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WESTERN MARXISM and the
FRANKFURT SCHOOL
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KEY ISSUES1. What happened to Marxism after Marx?
2. Multiple different Marxisms
3. Changing nature of Western societies
- Why has the revolution not yet happened?
4. New types of Marxism: - FOR understanding new social conditions- Produced BY new social conditions
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History after Marx
• Marx dies in 1883
• Marx’s legacy:
- Intellectual: social theory
- Practical: Socialist movement
(“The International”)
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Changing social conditions in the West
1880s to 1930s
1) Appearance of mass media (esp. cheap newspapers) and mass leisure
- Cinema (beginnings of ‘celebrityculture’; beginnings of
‘Americanization’)- Radio (possibilities for propaganda:
Mussolini)
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2) Rising working class standards of living
Development of welfare state
Beginnings of mass consumerism
(e.g. USA: mass car ownership by 1930s)
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3) Crises in capitalism
Wall Street Crash, 1929 - Large number of businesses go bust- Many capitalists ruined- Mass unemployment- Hyper-inflation
4) Challenges to capitalism
- Communist revolution in Russia, 1917- Increased popularity of Fascism:
Hitler wins power in Germany, 1933
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“EASTERN MARXISM”Marxism in the Soviet Union (USSR)
Russian Revolution, 1917
Communist Party attempts to foster democracy
VERSUSCommunist Party keeps all power for
itself
Death of Lenin, 1924
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“WESTERN MARXISM”Response in Western
Europe to the Soviet Union
1) Admiration & emulation by some
2) Increasing distrust of Stalin by others
- More information becomes available
- Not communism but totalitarianism
- By late 1930s, Stalin the mirror-image of Hitler
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Need to develop a new sort of Marxism:
1) More flexible: not just base creates superstructure (“mechanistic Marxism”)
2) Not a state religion; not dogmatic
- could criticise Communist Party and USSR
3) Attuned to new social conditions
4) DOESN’T claim Communism would emerge inevitably;
- the revolution depends on circumstances
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WESTERN MARXISM’S TWO QUESTIONS:
1) Why has the Revolution not yet happened?Physical repression: armed forceIdeological repression: dominant ideologies
Marx: “culture” not very important; merely part of the social superstructure
Western Marxism: “culture” very important; controls how the working classes think
2) What forces are emerging in society that can lead to Revolution?
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WESTERN MARXISM and the FRANKFURT SCHOOL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lkUeQMQAp4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8QqdWclgww&feature=endscreen
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The Frankfurt School - Members• Institute for Social Research
University of Frankfurt, 1923
• Multi-disciplinary membership:
Max Horkheimer (philosophy)
Theodor Adorno (philosophy and musicology)
Walter Benjamin (philosophy and literature)
Herbert Marcuse (Freudian psychology)
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“Critical Theory”Sources:
1) Marx; 2) Max Weber; 3) Sigmund Freud
Following Marx:
Most sorts of social science see only the surface of society
Must find the hidden workings of society
Frankfurt: against positivism
- “scientific” sociology / Durkheim
- can only see surface-level things
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Updating of Marx
1) Must avoid the flaws of other sorts of sociological theory:
BOTH Theoretical AND Practical
BOTH Theory AND Data
2) Must avoid flaws of “Eastern Marxism”:
- must be open to being corrected by evidence
- must change as society changes
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Frankfurt view of “Total administration”
- dominance of instrumental rationality
- complete bureaucratic control
The main bureaucracies:
1) The State
2) Capitalist Economy (Monopoly Capitalism)
3) Leisure industries & mass media
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Mass MediaAdorno and HorkheimerThe “Culture Industry”Mass Culture: standardised culturefor “the masses”
1. Propagates dominant ideologies- audiences influenced- conformist thinking and behaviour
2. Pacifies the populace- superficial pleasures- a break from unfulfilling jobs
3. Outcome: capitalist system reproduced over time
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Sigmund Freud
1) Social shaping of individual psychology
- “blank slate”
Frankfurt view (Fromm; Adorno): - psychology shaped by dominant
ideologies e.g. capitalist ideologies
- these make people passive and conformist
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Social shaping of collective psychology
- a social group e.g. the capitalist class
- a whole society e.g. capitalist society
All societies need to repress individuals’ natural, biological instincts
- sex drives - violent tendencies - uncontrolled egotism &
selfishness
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Modern Western (capitalist) societies repress natural instincts very much
PROBLEM - Too much repression:
a) Individual becomes “neurotic”
- Individual is psychologically sick
b) The whole society becomes “neurotic”
- The whole society is psychologically sick
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Frankfurt view (Herbert Marcuse – 1960s):1) Capitalist society overly represses natural
instincts2) Individuals in capitalist society are made
neurotic e.g. craving wealth & fame3) The whole society is neurotice.g. happiness = consumer goods4) Encouragement of worst human traits: a) Greed b) Seeing others as objects to be
used c) Hatred of ‘foreigners’ and ‘outsiders’5) Solution: Critical Theory as therapy –
makes society realise its own sickness