Carnegie Mellon University
March 22, 2012

The Beneficiary: Cosmopolitanism and Inequality

The Beneficiary: Cosmopolitanism and Inequality

“Under the capitalist system, in order that England may live in comparative comfort, a hundred million Indians must live on the verge of starvation– an evil state of affairs, but you acquiesce in it every time you step into a taxi or eat a plate of strawberries and cream.  The alternative is to throw the Empire overboard and reduce England to a cold and unimportant little island where we should all have to work very hard and live mainly on herrings and potatoes.; That is the very last thing that any left-winger wants.” George Orwell wrote this in 1936. What do we think of it now?

Bruce Robbins is Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities, Department of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University. His books include: Secular Vocations: Intellectuals, Professionalism, Culture (1993), and The Servant's Hand: English Fiction From Below (1986).

March 22, 4:30PM, Porter Hall 100