"I cannot indeed foresee for western society in anything like its present form any prospect but decline and decay, perhaps but not necessarily ending in dramatic collapse. But I believe that new forces and movements, whose shape we cannot yet guess, are germinating beneath the surface, here or elsewhere. That is my unverifiable Utopia, and I suppose I should call it "socialist" and I am to this extent Marxist. But Marx did not define the content of socialism except in a few Utopian phrases; and nor can I" -From a letter by historian, journalist, and international relations theorist E.H Carr (1892-1982) to a friend shortly before his death. This is a particularly moving passage if you consider it was the same author, as a much younger and rabidly anti-communist man , who wrote in 1933: "The crucial point about Hitlerism is that its disciples not only believe in themselves, but believe in Germany. For the first time since the war a party appeared outside the narrow circles of the extreme Right which was not afraid to proclaim its pride in being German. It will perhaps one day be recognized as the greatest service of Hitlerism that, in a way quite unprecedented in German politics, it cut across all social distinctions, embracing in its ranks working men, bourgeoisie, intelligentsia and aristocrats. "Germany Awake!" became a living national faith". Some people get better with age. Along with certain academics. (Quotes retrieved from this rather lovingly detailed wiki article) en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._H._Carr
Posted on: Sat, 27 Jul 2013 00:14:12 +0000
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