The Theory:
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry based upon a materialist interpretation of historical development, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis of class-relations within society and their application in the analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. In the mid-to-late 19th century, the intellectual development of Marxism was pioneered by two German philosophers, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxist analyses and methodologies have influenced multiple political ideologies and social movements throughout history. Marxism encompasses an economic theory, a sociological theory, a philosophical method and a revolutionary view of social change. There is no one definitive Marxist theory; Marxist analysis has been applied to a variety of different subjects and has been modified during the course of its development, resulting in multiple and sometimes contradictory theories that fall under the rubric of Marxism or Marxian analysis.
(courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism)
The Text:
One day
the apolitical
intellectuals
of my country
will be interrogated
by the humblest
of our people.
They will be asked
what they did
when their country was slowly
dying out,
like a sweet campfire,
small and abandoned.
No one will ask them
about their dress,
or their long
siesta
after lunch,
or about their futile struggles
against “nothingness”
or about their ontological
way
to make money.
No, they won’t be questioned
on Greek mythology,
or about the self-disgust they felt
when someone deep inside them
was getting ready to die
the coward’s death.
They’ll be asked nothing
about their absurd
justifications,
nartured in the shadow
of a huge lie.
On that day,
the humble people will come,
those who never had a place
in the books and poems
of the apolitical intellectuals
but who daily delivered
their bread and milk,
their eggs and tortillas;
those who mended their clothes,
those who drove their cars,
those who took care of their dogs and gardens,
and worked for them,
and they will ask :
“What did you do when the poor
suffered, when tenderness and life
were dangerously burning out in them?”
Apolitical intellectuals
of my sweet country,
you will have nothing to say.
A vulture of silence
will eat your guts.
Your own misery
will gnaw at your soul.
And you will be mute
in your shame.
The Criticism:
The poem questions the intellectuals of politics about the things they did not do for the country when it was in dire need. It presents a scenario where the people of the society stand up against the government and seek change for the poor and the needy. The selection talks about social change, and is considered as Marxist literature because it tackles an issue appropriate to the time the poem was written. In fact, the poem will indefinitely be a piece of Marxist literature because the issue of a government turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to society and its pleas for change will be ever-present unless a solution is devised. The government is depicted as one which prefers to laze around, taking luxurious siestas and indulging in worldly pleasures. The people, on the other hand, is depicted as a society which strives to make a living by taking even the simplest of tasks such as taking care of dogs and tending gardens into a living. The contrast between the luxurious lifestyle of the apolitical intellectuals and the hardship-ridden lives of the humblest of people is astounding, and the poem does a good job of sending the message across.
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