Ed

“...revolutionary nationalism was by far the most successful radical tide of the the twentieth century.”
― Terry Eagleton, After Theory

“If theory means a reasonably systematic reflection of our guiding assumptions, it remains as indispensable as ever.”
― Terry Eagleton, After Theory

“I argue that three key doctrines of postmodernist
thought have conspired to discredit the classical concept of ideology. The first of these doctrines turns on a rejection of the notion of representation--in fact, a rejection of an empiricist model of representation, in which the representational baby has been nonchalantly slung out with, the empiricist
bathwater. The second revolves on an epistemological skepticism which would hold that the very act of identifying a form of consciousness as ideological entails some untenable notion of absolute truth. Since the latter idea attracts few devotees these days, the former is thought to crumble in its wake. We cannot brand Pol Pot a Stalinist bigot since this would imply some metaphysical certitude about what not being a Stalinist bigot would involve. The third doctrine concerns a reformulation of the relations between rationality, interests and power, along roughly neo-Nietzschean lines, which is thought to render the whole concept of ideology redundant.”
― Terry Eagleton, Ideology

“Most members of the political elites of north-east Africa have come to resemble gangsters rather than civic political leaders.”
― Alex de Waal, The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa: Money, War and the Business of Power