1. What specific development in Hunan province reinforced Mao’s convictions about the peasantry as a revolutionary force?…
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, as it helps to explain why many people who are in a hard laboured, low paid job (e.g. Factory workers) do not leave, despite hating their job, and this is because they need the money to survive.…
Although social conflict theories such as Marxism and feminism clearly have their weaknesses, as all sociological theories do, it is unreasonable to say that they are ‘irrelevant’ to an understanding of modern society, as a large amount of contemporary sociological research has its roots in conflict theory in some way.…
Throughout time, rulers and controlling governments have used the ideas of Marxism to take and maintain control over the working class. Even today ideas such as classism and commodification are used in countries such as North Korea and Syria to help governments rule over their citizens. In George Orwell’s 1984 the ideas of Marxism are used to oppress proletariats. The Party tricks the citizens of Oceania into thinking that their propaganda benefits the working class, classism is used as a means of allowing the Party and its associates more power and control than the average citizen, and people under the Party’s rule are commoditized physically and psychologically so as to not questions their totalitarian government.…
Marxism is an ideology based on the economic and political theories of Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels. Karl Marx who was born in Germany in 1818 was a revolutionary whose ideas on society were the foundation of communism. Under modern capitalism the means of production, such as factories, land, and technology are controlled by a small minority who Marx called the bourgeoisie. Production is carried out by the working class, known as the proletarians who have to sell their labour or face poverty or starvation. Taken together these two classes form the economic base of society, what Marx called the substructure. Marx saw that there was conflict between these two divisions and that this could only be resolved by a revolution, which would lead to a classless society, where the means of production would be held collectively. All Marx’s theories use social class as a starting point for analysis. In this essay we will explore two areas where Marx’s theories have had influence, crime and deviance and education. Marx saw the bourgeoisie as controlling these institutions. Marxists believe that these institutions form part of the superstructure of society with the economy as its base.…
Daly, Glyn. "Marxism and Postmarxism." Year 's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory (2002): 14-25.…
Marx developed the idea of Marxism (a conflict theory between Upper and Lower social classes) in the 18th Century, when social classes were very clearly defined- the ‘Bourgeois’ and the ‘Proletariat’. For this very reason, what is known as ‘Traditional Marxism’ is now quite evidently outdated, mainly due to the emergence of the ‘Middle Class’ throughout the 20th Century and the ‘Digital Revolution’ also in the late 20th and 21st Century, which has blurred the lines between the different social classes, particularly the ‘Digital Revolution’ which has seen the birth of the Post-Modernist theory of Pick ’n’ Mix Identity, in effect allowing people to ‘choose’ their ‘Class’. Due to these reasons, Marxism has developed and produced more relevant theories.…
Society has now entered a postmodern age and we need to understand it. Assess this view. (33marks)…
The novella, “Brave New World,” by Aldous Huxley, introduces a futuristic world in which there are different social classes in order to keep a happy society and taught nothing else other than what the people of the world need to know. The world is meant to keep people all over happy and create no issues. The author throughout the book connects this with Marxist theory. This can be shown through the different social classes that there are in the book. There are significant differences between the classes throughout including, the condemnation of social classes, the different ends of the spectrum each class is on, and the idea that society is more important than the individuals within it.…
Karl Marx, the founder of Marxism, believed that in an industrialized society the working class would revolt and take over the ruling class, which would in effect create a classless society, taking everyone back to zero. Marx’s concepts are simple: in order to grasp the true meaning of happiness, people must separate themselves from their materialistic tendencies as well as each in order to refocus on themselves as individuals, much as Tyler Durden displays in the movie Fight Club. Although critically acclaimed by The New York Times to be a “sardonic testosterone-fueled science fiction” (New York Times 1999), the film Fight Club, actually takes it root in many of Karl Marx’s beliefs. Despite the films underlying indications of Tyler Durden’s Marxist ideas, many viewers don’t pick up on the similarities and leave them to go unnoticed. Viewers of the film need to understand that Marxism is the leading internal influence in film Fight Club and that Tyler Durden, is in fact, a Marxist.…
Throughout the ages of mankind, economics has deeply influenced societies and governments. Feudalism, a government which is ruled by a king or queen, was the primary system throughout the world. These monarchies were terrible and eventually the citizens rebelled and overthrough the system. After putting an end to feudalism, the people were in need of a new system. During the 1700’s utopian ideolgies such as capitalism, communism, and socialism emerged. These three systems help society greatly and helped strengthen governments until the late 1900’s.…
The world as it is today and even as it was in the past has always been constructed and influenced by society. As one looks back throughout history, human beings have always been part of society as a whole, which therefore means that the idea of the individual has strongly depended upon it. This controversial issue is put forward by Marx, who says that human beings think that they exist as free individuals, that they are “free” from the so called social world, but it is in actual fact society in itself that generates that belief (Gundrisse: pp.84). What one would take for granted as concrete fact is really just a concentration of social forces, which inadvertently means that one cannot take any observation as the truth. All in all, Marx indicates that that everything- even ones values- are influenced by society and the entity that frames our values entirely is capital. In this essay I will focus on this assumption put forward by Marx, how objects have moved from having not only a use value but an exchange value as well, as well as its relationship to “commodity fetishism”.…
* Analyze To what extent does the narrative (characters/ events /settings/ themes) reflect or propagate capitalist ideologies or critique them?…
Marxism started in its early years as an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry centered upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis–critique of the development of capitalism. In the early-to-mid 19th century, the intellectual development of Marxism was pioneered by two German philosophers, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. As an ideology, Marxism encompasses an economic theory, a sociological theory, and a revolutionary view of social change.…
However modern Marxists reject the above arguments and argue instead that the Marxist critique of capitalism is still relevant in the C21st . Thus modern Marxists and others have challenged all of the above theories of post-capitalism and continue to argue that despite theories of the managerial revolution, democratic pluralism significant changes in class structure that even nowadays that the rich continue to exercise massive economic and political power. Among the criticisms made by Marxists of post-capitalist theories are the following:…