Sartre's second century

Sartre's Legacy in an Era of Obscurantism 209
not purely historical at a time when not only is imperial expansion a
present reality, but also the virtues of empire past and present are once
more being expounded in print and the broadcast media. 16
Marxism and the Dialectic
Sartre's reaction to the developments of the 1950s was the project of
reformulating Marxism, which became The Critique of Dialectical
Reason, the first volume published in 1960, the second volume remaining
unfinished and mostly unpublished during his lifetime. Certainly, the
circumstances of its composition were not encouraging, nor was the mode:
much was written when Sartre was maintaining his work-rate with wild
excesses of stimulant drugs, 17 not to speak of alcohol and tobacco. In the
words of Ronald Aronson, the text proved to be "awe inspiring and
chaotic, penetrating and sloppy to the point of incoherence" (although
much of it is also written with perfect clarity).
Does it matter? Marxism has been declared, on seemingly irrefutable
evidence, to be dead and buried, and no significant movement of the
present any longer claims to be inspired by it. 19 Aronson has a perceptive
insight, although his own volume was published as long ago as 1987:
"Sartre's failure opened the door for the current wave of post-Marxism."
This was even before the Soviet bloc fell, the direction of Chinese
development became fully apparent, and the political parties which
continued to use the "Communist" title or pretend to its inheritance
declared their allegiance to global markets and capitalist success. "Post-
Marxism" can of course mean many different things; it need not of
necessity be obscurantist, but the general discredit into which Marxism has
fallen has meant that, where previously it would have been grasped as an
explanation for oppression and a guide to action in resisting it, now all
manner of obscurantisms have come forward to present themselves as the
only effective explanation or alternative in an intolerable present.
For example, by the historian Niall Ferguson in Empire: How Britain Made the
Modern World. A group in the USA is republishing the works of the nineteenthcentury
author for boys, G. A. Henty, who wrote novels applauding imperialism.
Their objective is to enthuse American youth along similar lines.
17 The trade name was Corydrane. Sartre outrageously exceeded the stated dosage.
18 Aranson, Second Critique, 235.
19 The "Communist" Party which continues to enjoy support in Russia is a
nationalist formation with no relation even to the Stalinist version, let alone
anything nearer to Marx or Lenin. The Chinese regime, though still claiming
communist credentials, has abandoned all communist tenets.