IDN 'The dead seize the living'

Xian fox vix ppt6

5) In conclusion, I'm interested in pointing the finger at another
problem: that of the subjectivity of what is called "left" in Europe.
Between the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century,
the left underwent a colossal regression. The fundamental
problem of the left is its degeneration and internal corruption,
corruption to be understood primarily as an ideal and political
fact.
On this line of thought, a passage from Marx occurs to me,
although in a different context. I find it suggestive and adequate,
both as regards the subjectivity of the European left and the
condition of the former "socialist" countries, especially China
and Russia:
"Alongside the modern evils, a whole series of inherited evils
oppress us, arising from the passive survival of antiquated
modes of production, with their inevitable train of social and
political anachronisms. We suffer not only from the living, but
from the dead. Le mort saisit le vif! (The dead seize the living!)"
(Preface to the 1st edition of Capital, 25 July 1867).
It can be said that ideology, which for the European left was a
cause for pride before the comrades of the rest of the world, has
become or has turned out to be a dead weight, or rather a kind
of non-dead that continues to devour the living. I would say that
today the existential centre of something that can be said to be
left has moved to the New World: in a more political sense to
Latin America, in a more intellectual sense to the United States.
I would not be surprised if, as in the past, a welcome surprise
were to come from precisely the United States.
Be that as it may, fighting the non-dead is one of our priorities.
* Michele Nobile has published essays and books on the
contradiction between capitalism and the environment (Goods-
Nature and Ecosocialism, 1993), on the theory and history of
imperialism (Imperialism. The Real Face of Globalisation, 2006),
and on the transformations of the state and economic policy in
the crisis (Capitalism and Post-Democracy. Economics and
Politics in the Systemic Crisis, 2012).  He is one of the founders
of the international association Utopia Rossa (Red Utopia)
which published this article in Italian under the title ‘Riflessione
sul Mondo e l’Epoca’.  Translated by Phil Harris. [IDN-
InDepthNews – 12 April 2018]
Image credit: Modern world caricature illustration by Steve
Cutts. Source: boredpanda.com
IDN is the flagship agency of the International Press Syndicate