The Politics Of Amnesia

The Politics of Amnesia (After Theory) - Terry Eagleton

Eagleton confronts us with a sense of responsibility and urgency as soon as one begins to read this literature. He describes, in colourful language, the shift in intellectual pursuits, the trivialisation of scholarly matters and a conspicuous lack of fresh thinking that the fast evolving world we find ourselves so crucially needs. 

Eagleton then introduces us to the idea of cultural theory and its historic advancements such as recognising; gender and sexuality as legitimate subjects of study and of political significance, that popular culture should not be overlooked and is worth studying. However, I found the discussion on post colonialism most interesting, for obvious reasons.

I absolutely agree with Eagleton that ‘it is one thing to make a revolution, and another to sustain it’. Having grown up in Nigeria and lived in the UK for almost a decade, I have often wondered what narcotics the so called nationalists were on when they put on that charade of ‘struggle for independence’.  I strongly believe they did it for pure selfish reasons and not in the interest of all at all. It was truly a lost cause and the Marxists who harboured illusions about those bloody power hungry middle-class nationalists were right. It is very heart wrenching to see how, as the author puts it, ‘isolated, poverty-stricken and poor in civic, liberal or democratic traditions’ that country now is! Their laurel, the so called independence has been more of a curse than a blessing – ‘that political sovereignty had brought with it no authentic economic self-government, and could never do so in a West-dominated world’!    

Also, we are brought up close to the examination of postmodernists’ reactions to the idea of collective action under the awnings of different political orientation. Some postmodernists who oppose the notion of individualism (an issue adumbrated in the Meades interview with Zaha) and who think collective action is oppressive counter it with margins and minorities. Liberals however, counter it with the individual. The conservatives on the other hand would much prefer to ignore mainstream social life and capitalise on the political grounds most fertile; margins and minorities, much to the chagrin of postmodernists who tend to be all inclusive majority seekers.

Eagleton acknowledges cultural awareness as the force behind the previously marginalised to finding a voice, become a force to reckon with which can no longer be disregarded.  He posits that the normative is being challenged and that social life based on ‘majority carries the vote’ is a matter of conventions and norms which inherently is oppressive. I think there is an interesting point in that norms, which presumes that one man’s meat should not be another man’s poison, is oppressive.

But equally as fascinating is Eagleton’s argument for why norms are not always restrictive and consequently why going against the grain of the normative is not always politically radical. To be of this view, the author argues, is ‘politically catastrophic’ and ‘dim-witted’. Here, one gets a sense of Eagleton (quoting Perry Anderson) mourning the demise of the old ways, of the traditional middle class and the implications of the resultant low-minded amorphous sub-cultural forms. I thought this bit was particularly funny; ‘But it is true, by and large, that our new ruling elite consists increasingly of people who snort cocaine rather than people who look like Herbert Asquith or Marcel Proust’.

The sense of responsibility which Eagleton evokes in us through this literature comes through a series of carefully organised thought. This equips one with an understanding of the dynamics of a fast changing world and the difficulty in identifying the central driving force due to its curiously ephemeral nature.  But an educated view affords us a better understanding that marginal does not necessarily mean minority, that collective action in today’s world is grossly inadequate and that there is a need to foster a new forms of belonging and sense of tradition.