More Holiday Thoughts On Hobsbawm

Here are some notes I found the other day while sorting through some of the papers I accumulated from Christmas Holidays. They come from my reading of Eric Hobsbawm's On The Edge of a New Century.

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Hobsbawm Talks about the history of the Left and how for all intents and purposes the Left had achieved the majority of it's historical (nineteenth century) aims by the late 1960s early 1970s, namely that of participatory democracy and economic redistribution in some form, whether through progressive taxation, welfare state benefits, or a combination of the two. This success effectively ended the Left as a force for progressive change. At the same time, the command economies of the communist countries ran into problems and were forced to make accommodations with the free market to some degree. These two instances robbed the Left of it's vision of a future independent of capitalism.

While I firmly believe that Marxist analysis can offer some insight into contemporary events, I think that Hobsbawm's comments reveal that Socialism, particularly as expressed in trade unionism, might have been nothing more than a sympathetic response to nineteenth century capitalism and now that the nineteenth century appears to be well and truly behind us, it seems doubtful to have any future left.

I found it interesting that, having said all this, he still talks disparagingly of the lack of political involvement of Western youth. Clearly the failure of any party to articulate a new "Vision" of the future is enabling youth to dismiss politics as futile. Either everything has already been achieved and hasn't quite lived up to the hype, or else has been turned back and dismantled, leaving youth in the awkward position of having to fight to inherit the footsteps of their parent.

The key to the future political engagement of youth then is to articulate a 360-vision of a political future that speaks to youth about environment, social issues, economics, global relations, personal liberty, and so forth, in a way that is not just meaningful, but that represents and speaks to their way of life. Given that the Millennial Generation is the largest demographic ascending into politics, and the Baby Boomers as the largest demographic currently in politics is one their way out, and future victories will go to whichever party, right or left, new or old, that can best capture the imagination of youth.

Quick thoughts from the Consumer Electronic Show

Oddly, this has nothing to do with technology, but rather a book I finished reading while in Disneyworld, you know, that Las Vegas for children. Somewhere in his reflection on the 20th Century, On The Edge of a New Century, historian Eric Hobsbawm casually states that the benefits of extreme wealth are no longer apparent. This isn't to say that it doesn't pay to be wealthy, but rather that a hundred years ago the wealthy and everyone else inhabited the same public sphere. Everyone knew what the wealthy could access and nowadays, many of those luxuries can be enjoyed by members of the middle-class (albeit to varying degrees of frequency). Hobsbawm contends that today's super-rich have absconded from this public sphere, holidaying in secret.

Even as I wandered around CES, I thought about Hobsbawm and the genesis of Las Vegas as the playground of the West Coast's wealthy elite. Where do the wealthy go now? The only place I could think of that might rival Las Vegas for sheer over-the-top-ness is Dubai.

BTW, real CES-related reflections will be posted over at Exploding Beakers since I officially went on Education Business.

November's Books

As the month draws to a close, I am just closing the cover on Let The Great World Spin Colm McCann's fictionalized account of events in New York City during the 1970s on the day when a man walked across a tightrope strung between the World Trade Center towers. It's a great character study, with the city itself one of the main characters, and stands quite nicely as a much more compact and unassuming companion to Don Delillo's Underworld.

Last month I read Richard DuFour's book on Professional Learning Communities, Learning by Doing. This month, I'm reading David Townsend's Made In Alberta Reply, Essential Questions. One day soon I hope to update my Exploding Beakers blog with some brief thoughts of these work related books.

I also started reading British historian Eric Hobsbawm's slim volume On The Edge Of A New Century because I was bored one night and frankly too lazy to go all the way downstairs to get my other books out of the trunk of my car. Hobsbawm used to review jazz records under a pseudonym as an undergraduate back in the 1930s, so we get along fine.

With luck, December will be a lot quieter and I'll be able to dip into some pocketbooks.

Books Read
Colm McCann, Let The Great World Spin (2009)

Currently reading:
Eric Hobsbawm, On The Edge Of A New Century (2000)

David Townsend, Pamela Adams - The Essential Question: A Handbook For School Improvement (2009)

J. Lloyd Trump - A School For Everyone (1977)*
Robert T. Kiyosaki, Sharon L. Lechter - Rich Dad, Poor Dad(1997)*
*I'm in no hurry to finish these, but for different reasons

Books Acquired
Zadie Smith, Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays (2009)