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