How to Change the World: Tales of Marx and Marxism by Eric Hobsbawm
For those who are armchair Marxists, this book is a wonderful series of essays from one of our leading political historians Eric Hobsbawm who at age 94 has probably written his last book.
He believes that in this time when the market and its greedy minions have corrupted the economy in the pursuit of limitless growth, we are now near the end or at least the beginning of the end for capitalism as we know it. For him, changing the world means listening to Karl Marx.
"Once again the time has come to take Marx seriously." Hobsbawm has little time for those on the Left who treat Marx as a prophet whose word is law.
"What could be learnt from Marx was his method of facing the tasks of analysis and action rather than ready-made lessons to be derived from classic texts."
Karl Marx has been much maligned by countries who took his economic and analytic ideas on the death of capitalism and turned utopian desires into monolithic dictatorships and proletarian nightmares.
The author goes to considerable pains to defend Marx and his thought, as opposed to what Marxism became.
Hobsbawm charts the progression and recession of Marxist thought and its sources like a convert, but he never succeeds in his principal thesis of How To Change The World.
Even as a Marxist I am unconvinced, as the collapse of organized labour movements, the dissolution of purported Marxist countries, the decline of radicalism, and the relative success of capitalism in fulfilling human needs and adapting to change has placed Marxism in eclipse.
This interesting book does not provide any answers, but rather evades the problem, and does not provide the type of analysis of world conditions but simply promotes Marx as a solution. Perhaps, Marxism is simply not conducive to liberty.
Capitalism can be just as cruel as any system, but its fundamental underpinning is personal liberty, something which Marxian thinkers have never fully appreciated or analyzed.
So the question remains, How To Change the World? Certainly not with a few
tales of Marx and Marxism. It has had its day as a serious political
movement and certainly was a poor candidate for change or adaptation.
In this present century, whether capitalist or socialist, we are all struggling with this question how to change the world, which in essence means how do we change human nature. Without a gun.
-- reviewed by Allan Wilson, chief librarian at the Prince George Public Library
