Why Marx Was Right is a 2011 book by the British academic Terry Eagleton
(pictured) on the philosopher Karl Marx, and Marxism. Eagleton outlines
ten objections to Marxism that he attempts to refute. These include that
it is irrelevant, determinist, utopian, authoritarian and opposed to
reform. Eagleton says class struggle is central to Marxism and history
is viewed as a series of modes of production that describe the nature
and organisation of labour. He describes how revolution could lead to
socialism in which the working class have control and make the state
obsolete. He explores the failures of the Soviet Union and other
communist countries. The book was published in 2011 and reprinted in
2018, 200 years after Marx's birth. Critics gave mixed feedback on the
prose style, although the commentary on historical materialism was
praised. The book was criticised for its defence of the Soviet Union and
other Marxist states.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Marx_Was_Right>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1879:
Angered by a controversial umpiring decision, cricket
spectators rioted and attacked the England team during a match in
Sydney, Australia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Riot_of_1879>
1910:
Newspaper and magazine publisher William D. Boyce established
the Boy Scouts of America, expanding the Scout Movement into the United
States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_Scouts_of_America>
1965:
After taking evasive action to avoid a mid-air collision just
after taking off from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport,
Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing
all 84 people on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Air_Lines_Flight_663>
2010:
A freak storm triggered a series of avalanches that buried more
than 3.5 km (2.2 mi) of road near the Salang Tunnel in Afghanistan,
killing 175 people and trapping more than 2,500 travellers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Salang_avalanches>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
pipe:
1. (music) A wind instrument consisting of a tube, often lined with
holes to allow for adjustment in pitch, sounded by blowing into the
tube. […]
2. A rigid tube that transports water, steam, or other fluid, as used in
plumbing and numerous other applications. […]
3. (Australia, colloquial, now historical) An anonymous satire or essay,
insulting and frequently libellous, written on a piece of paper which
was rolled up and left somewhere public where it could be found and thus
spread, to embarrass the author's enemies.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pipe>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is the glistening and softly spoken lie; the amiable fallacy;
the patriotic lie of the historian, the provident lie of the politician,
the zealous lie of the partisan, the merciful lie of the friend, and the
careless lie of each man to himself, that cast that black mystery over
humanity, through which we thank any man who pierces, as we would thank
one who dug a well in a desert.
--John Ruskin
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Ruskin>