Over the dreary decades of post-1970s conservatism, the historical sense has grown increasingly blunted, as it suited those in power that we should be able to imagine no alternative to the present. Eagleton, After Theory(7)
“Blunted” is a convincing choice of words here. Our sense of history hasn’t been erased completely (if we couldn’t look back at all, we would cease to be human), but the edges are now dull.1 It’s a bit like the ways our taste buds have been diminished by decades of fast-food; we can no more appreciate the flavor of fresh arugula anymore than we can remember why we fought the Korean War.
- The “we” in this statement refers to “we Americans”; Eagleton is likely including his British co-citizens in this statement, but the loss of a historical sense seems acutely American to me. ↩
