Live from the Gehenna the Marxisante left made for itself: : Pensées sans ordre: "[Eric Hobsbawm:]
Anyone of the Left who was not aware of this grassroots feeling ought seriously to consider his or her capacity to assess politics.
Eric Hobsbawm on the ‘public sentiment [in support of the Falklands War] that could actually be felt.’ Quoted by Robert Tombs, The English and Their History, p.816.
Two things I like about this. First, Hobsbawm puts his finger on what is a continuing failing of many on the Left (and I include myself in this): the inability to understand ‘public sentiment’, which leads to calamitous errors in political analysis and strategy. This can be witnessed daily on Twitter.
Second, the phrase ‘ought seriously to consider his or her capacity to assess politics’ – the ‘capacity to assess politics’ being a lucid summary of what is required as a basic prerequisite for political effectiveness.
