, however, the extraordinarily rich, fertile body of Marxist writing in this vein is reason in itself to align oneself with the Marxist legacy. Alienation, the ‘‘commodification’’ of Why Marx Was Right xi social life, a culture of greed, aggression, mindless hedonism and growing nihilism, the steady hemorrhage of meaning and value from human existence: it is hard to find an intel- ligent discussion of these questions that is not seriously in- debted to the Marxist tradition. In the early days of feminism, some maladroit if well- meaning male authors used to write ‘‘When I say ‘men,’ I mean of course ‘men and women.’ ’’ I should point out in similar vein that when I say Marx, I quite often mean Marx and Engels. But the relationship between the two is another story. I am grateful to Alex Callinicos, Philip Carpenter and Ellen Meiksins Wood, who read a draft of this book and made some invaluable criticisms and suggestions. terry eagleton xii Why Marx Was Right ONE Marxism is finished. It might conceivably have had some relevance to a world of factories and food riots, coal miners and chimney sweeps, widespread misery and massed working classes. But it certainly has no bearing on the increasingly classless, socially mobile, postindustrial Western societies of the present. It is the creed of those who are too stubborn, fearful or deluded to accept that the world has changed for good, in both senses of the term. That Marxism is finished would be music to the ears of Marxists everywhere. They could pack in their marching and picketing, return to the bosom of their grieving families and enjoy an evening at home instead of yet another tedious com- mittee meeting. Marxists want nothing more than to stop being Marxists. In this respect, being a Marxist is nothing like being a Buddhist or a billionaire. It is more like being a medic. Medics are perverse, self-thwarting creatures who do themselves out of a job by curing patients who then no longer need them. The task of political radicals, similarly, is to get to the point where they would no longer be necessary because their goals would have been accomplished. They would then 1 be free to bow out, burn their Guevara posters, take up that long-neglected cello again and talk about something more intriguing than the Asiatic mode of production. If there are still Marxists or feminists around in twenty years’ time, it will be a sorry prospect. Marxism is meant to be a strictly provi- sional affair, which is why anyone who invests the whole of their identity in it has missed the point. That there is a life after Marxism is the whole point of Marxism. There is only one problem with this otherwise alluring vision. Marxism is a critique of capitalism—the most search- ing, rigorous, comprehensive critique of its kind ever to be launched. It is also the only such critique that has transformed large sectors of the globe. It follows, then, that as long as capitalism is still in business, Marxism must be as well. Only by superannuating its opponent can it superannuate itself. And on the last sighting, capitalism appeared as feisty as ever. Most critics of Marxism today do not dispute the point. Their claim, rather, is that the system has altered almost unrecognizably since the days of Marx, and that this is why his ideas are no longer relevant. Before we examine this claim in more detail, it is worth noting that Marx himself was perfectly aware of the ever-changing nature of the system he challenged. It is to Marxism itself that we owe the concept of different historical forms of capital: mercantile, agrarian, in- dustrial, monopoly, financial, imperial and so on. So why should the fact that capitalism has changed its shape in recent terry eagleton 2 decades discredit a theory that sees change as being of its very essence? Besides, Marx himself predicted a decline of the working class and a steep increase in white-collar work. We shall be looking at this a little later. He also foresaw so-called globalisation—odd for a man whose thought is supposed to be archaic. Though perhaps Marx’s ‘‘archaic’’ quality is what makes him still relevant today.

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