Culture

This is a fascinating examination of Culture by one of our most distinguished and insightful students of that subject. He begins with definitions. What is Culture per se? How is it to be distinguished from, e.g., Civilization? He examines multiple meanings of the term and then goes on to look at important commentators on the subject: Burke, Herder, Oscar Wilde, Marx, Freud, et al. Those who are surprised that TE uses Burke as something of an exemplar should not be. While TE is Marxistic and Burke is a classic conservative voice there are multiple sides to Burke’s thought. The causes to which he devoted his life (as we were once taught) were often defenses of the colonized and the downtrodden. Those familiar with his view of the French revolution should look at his indictment of Warren Hastings and his actions in India.Much of the book is an extended reflection, not so much a process of free association but one in which TE examines multiple dimensions of culture, including, e.g., the manner in which culture is seen by the Frankfurt School and the postmodernists.The kicker comes in the conclusion. One of TE’s hallmarks is his ability to see the wisdom (and nonsense) in a multiplicity of positions, to bring in Marx when we don’t expect him but then focus upon Marx’s shortsightedness (or simple recapitulations of Hegel). Bottom line: he is an intellectual, not an ideologue.The conclusion begins with what is now seen as a “conservative” notion: “The idea of culture is traditionally bound up with the concept of distinction” (p. 155). Spiritual hierarchy, he argues, goes hand in hand with social inequality, but “the aim of advanced capitalism, by contrast, is to preserve inequality while abolishing hierarchy” (p. 155). Hollywood does not exist to produce art; it exists to produce profits for its shareholders. It valorizes “diversity” in order to bring in a larger number of ticket purchasers. Thus, the university faculty who deride the notion of “distinction” and conflate the notion of evil “discrimination” with the quite necessary forms of discrimination which undergird ratiocination play right into the capitalists’ hands. In examining all forms of popular culture they are unconsciously reinforcing the methods of the Hollywood producers whose eyes are fixated on the bottom line. In their systematic lowering of expectations and dismissal of the notion of “distinction” they are the unwitting co-conspirators of the corporatist administrators, whose goal is the acquisition of tuition revenue to support administrative self-aggrandizement and the grotesque inequality represented by their salaries. In return, the faculty’s lack of academic distinction is rewarded by the reduction in the size of their tenure track faculty.TE puts it this way:“A centuries-old tradition of universities as centres of humane critique is currently being scuppered by their conversion into pseudo-capitalist enterprises under the sway of a brutally philistine managerial ideology. Once arenas of critical reflection, academic institutions are being increasingly reduced to organs of the marketplace, along with betting shops and fast food joints. They are now for the most part in the hands of technocrats for whom values are largely a matter of real estate. . . . . The dream of our universitites’ boneheaded administrators is of a bookless and paperless environment, books and paper being messy, crumply stuff incompatible with a gleaming neo-capitalist wasteland consisting of nothing but machines, bureaucrats and security guards. . . . The death of the humanities is now an event waiting on the horizon” (pp. 152-53).Strong stuff but dead on.Highly recommended.

Nietzsche proclaimed God dead, but Eagleton shows that the shadow of God had manifested in various ways since the days of the Enlightenment: art, culture, Spirit, nature. This raises the question, What is God? While there is no easy answer to this question, Eagleton’s book gives us a good deal to mull over. As a companion piece to his Illusions of Postmodernism he makes the case at the end that elitism and the elitist embrace of postmodernism have given rise to a dangerous brand of religious extremism (just as in other realms it has led to political extremism). His solution is not to turn away from religion, but to turn toward it in a way very similar to that of the liberation theologians, working with and aligning with the poor in an effort to improve our material conditions on Earth.

Mr. Eagleton outdid himself with this excellent discussion on the place and importance of the concept of a 'God' in our culture and why it will always be a necessary condition of an unequal society. This book is very unfortunate news for atheists and agnostics as he explains why most people will probably never have the luxury of freeing themselves from religious illusion.I was very moved by the final few pages of the book which contains a compassionate appeal for collective action to mitigate the suffering of the less fortunate. I found the tone of this appeal to be about as disheartening and fatalistic as can be in our current zero sum political situation.Religion is here to stay under these circumstances in this culture .

A great book by Eagleton but it is simply a reprint of a book published back in 2000. It is advertised as a new and original study, so be forewarned if you have Eagleton's earlier "The Idea of Culture."

Harrowing ride through the last two centuries of Western thought as Eagleton unpacks the multiple levels of unbelief in religion and skewers so many from the Enlightenment onward with their own bad faith in finding substitutes for God without acknowledging what they were really doing. The uncompromising atheism of Nietzsche stands in contrast to so many others who saw in culture a substitute for religion. Eagleton may not himself be a beliver, but he "gets" the raw and paradoxical call of Christianity which is so unlike the religion rejected in the West. His analysis of the emptiness and pretensions of both postmodernism and contemporary capitalism are withering. A fascinating book.

the book was damaged during transport. something extremely heavy must of fell on it because it created a hole that goes through the hardcover and about the entire first chapter.

Loved the book could not put it down. Eagleton at his best.Go buy and read it as soon as possible

Great modern thinker and critic, very relevant today. His discourse on modern "culture" is biting and powerful. Great style with his customary light touch and humour.