Very insightful.
Woah. You guys have just been on a roll with these perspective-dilating reads. I'll definitely pick this book up. The interviewee makes an excellent point about the demythification, or mass disenchantment, that's occurred to the secular West. He meant this in regards to religion--our "God of the Gaps" in knowledge of the world has always grown smaller--but I also feel this way about how communism as Marx envisioned it. The revolution that's supposed to sweep across the world and change everything forever... is dead in the water. I still hear from Marxists and socialists of all kinds that the political revolution is imminent, but I feel that the movement isn't there. It's passed. It's hard to describe what exactly has passed, but the closest thing I can liken the feeling to is participating in a protest. There's almost a tangible electricity in the air. That even though you're walking the same streets you've walked a thousand times before, things are different, there's a momentum. That is completely missing in the Marxist movement. But I imagine that special quality is an integral part of a faithful believer's day. That must be nice. My "religion" is humanism, and of a daily mindfulness as I can manage it. But it's not the same as a transcendental movement.
It's been noted so often that I don't know who said it first that communism became a secular religion, which in retrospect was sort of inevitable; Marx swapped Hegel's idealism for materialism, but kept the rest of his philosophy of history mostly as-is, and history being the World Spirit figuring itself out is a theological notion even if you replace the World Spirit with humanity. I don't think it can work that way anymore, and I don't think I'd want it to; I have never known a True Believer in communism, but I've known enough True Believers in The Market and in God to know I don't like True Believers.
Is this an idea of Marx's? The "World Spirit figuring itself out" per se? You're right that there's a lot to be wary of. Belief leads to all kinds of behavior, so whatever transcendental movement takes seed, we best be choosy. The demystified and disenchanted secular world we live in is probably better than an alternative one of groupthink. Cohesion, like empathy, is often thought of as a good thing but it's value-neutral, and, in fact, can be dangerous.and history being the World Spirit figuring itself out is a theological notion even if you replace the World Spirit with humanity.
The World Spirit figuring itself out was Hegel. Marx started out as a Left Hegelian, and his famous "turning Hegel on his head" was dialectical materialism, replacing the World Spirit figuring itself out with material conditions shaping economic conditions shaping ideology, which is a smaller change than it looks like at first glance.