“I love the old questions.
[With fervour]
Ah the old questions, the old answers, there’s nothing like them!”
—Hamm in Samuel Beckett, Endgame

One of the inspiring things about the Marxist tradition at the bicentenary of Marx’s birth is its resilience, its capacity for seemingly endless spin-offs and interpretations, innumerable adaptations and provocations. It’s an innovative body of thought that has given people plenty to work with and think about when the world itself has been less inspiring. Marxism has kept people going when it’s been hard to keep going.

A while back, the late Eduardo Galeano advocated a Marxism that “celebrates continuous birth.” He had one his rummy characters call it Magical Marxism: “one half reason, one half passion, and a third half mystery.” “Not a bad idea!” his drinking buddies agree, toasting this new school of Marxism, which has always seemed like a good idea to me…