Capitalism will behave antisocially if it is profitable for it to do so, and that can now mean human devastation on an unimaginable scale. What used to be apocalyptic fantasy is today no more than sober realism.
Interpretation
Capitalism can lead to harmful consequences if profit is prioritized over social responsibility.
In this quote, Terry Eagleton warns that the nature of capitalism often prioritizes profit above all else, which can result in severe negative impacts on society. He suggests that what was once considered an extreme or fantastical outcome of capitalism has now become a realistic possibility, highlighting the urgent need to consider the ethical implications of economic systems.
In practice
During a debate on economic policies, one might reference this quote to highlight the dangers of profit-driven motives.
Nations sometimes flourish by denying the crimes that brought them into being. Only when the original invasion, occupation, extermination or usurpation has been safely thrust into the political unconscious can sovereignty feel secure.
One side-effect of the so-called war on terror has been a crisis of liberalism. This is not only a question of alarmingly illiberal legislation, but a more general problem of how the liberal state deals with its anti-liberal enemies.
All communication involves faith; indeed, some linguisticians hold that the potential obstacles to acts of verbal understanding are so many and diverse that it is a minor miracle that they take place at all.
The New Testament is a brutal destroyer of human illusions. If you follow Jesus and don't end up dead, it appears you have some explaining to do. The stark signifier of the human condition is one who spoke up for love and justice and was done to death for his pains. The traumatic truth of human history is a mutilated body.
Poetry is the most subtle of the literary arts, and students grow more ingenious by the year at avoiding it. If they can nip around Milton, duck under Blake and collapse gratefully into the arms of Jane Austen, a lot of them will.
Works of art cannot save us. They can simply render us more sensitive to what needs to be repaired.
We are the prisoners of history. Or are we?
The true friends of the people are neither revolutionaries, nor innovators, but traditionalists.
The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws.
I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them.
Weapons are ominous tools. They are abhorred by all creatures. Anyone who follows the Way shuns them.
This world... ever was, and is, and shall be, ever-living Fire, in measures being kindled and in measures going out.
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