I was very interested in Eagleton's comments about the difference between our ability to change culture and Nature. He clearly demonstrates how unwilling we are to alter our culture. We, as a people, have seemingly had more luck changing the fabric of the world around us than we have had in making changes to the culture in which we live. He claims that,
It has proved a lot easier to level mountains than to change patriarchal values. Cloning sheep is child’s play compared to persuading chauvinists out of their prejudices. Cultural beliefs, not least the fundamentalist variety which are bound up with fears for one’s identity, are far harder to uproot than forests (50).
Eagleton believes, and I would tend to agree, that we are more likely to try to completely reorder the world around us than admit that we as individuals need to change who we are or what we believe. We are more willing to destroy those who disagree with us than to change our own perspective. Rather than attempting to see the world as it is, we try to reshape it in the fashion that we believe it should exist. We have no problem spending piles of money and years of effort to find a solution to a problem that could easily be resolved by slightly altering what we believe to be true.
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His comments about the "...fears for one's identity" (50) seem to encapsulate the difficulties we have in discussion some of Eagleton's contentions - something all the more unnerving as it seems the cultural changes we (mostly Westerners) have wrought have opened the doors for creating personas that are so esoteric, or drenched in subculture, or inanely detailed as to fit into the most exclusive clique as to render personal identity that much more fixed and dear. Once we find our footing (our appropriate group, style, etc.), "discussion must at all costs remain on the level of the ready tag, the moralistic outcry, the pious reminder, the shopworn phrase" (223). It seems that we are comfortable using theory to dissect those topics or issues that are not precious to us. If anyone - especially a potentially snarky intellectual - l goes after OUR territory, well, we will use our tools of the trade to dismiss him (or her) directly.
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