Shaping the 20th Century

During the 19th

Written by Marx but he shared authorship with Engels who gave him financial means

http://www.iisg.nl/~landsberger/sheji/sj-qdx.html

Main Concepts & Basic Elements of Marxian Doctrine

Materialistic or Economic Interpretation of History

• The prevailing mode of economic production and exchanged forms the basis upon which society is built

• The economic structure of society determines a society's social, political, legal, cultural aspects; art,

• Law, politics, and religion are all determined by economic factors

• The intellectual and ideological forces in history are discounted, ignored, or explained away

Mode of production in our time

Theory of Class Struggle

• History is a series of class struggles between exploiter & exploited, ruling class vs. the oppressed class

• Marx buttressed his argument through use of innumerable historical examples running from Rome to

• The Medieval period and onto the rise of the middle class industrialists

• The Communist Manifesto included a plea for a communist revolution to bring about a CLASSLESS SOCIETY which Marx, through use of the Hegelian "dialectical method," predicted was inevitable

• Dialectical Materialism• The engine driving history was thesis vs. antithesis =

synthesis which in turn became a new thesis • Confronted by another antithesis. Marx concluded that

each new synthesis, short of a utopian end, bore within itself "the seeds of its own destruction"

Who is in charge. . .

Who is serving who. . .

In the class society of Marx’s time?

1989

Anti-capitalism poster by the early Marxist/Leninist artist Victor Deni, 1919. The vocabulary of Marx subtly dominates the way we see The Western System. This Marxist legacy unwittingly encourages a capitalist error--greed

Marx's View of Contemporary Events

• He lived at the time of the inauguration of a new class struggle, this one between the new ruling middle class or bourgeoisie and the proletariat

• This struggle was the product of yet another change in the mode of production, i.e., the introduction of the factory system and the rise of industrial capitalism

• Marx's "Law of Capitalist Competition"• 1) There were bound to be periodic crises caused by

epidemics of over-production• 2) the poor would get poorer and the rich would get

richer • 3) the time would come when the bourgeoisie's

unfitness to rule would be evident and the proletariat would overthrow them

Marx's View of the Future

Dictatorship of the Proletariat gradually bring about a classless society

England—birthplace of the Industrial Revolution

Russia & China—sites of the first Communist

Revolutions

Errors in Marxian Doctrine

• His definition of "classes" is too narrow since it is cast entirely in economic terms the influence of the individual is denied; it runs counter to our widely held belief in individualism

• His view of the past as a series of class struggles doesn't really fit the facts or history, nor does his emphasis on merely 2 opposing classes

• While the rich indeed got richer, so eventually did many of the poor; the general standard of living has reached undreamed of heights in the world's industrialized nations

• "Workers of the world unite!" is a catchy slogan—but man does not seem to be motivated exclusively or at times even primarily by economic concerns; churches have continued to play an important role in our civilization

• The force of nationalism came increasingly to command the allegiance of rich and poor alike; the great wars of the 20th century have been fought over defense and greater glory of one's own nation; not the oppressed vs. the oppressors

• Marx's worldwide revolution of the proletariat has failed to materialize

• Marxism is a material solution for a spiritual problem; the underlying cause of the miseries of humankind lie in man's inability to control his own human nature

THE SOURCE OF ERROR

• Marx disregarded the enormous influence which political, national, and moral forces have exerted on the development of capitalism as an economic system; society has not fallen into the hands of a middle class business cartel which has mismanaged the government.

• Marx proposes a physical/material solution to what in fact is essentially a spiritual malady—those facets of human nature which motivate, greed, lack of concern, and sin; such problems cannot be solved with material means.

Contributions of Marx • By bridging the gap between politics and economics, he enriched

our understanding of the present, and helped our understanding of the past he made us aware of the divisions of society into the rich and poor, the haves and the have-nots;

• Until Marx, these divisions were largely accepted as a natural and unchangeable fact (i.e., "the poor ye shall always have with you"); it was chiefly due to Marx that the Western World was jolted out of its complacent attitude which accepted the status quo

• He made people aware that changes were possible; his writings actually hastened the peaceful evolution which has so markedly improved the condition of the working & proletarian classes in all industrial societies

• Marxian socialism offers followers seemingly logical, scientifically certain answers to many perplexities of modern society; this is a cause for its success and the almost religious fervor it has inspired

Charles Darwin, 1809-1882

Darwin's Principal Works

Darwin provided a

scientific basis for what had before merely

been a hypothesis, i.e.,

life evolved from the simple to the complex

The Descent of Man, 1871

Darwin emphasized the feeling of sympathy and coherence, social and moral qualities were needed for the advancement of society. Marxists focused on the aspect of struggle for existence and, necessarily, miss an important aspect of Darwin's intent

Darwinian Thought

• "Struggle for Existence," i.e., among all organisms, there is a constant struggle to maintain life

• "Survival of the Fittest"—in this struggle, only the strongest survive

• Natural Selection"— through subsequent generations, these lucky variations were enhanced by yet further variations, which in time led to the evolution of a completely different organism so radically different as to be considered an entirely new species

• "Sexual Selection"—there was a mutual attraction and subsequent mating of the fittest members of the species which produced the fittest offspring

• "Acquired Characteristics"—certain physical traits, e.g., the giraffe's long neck, could be inherited

MAIN THESIS: All existing forms of life have evolved out of earlier and simpler life form

Post-Darwin Variations

• Mutations—evolution is not always gradual; rather it often proceeds by larger and more sudden changes or mutations.

• Concept of acquired characteristics was shaken by the end of the 19th century

Impact of Darwinism

"More than any other single idea of

the nineteenth century, the concept of evolution has left its mark on modern

thought and society." Mainstream of Civilization, p. 666

Popularization of Darwinist Thought

• Thomas Huxley—a friend of Darwin's, and one of the key men who popularized his ideas

Herbert Spencer

"The application of the evolutionary concept to every aspect of human society, from physics to ethics, was carried out by another admire of Darwin, Herbert Spencer." Mainstream, p. 667

Walter Baghot & Social Darwinism

• Baghot's Physics and Politics: Thoughts on the Application of the Principles of Natural Selection and Inheritance to Political Science, 1872 was the classical formulation of what has come to be known as Social Darwinism.

• The strength to survive made a person or nation the best and hence deserving to survive while others did not, i.e., "might makes right;" if being victorious meant being better, then certain races or nationalities—the victorious ones—were inherently superior

• Social Darwinism is a kind of blending of nationalist and evolutionary theses; it glorified war

Count Arthur de Gobineau

• This Frenchman's Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races, 1853-1855, proclaimed the superiority of the white race and defined as even more superior the "Aryan" vs. the inferior Slavs and Jews

"The idea of white, specifically Anglo-Saxon, superiority was also popular in England and America. It provided a welcome ideological justification for the imperialist expansion of the late nineteenth century." Mainstream, p.

668

Laissez-Faire Economic Mentality

Those who believed in non-intervention, with an emphasis on

competition as the root of economic success, found Darwin's work a

kind of scientific sanction of their laissez-faire mentality

Social Reformers

Socialist who wished to change the environment to improve conditions took hope from Darwinist thought in their

pursuit of economic reforms. Marx was considered the

"Darwin of the social sciences.”

Darwinism and Religion or, "The Warfare of Science With Theology"

• The state took over the functions formerly performed by the church, e.g., in areas of social welfare and education

• As some of the material benefits of industrialization spread to the lower classes, their need diminished for aid and comfort which religion had, in the past, given them

• The tendency of religion to favor the political status quo often antagonized political liberals and fueled anti-clericalism

• The rising forces of the 19th century, socialism, materialism, and nationalism, were avowed enemies of religion

In this arena the most violent repercussions of Darwinism were felt. During the 19th century, interest in religion declined

• Scientific discoveries in areas like geology and biology contradicted received Christian opinion; the findings of both Darwin and Lyell challenged the Biblical view of creation and made man a part of the general process of evolution

• Methods of scientific inquiry—e.g., "higher criticism" of the origins of the Bible—when applied to Christianity produced some disturbing results;

• Response of Religion• Pope Pius IX issued A Syllabus of the Principal Error

of Our Times, 1864 — it condemned most new political, economic, & scientific tendenciesIn 1870, a General Church Council proclaimed the

doctrine of papal infallibility, i.e., statements officially made (ex cathedra) regarding faith & morals were indisputable

Albert Einstein, 1879-1955

World View of Late-19th Century Science

Physical science still viewed the universe in Newtonian terms. This system was deficient

in that it needed a whole new system of mathematics and physics to supply answers to questions about which Newton had been

silent.

Theory of Relativity, 1905

• Time and space were not absolute (a Newtonian assumption)• They were relative to the observer• Mass was a variable• The mass of a body depended on its rate of motion• Mass increased as velocity increased• The speed of light was the theoretical limit, thus the speed of light

(rather than time and space) emerge as the absolute in the new physics

• In space, the shortest distance between 2 points is a curved line• Assumption that mass and energy are equivalent• Matter slowly disintegrated into energy through radiation (but the

amount of energy lost as infinitesimal compared to the resulting energy

• Relationship between mass and energy described mathematically

E = energym = mass

c = velocity of light

E = mc2

The formula implied that if a process could be devised by which matter could suddenly be transformed into energy, a small amount of matter

could be made to produce a vast quantity of energy. The practical demonstration of this notion came in 1945 with the first atomic explosion

Sigmund Freud, 1856-1938

A Viennese doctorThe founder and pioneer of modern psychologyLaid out his theories around the turn of the century

Main Concepts of Freudian Thought

• Human behavior is directed by subconscious instincts or drives

• The most repressed of these is the sexual impulse

• These drives are inhibited, usually in early childhood which creates varying degrees of frustration and may in fact lead to serious neuroses

Psychoanalysis• A deep probing into the

patient's mind to get at the subconscious layers ordinarily revealed only in dreams

• The purpose was to make the patient understand the conflicts which caused his abnormal behavior

• In theory, such an understanding helped with the removal of the causes of the patient's mental disturbance

Freud developed this technique to help cure his patients. It consisted of:

Significance for the 20th Century and Us Today

Progress toward a "False Millennium"

Marxism has led a goodly portion of humanity on a wild goose chase in pursuit of a solution to the perennial problems of humankind. Since these

problems are spiritual at root, the material solution offered by Marxism is incapable of resolving the

problems.

Evolution in Education

Modern education—particularly in the arena of science—rests in many respects upon an evolutionary

foundation.

Evolution & Genocide

Ideas about might making right and some organisms being superior to others found their logical conclusion in the ovens of Dachau and

Auschwitz

The goal of psychological pursuits was to discern what made people act the

way they did

Freud "revealed a part of reality that many people before him had guessed at, but which no one before

him was able to describe as systematically and convincingly as he did." Mainstream, p. 742

SIGNIFICANCE: This new way of thinking broke open the barriers which led to the sexual revolution in

the West

Moral Relativism & the Sexual Revolution

As Einstein's concept of relativism has been applied outside the scientific arena, the notion that there are

no absolutes has gained momentum, leading to permissiveness liberalism, and promiscuity

Situation Ethics—rooted in the idea that what is wrong in one situation might not be wrong in another.