Thursday 21 November 2013

Pessimism of the Intellect, Newcastle November 19th


Willie Thompson considers the reasons why efforts to achieve transformations in class relations and projects of emancipation have historically proved so hard to accomplish and why twentieth century hopes in particular have been so disappointed; and emphasising that a realistic appreciation of the obstacles – the pessimism of the intellect – is an essential preliminary to overcoming them but also inspiring confidence that they can be overcome. Finally, suggesting the importance of history societies (like the NELH group) for keeping alive the memory of the struggles so far, as well as analysing what went wrong.

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