Eat, drink and be communist

15 April 2009

In a time of recession, Tristram Hunt celebrates the inspiration of Friedrich Engels, who saw no contradiction between socialist beliefs and aristocratic pleasures

Yet such aristocratic excitement was entirely compatible with Engels’s political philosophy. Both he and Marx always regarded the elimination of all social and political inequality as Utopian nonsense. Engels, the bohemian aficionado of the high life, was never a leveller. ‘Living conditions will always evince a certain inequality which may be reduced to a minimum but never wholly eliminated,’ he wrote. ‘The concept of a socialist society as a realm of equality is a one-sided French concept.’

Instead, Engels believed in cascading the pleasures of life — food, sex, drink, culture, travel — down to all classes. Socialism was not a never-ending committee meeting, but a life of satiated enjoyment. Occasionally, the British Left has managed to echo this ideal — from Nye Bevan’s reputed ‘nothing too good for the working class’ to Tony Crosland’s hope for ‘brighter and cleaner eating houses, more riverside cafés, more pleasure gardens on the Battersea model, more murals and pictures in public places’.

But for the most part, 20th-century Labourism let go of the importance of pleasure and fell into the trap of class envy. And as the recession bites, that tradition has re-emerged. Yet as Engels’s life and writings suggest, there is no contradiction between a political programme offering greater social justice alongside richer personal fulfilment. Far from being a term of abuse, ‘champagne communism’ should be a political aspiration.

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James R

April 17th, 2009 1:50am Report this comment

If we must pander to socialists, in the spirit of the age, or whatever, then perhaps Engels' liberal (elite) brand has some appeal. But must we?

MikeF

April 19th, 2009 11:35am Report this comment

We are not exactly short of 'socialists' today who enjoy the good things in life - indeed who even do so on the basis of an 'aristocratic' sense of entitlement.

James Currin

April 19th, 2009 10:30pm Report this comment

I suppose that even in the time of Shakespeare or Milton or Donne, such dreck as this appeared in print. The Spectator, I am told has a distinguished literary pedigree. Can they not find something more worthy of publication than this?
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keith

April 21st, 2009 10:56am Report this comment

James, you have just demonstrated the point perfectly!

Curtis (USA)

April 27th, 2009 1:28pm Report this comment

An excellent piece and worthy of the Spectator's committment to non-dogmatic and provacative thought. If only US conservative journals weren't so dour and joyless (much like the post-Engels left-wing traditions mentioned here)

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