Eric HobsbawmThinkers

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Marxism is a guarantee of being on the right side of history.

The Nation-state is an institution whereby the state can precede the nation. In france, the French state (i.e. The political entity) preceded the French people or nation (I..E the cultural entity). Only 12-13% spoke French 'fairly' at the time of the revolution.

Slavoj Zizek is rightly described as a performer. He has this element of provocation that is very characteristic and does help to interest people, but I'm not certain that people who are reading Zizek are actually drawn very much nearer rethinking the problems of the left.

Tradition is a set of practices governed by accepted rules seeking to inculcate certain values and norms by repetition.

War is a pseudo-solution for the problems of 20th century capitalism (i.e. Modernization, technological advancement , employment, the recreation of the community vis-a-vis some foreign/outside threat.

Xenophobia is directed against foreign people, not foreign cultural imports, (as the global expansion of indian and chinese restaurants suggests).