1. INTRODUCTION
In this essay I will briefly explain what Marxism and modernism are. Marxism is an economic and social system of ideals created by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. “Marxists argue that capitalist societies are organized around social classes defined in terms of their unequal rights and powers over the means of production and over the products of economic production” (Ritzer & Ryan (ed). ©2011:374). Modernism is an art and design movement started in the late 1800s and supported by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, and it influenced their work. I will also analyse a visual example according to a Marxist and modernist perspective and elaborate further on relevant Marxist concepts and modernist influences.
2. WHAT IS MARXISM
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto in 1848 which drafted a program to improve the lives of the working class and society as a whole (Woodfin & Zarate. 2004:3). Karl Marx was born in Germany and was largely influenced by Hegel’s work. Marx met Engels in Paris and “welcomed him as an intellectual equal and political brother in arms” (Woodfin & Zarate. 2004:8). Marx and Engels’ work was frowned upon at that time and Marx was kicked out of Paris. Even though later the Communist Manifesto influenced the American Declaration of
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Glasgow school of art’s style is more geometric and masculine. Glasgow school of art also supported the idea of “truth to materials” where exposed the raw materials they used in constructing the building (Wepener 2015). This is evident in this design where the walls are left bare and “shows off” in a way the wood and steel the used. It adds character and the Glasgow school or art aesthetic to the modernist design. The design present in the railing on the balcony on the inside of the home we can see more Glasgow school of art influence by the use of metal and the geometric
Comparison of Marx and Weber for their approach about state and society: Max Weber is one of the philosophers able to explain economic systems such as capitalism. He was born in Germany in 1864 at that time there were a dramatic change in Germany in terms of industrial so there were a transitional German period and that influenced by those changes happened. Max Weber has a specific ideology about state and society. In constant, Karl Marx was a sociologist who were born in Germany in 1818, his idea and ideology about state and society are revolutionary. In addition, he was influenced by Communist party and he worked as a journalist he wrote a number of books and articles about capitalism, state, and society.
Marxism is the idea of social science that studies how economic activity affects and is shaped by social processes. Social processes are the way individuals and groups interact, adjust and reject and start relationships based on behavior which is modified through social interactions. Overall marxism analyzes how societies progress and how and society ceases to progress, or regress because of their local or regional economy , or global economy. In this case, Marxism’s theory applies to the novel, Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, where a society where mass satisfaction is the instrument utilized by places of power known as the Alphas in order to control the oppressed by keeping the Epsilons numb, at the cost of their opportunity to choose their own way of life. Marx thinks that an individual had a specific job to do in order to contribute to their community and that is the only way to do so; There is no escaping your contribution either.
The three main ideas from the Communist Manifesto The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, had little to no influence when it was first published in 1848 for the Communist League. However, soon after Marx and Engel’s other writings on socialism became published it grew in popularity, and was considered a standard text of the time (Brians, 2006). With Marx’s radical ideas, and Engels’ thorough writing, they were able to convey how they were individual of the other socialists of the time and elaborate on their idea socialism and how it would inevitably be achieved. The three main ideas from The Communist Manifesto are class conflict, ephemeral capitalism, and inevitable revolution.
Marx and Engels wrote that capitalist globalization was completely eroding the foundations of the international system of states in the mid-1840s. Conflict and competition between nation-states had not yet over in their view but the main fault-lines in future looked certain to revolve around the two main social classes: the national bourgeoisie, which controlled different systems of government, and an increasingly cosmopolitan proletariat. Over revolutionary action, the international proletariat would insert the Enlightenment principles of liberty, equality and fraternity in an exclusively new world order which would free all human beings from exploitation and domination. Many traditional theorists of international relations have pointed to the failures of Marxism or historical materialism as an explanation of world history. Marxists had undervalued the vital importance of nationalism, the state and war, and the implication of the balance of power, international law and diplomacy for the structure of world politics.
Karl Marx was a German philosopher and economist in the 18th century. He is known for his book the Communist Manifesto that was published in 1848. Marx believed that a revolution of the working classes would over throw the capitalist order and creates a classless society. The Industrial Revolutions led to the proletarianization; his partner Friedrich Engels explained why the changes created by the proletarianization of the worker would develop into a huge problem for industrial societies. I do believe that Karl Marx’s vision of communism in the Communist Manifesto could re-emerge as a popular and workable philosophy of social, economic, and political organization.
This theory is based on the principles that the value of man is based on the forced job or potential job; economy as a factor that determines the action of society; the struggle of social classes are the construct of its history; it is also taken into consideration the proletariat and the bourgeois, among others. Marxism is the sign of the struggle for a balance between the oppressed and the upper class to create a better world for
In the first decade of the 20th century the ongoing experiments with pure form continued. A group of designers in Glasgow, Scotland became well known for their use of form and their inspired designers from all over the world. “Although the Glasgow group received a cool reception in the British Isles, designers in Austria and Germany were inspired by the move toward geometric structure and simplicity of form.” (britannica) The quote shows that this group’s work had become well known and it inspired others from all over the world.
Modernism began in early 1700s with the rise of capitalism. This was start of an age of rational thinking. The major belief of this age was to believe only those things which they could see. The idea of modernism is, to quote father of Modern Philosophy Rene Descartes, ‘I think therefore I am’(2). This basically meant believing only those phenomenon those can be seen or proved by science.
Communist Manifesto The Communist Manifesto was written by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. When it was published in 1848 it had little influence, but later became one of the most read documents in the world. It is within the Manifesto that we can see the ideas that shaped history. These ideas were new and different.
Marxism is defined by the Merriam Webster dictionary as ‘’the political, economic, and social theories of Karl Marx including the belief that the struggle between social classes
Marx and Engels look at capitalism with seriously negative opinions. They regard the system as extremely unsuitable, and are deeply concerned with getting rid of it. In a capitalist society, capitalists own and control the main resources of production - machinery, factories, mines, capital, etc. The modern working classes, or proletariats, own only their labor. Proletariats work for the capitalists, who own the product that was produced and then sell it for a profit.
Holland Arrowsmith explains Marxism as a term which refers to “a hugely diverse set of social, economic, philosophical, historical and cultural theories”. Several theories such as social, economical, political and critical theories have been derived from Marxism philosophy. Marxism advocates equality amongst the class structure of society. Marxism is divided into two fundamental classes. According to Marx there are only two classes which exist: Bourgeoisie, which means powerful or dominant class and Proletariat, which means the peasant or working classes.
A Marxist sociologist is a materialist and a sociologist that follows the ideas of Marx. Marx’s main concern was that of capitalism and class conflict. In the words of Giddens and Sutton (2013), capitalism is ‘a system of production that contrasts radically with all previous economic systems.’ It was Marx’s belief that all societies, including capitalist societies, are divided into classes, with one being the dominant class. In the case of capitalism, there are two main classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
Ezra Pound and his influence on modernism Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an emigrant American poet and critic who was a key figure of the early modernist movement. Pound promoted, and also sporadically helped to shape, the work of different poets and novelists such as William Butler Yeats, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, Robert Frost, and T.S. Eliot. His influence on poetry began with his development of “Imagism”, a movement stressing clarity, carefulness and conciseness of language. Modernism is a movement that arose from wide-scale and far-reaching transformations in Western society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Modernism rejected the certainty of Enlightenment thinking.
The start of modernism being the Pioneer Phase took place between the middle of the First World War and the crucial movements from 1929 to 1933, early 1930s being know as the International Style. Pioneer Phase is a chain of variations and individuals who took charge to the problems faced when dealing with the appropriate design that would symbolise the twentieth century. They did so by focusing on three core elements of design, architecture, graphics and furniture.(P.Greenhalgh,1990, p. 91) The Pioneer Phase could simply be classified as a collaboration of ideas in which designers envisioned how the world could create a way in which improves the “material conditions” and mould the consciousness of humankind.(P.Greenhalgh,1990, p. 3). Modernism