...M Antonio Gramsci One of the most influential figures in the neo-Marxist reassessment of religion is the Italian, Antonio Gramsci. He rejected the traditional Marxist view that the cultural superstructure merely reflected society’s economic base. In his view, the superstructure is more autonomous and independent than Marx acknowledged, and beliefs are no less real or important than economic forces. For Gramsci, if the communist age were to come, it would require working-class action. But this action must be guided by theoretical ideas. And, just as intellectuals of the Roman Catholic Church had shaped the minds of its followers over centuries, so must the industrial working class produce its own intellectuals who can articulate working-class experience and help shape working-class consciousness. Gramsci was well aware of the control over consciousness, which the Catholic Church had traditionally exercised over its members. This control he referred to as hegemony. He was highly critical of what he regarded as the Church’s characteristic subservience to the state and ruling-class interests. Nevertheless, he did not assume that religion must inevitably play such a role. He argued that, at different historical times, popular forms of religion had emerged which expressed and supported the interests of oppressed classes. Thus, he accepted the possibility that religious beliefs and practices could develop and be popularised, particularly by working-class intellectuals, to challenge...
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... Learning targets: • Marxism is concerned for the poor and powerless. • It claims that society is in conflict between the rich who control everything and the poor who must work for the rich and gain little in reward for their work. • The rich are able to maintain their position of power through control of the law, the police and other forms of authority. • The rich also control the manufacture of ideas about society through controlling the media and education so poor people are taught to believe that capitalism is a good thing. Key questions (AO1) What is the Marxist view of society? (AO1) What causes inequality according to Marxists? (AO2) What are the strengths of the Marxist view? (AO2) What are the weaknesses of the Marxist view of inequality? Summary of Key Points Karl Marx (1818 - 1883) was an economist, philosopher and journalist who was motivated by concern for workers who were experiencing terrible poverty while all around was great wealth and power. He was a revolutionary who believed in working for a classless society. Marxism was not a powerful force in sociology until the 1960s and 1970s when it formed the basis of a challenge to functionalism. It offered a better account of the divisions of society at that time than functional sociology did. Marxism also triggered many of the ideas that were adopted by feminists later in the 1970s. Marxism is often referred to as a conflict...
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...Jean-Paul Sartre and Existentialism Jean-Paul Sartre . . . the name is one of the most popular in modern philosophy. But who was he? What did he write and what were his works about? What was his role with regard to Existentialism? What is Existentialism, really? What life influences affected the person as whom he became famous? How would Sartre assess various social topics that we face today? What are the problems with Sartre's view of Existentialism and existence in general? These are the questions addressed in the following pages of this brief dissertation.His life Upon reviewing several sources, it is apparent that Sartre was a very disorganized and inconsistent individual. Sartre was obsessed with his intellect to the point of abandon of all else in his life - personal hygiene, honesty, organization, thoroughness, and more. It seems that he felt he was of superior intelligence in comparison to all others who surrounded him. He was not necessarily a great and original thinker, but rather a superb media sensation of sorts. Rather than developing Existentialist thought, he merely promoted it to amazing popularity through his eccentric lifestyle. Although he is best known for his association with Existentialism, it is interesting to note that he denounced its principles later in life and adopted Marxism, which he also later denounced. Jean-Paul-Charles-Aymard Sartre was born in Paris on June 21, 1905, the only child of Anne-Marie Schweitzer Sartre and Jean-Baptiste Sartre. Anne-Marie...
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...law” (Criminology in Pakistan, 2011) intensely portrays the separation in the selective procedure of law to the advantage of certain sections without respect to others. A study of the criminology literature generates a possible outcome that much more emphasis has been placed on the crimes, committed by the marginalized groups and individuals (thus the poor), than those perpetrated by the powerful. In this essay, we will try to analyse how far this notion is true, and if true what are the reasons for this uneven approach on the part of the criminologists. Marxists and critical criminologists argue that traditional criminology focus on the ‘crimes of the streets’ and ignores ‘crimes of the suits’, committed by big businesses. Before moving on to analyse the situation let us have a look at various categories of offences committed by the powerless and the ones executed by the powerful. Assault, theft, robbery, burglary, homicide, wounding, rape, extortion and intimidation are common crimes which associate with the poor. On the other hand, crimes like white collar crimes and the offences committed by the states and corporations involving large-scale human rights violations are considered as crimes of the powerful. It is argued by Marxists that not all social classes are policed...
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...Introduction: Khaled Hosseini is an Afghan – America physician. He is the Afghan writer who wrote his novel in English in which he conveyed a message about Afghanistan before the world. Khaled Hosseini in his novel magnificently depicts of the social, economic, religious, and political aspects of the Afghanistan. He shows us how are the morality and honesty degraded by politically, socially, economically, and sexually in Afghanistan that can alert any conscious citizen in the world against immorality. He presents Amir and Hassan as representatives of the Afghan children through these characters Hosseini identifies thousands of Afghan children’s terrible sufferings. Amir, the narrator of The Kite Runner, is the son of a rich businessperson in Kabul. He is a Poshtun boy as well as Sunni Muslim and his best friend is of their servant’s son Hassan who is a Hazara from an ethnic minority. The novel reveals the cruelty and violence prevalent in the society against the weaker. The sadistic neighborhood bully Assef who raped Hassan because he was born in the Hazara community while Amir was present behind the wall but he failed to save Hassan because he was afraid of getting hurt. Actually, Amir behaved cowardly. Having revealed the inhuman activity Khaled Hosseini tries to pick up the grassroots power combat of Afghans to light. Amir did it because the history and traditional beliefs were more important than friendship. Amir says, “I actually aspired to cowardice, because the real reason...
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...IntroductionMany times since his death in 1883, Karl Marx’s ideas have been dismissed as irrelevant. But, many times since, interest in his ideas has resurfaced as each new generation which challenges the unequal, unjust and exploitative nature of the capitalist system looks for ideas and a method to change the world we live in.Marx’s ideas – a body of work collectively described as Marxism – was added to by his closest collaborator Frederick Engels after Marx’s death and subsequently added to and enriched by the writings and living experience of Lenin and Trotsky who led the 1917 October Russian Revolution.For any person looking to change the world in a socialist direction the ideas of Marxism are a vital, even indispensable, tool and weapon to assist the working class in its struggle to change society.Most people who describe themselves as socialists will have at one stage or another looked at Marxist ideas and, unfortunately, some have chosen to ignore the rich experience and understanding that Marxist ideas add to an understanding of the capitalist world and how to change it.However, Marx’s ideas are once again becoming fashionable; even amongst people Marx would have regarded as his political opponents. Having been voted the thinker of the Millennium in a BBC poll in 2000, Marx has now been taken up by university professors and City analysts alike as offering one of the most modern ways to understand globalised capitalism.But, for socialists who wish to permanently remove...
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...political hierarchy. Common ownership doesn’t mean decisions are made collectively, however. Instead, individuals in positions of authority make decisions in the name of the collective group. Also, socialism is a social and economic doctrine that calls for public rather than private ownership or control of property and natural resources. History The history of socialism has its origins in the French Revolution of 1789 and the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution, although it has its precedents in earlier movements and ideas. The Communist Manifesto was written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848 just before the Revolutions of 1848 swept Europe, expressing what they termed ‘scientific socialism’. In the last third of the 19th century in Europe social democratic parties arose in Europe drawing mainly from Marxism. The Australian Labor Party was the world’s first elected socialist party when the party won the 1899 Queensland state election. In the first half of the twentieth century, the Soviet Uniion and the Communist parties of the Third International Around the world mainly came to represent socialism in terms of the Soviet Model of economic development. Founders of Socialism Founders of socialism were early socialist thinkers who included Karl Marx, Clara Zetkin, And the co-leaders of the Russian Revolution, V.I. Lenin and Leon Trotsky. All these Pioneers identified the most downtrodden as the engine of change. Karl Heinrich...
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...Born on August 13th, 1926 Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was a revolutionary in the making. He was able to take over the Cuban government and transform Cuba into the first communist state in the western hemisphere. Castro led Cuba with a strong fist for a total of 49 years before passing power over to his brother Raul. Through is ruling Castro was a man who sparked different opinions from many different people before passing away on November 25th, 2016. With so many opinions floating around about Fidel Castro we have to wonder who was he really? Castro was born in Biran, Cuba where his father was a hard-working sugar cane farmer and landowner and his mother was a housemaid/cook for sugar industry officials. Castro’s family was considered to be a bourgeois middle class family. He lived not too far from the battlefield where Jose Marti died helped fuel his idea of his historical destiny. As a kid, Castro spent a lot of his time alongside his father’s workers which helped strengthen his empathy towards his country’s poor. Growing up in the violent Oriente Province Castro soon learned the true power of firearms....
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...How Far Is Religion a Conservative Force? (33 marks). In the views of functionalism, neo-functionalism, feminism, and Marxism, religion is a conservative force that prevents social change from happening and maintains the current status quo. Yet neo-Marxism and Weber contrast this view by saying religion is used as a force for social change, while post-modernism argues we have the ability to ‘pick and mix’ our religion with the growth of new-age religions. This is all then contrasted by fundamentalism, which looks to bring about social change to take society back to biblical traditions and values. Before we try and figure out if religion is a conservative force or not, we should first define the difference between substantive and functional definitions in sociology: substantive definitions are more concerned with looking at what makes religion distinctive, while functional definitions look at how it is that religion contributes to society as a whole. Starting with functionalism, this is supported by Durkheim, Malinowski and Parsons, this views religion as a conservative force. Durkheim split all items into two different categories: the sacred and the profane. The sacred items were ‘special, unworldly and forbidden’, while all other ‘normal’ objects were just profane, such as a chair. Specifically, Durkheim focused his research on the Aborigines. He found that their Totems were sacred (a Totem was a carved animal), and they were often carved from bull roar wood, the most sacred...
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...Assess the usefulness of Marxism and other conflict theories of our understanding of society. Marxism is a useful conflict theory in helping us to understand why there was obedience, particularly in the past in society. Marx was seen as an economic determinist, as he believed that the functioning and running of society was based upon the economy. Because of this, Marx says that is why there was a divide between the proletariat (working class who have only their skills to sell) and the bourgeoisie (the ruling class who own the means of production). The bourgeoisie cannot operate without the proletariat, as they cannot produce products, and similarly the proletariat cannot operate without the bourgeoisie, as they need them so they can be paid a wage and feed their families. Therefore, even though the Bourgeoisie were exploiting the proletariat and the proletariat could have walked away to stop being exploited, they never walked away as they needed the money. On the other hand, this can be viewed from a different perspective. The reason why these people may have not left their jobs is because they could have been in a state of false consciousness, whereby they were unaware of their exploitation by the bourgeoisie. This helps us to understand society as the Marxism theory provides reasoning on how the bourgeoisie were able to exploit the proletariat, which in turn fuelled capitalism and allowed the ruling elite to maintain their profits. It is also relevant to today’s society,...
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...Jason Lepeska Lippincott English III GT/AP-4 17 January 2013 Research Paper The Great Gatsby was a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925, and has motifs of class separation, the hollowness of the upper class, and the decline of the visions of America. The setting is New York City in the summer of 1922. Nick Carraway moves to New York in hopes of finding a job there. Nick has connections in this town, like his cousin daisy, and her husband, Tom. He moves into a home next to a wealthy Jay Gatsby, an extravagant man who loves throwing ridiculous parties. As the summer progresses, Nick finally gets invited to one of these parties, where he learns Gatsby is in love with Daisy. Nick helps set up Daisy and Gatsby, and they start spending time together. Tom gets angry and ends up driving Gatsby to his unfortunate demise. While a Feminist reading provides insight into the novel, Fitzgerald’s emphasis on the separated classes system and the materialistic beliefs of the upper class demonstrates that a Marxist approach to the novel is of more use. Feminism criticizes the patriarchal language used in novels, and how that reflects the masculinity in the novel (“Feminist Criticism”). Feminism also analyzes how status and positions in the novel relate to the contrasting man and woman. It recognizes more traditional writing, like mailman. Men tend to work towards solutions, while women work towards connecting and feelings (“Feminist Criticism”). It is exemplified in the book...
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...violent event televised nationally throughout all of the districts where a male and female from each district is picked as a Tribute. These Tributes must fight each other to the death and only one survivor will remain. The Hunger Games is the governments approach of displaying the amount of power they posses over the demoralized people of the twelve districts. The character of Katniss is rare todays society, a complex character with fearlessness, intelligence, and on a mission for survival. Different from the other Tributes, Katniss kills in means of self-defense. Katniss is not only fighting for survival but for fairness and justice as well within the social classes and political power. This character fights for what she believes is right in order to end the class struggle of the Districts and the Capitol. The Feminist views of Katniss make her unique because she is not portrayed as a sex object but as a tough action heroine who fights for what she believes in on her way to victory in an attempt to end the class struggle of the rich vs. poor in her society would also provoke a Marxist reading of the Hunger Games. The brilliant mind behind the Marxist theory was a man by the name of Karl Marx, He was a German philosopher. His theories about society, economics, and politics are known as Marxism. Marxism is a conflict between an ownership class that controls production and a proletariat that provides the labor for production. According to Karl Marx, “all humans are creative...
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...Karl Marx was a very intriguing philosopher and had a lot of strong opinions that he was not shy about voicing. His ideas on change and how he thougth the world could seriously change were very strong. Marx was a philospher that had many beliefs and stood strongly by each one. From him believing that reality and histroy should be dialectally veiwed, to his beliefs that only a large scale in an econimic system can bring about real change. His beliefs of communism and all other things became its own and is referred to as Marxism. Marxism is defined as the political and economic theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, later developed as the basis for communism according to Merriam online dictionary. Marx was influenced by many, its said that his ideas of how the structure of this society should be ran stemmed from the orginal philosophies of Georg Hegel. Hegel was once his professor, and I beleive Marx's strong politcal beliefs all started after hearing the views Hegel held close to him. Marx was bold, argumentative and very critical. Critical is a bit harsh but he got most of his points across through critique. According to an untitled article Marx was the first great user of critical method in social sciences and with this tool he'd pursue the job of sharing his strong deep rooted beliefs voiced in a philosophical way to ensure that the public thinks about what exactly is being said. Marx has many things published, such as the Communist Manifesto. He did a lot...
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...Lauren O'Grady Lenin, Stalin, and Gorbachev: Their Impact on Russia's History Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin, and Mikhail Gorbachev all played remarkable roles in Russia's history, although in very different ways. Though each could be criticized or praised for various different policies, these three leaders were perhaps undeniably the most influential leaders of Russia's history in the last hundred years. Vladimir Lenin's influence on Russia started with the release of his book What's to be Done? In 1902. When the leaders of Russian Marxism gathered for a meeting in 1903, Lenin's ideas clashed with Iuli Martov's idea of a looser, more democratic workers' party. Due to this disagreement, was complicated by other conflicts, and from this meeting Russian Marxism was split into two factions (Simkin). Lenin's faction was called the Bolsheviks (majority) while the other referred to themselves as the Mensheviks (minority). When the Revolution of 1905 occurred in Russia, widespread revolt against the czar's government spread throughout the country. However, it was eventually demolished by the government. This revolt surprised all Russian leaders, including the Bolsheviks, Lenin managed to return to Russia only in November, when the defeat of the revolution was pretty much certain (Talbot). Over the next twelve years, Bolshevism, with Lenin at it's head, gradually emerged as an independent party that had cut it's ties with all other Russian...
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...the culture of France. The biggest influence at this time was his friendship and relationship with one of the founders of modern anarchism, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. They were very much alike in personality and shared the passion for freedom that each of them yearned for. “Both deal more readily in negations, and their attacks are directed against the same objects: the state, religion, and property. Both recommend ‘social revolution’ as a means of escape from the intolerable social situation” (Pyziur 32). However, it would be a while yet before Bakunin finally took the standard of anarchism and made it his own, for his revolution in this period was still with Pan-Slavism. In 1847 he was invited to speak at a banquet for Polish revolutionaries, and the speech he gave proved that he was a great orator and helped give him recognition as a revolutionary. In the speech, Mikhail “...proposed a form of revolutionary alliance between the Russian and Polish oppressed. He emphasized how miserable the Russian people were under the regime of Nicholas I...” so that the two Slavic peoples could unite to end each others’ suffering (Masters 83). Following his speech in 1847, he published his Appeal to the Slaves in 1848, which is “...one of his most famous works” (Masters 100). In this book he expressed his opinions on bringing all the Slavs together. His revolutionary spirit shone brightly these years, as it would for the rest of his life....
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