Empty Voices

My aim here is to spark a discussion; not to describe, in extraneous detail, Marx’s theory of religion. However, some basic description of my understanding of Marx’s thought is needed to know where I am coming from if a discussion is going to be possible. So, I will start with a summarised account of Marx’s theory of religion before moving onto a series of critical questions which arose for me from the reading, and which I hope will be of interest. I was wishing to write something short and informal; however, it seems that I am incapable of doing either. So, I apologise in advance, as what I am about to say might be a bit dry. * There are many aspects of Marx’s thought which help define his theory of religion – such as it is. Though, arguably the most defining characteristic, and a good starting point for us, is Marx’s insistence that if one wishes to understand religion, one must study the social context which gave rise to it. In this sense, Marx’s theory shares characteristic...

It has now been a few weeks since the 2019 general election, people have had time to rest and reflect over Christmas and New Year, and the Labour leadership contest is moving into its early stages. It is, perhaps, now a more appropriate time to offer sober reflections as to what went wrong. I have already written on Labour’s defeat in a previous blog post ( https://emptyblogvoices.blogspot.com/2019/12/some-rough-reflections-on-labours-2019.html ); however, new thoughts have occurred to me since writing that piece, and it is vital to keep a conversation going if the Left is going to learn why it failed in 2019 and how it can win in the future. In my previous post, I suggested there were three reasons Labour lost in 2019: Corbyn, Brexit, and policy. I want to flesh out the first of those reasons – Corbyn – in this piece; though it is impossible to separate the three reasons, as each informs the other, so some overlap is inevitable.         ...