Bloch's Philosophy of Hope

[ionelv]

I stumbled by chance unto a gem. If one discards the romanticism around his Marxism, Bloch is unto something. What can I say? I am still a Romantic myself.

The necessary complement of anticipatory thinking is the critical view back towards this world: the vigorous indictment of the industrial/ capitalist civilization and its harm is a major theme. Bloch pilloried the “pure infamy” and “ruthless ignominy” of what he calls “the current world of business” – a world “generally placed under the sign of the swindle”, in which “the thirst for gain chokes any other human impulse”. It also attacks the cold and functional modern cities that are no longer homes – Heimat, one of the key-terms of the book – but “machines for living” reducing human beings “into the state of standardized termites”.