"The angel of history must look just so. His face is turned towards the past. Where we see the appearance of a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe, which unceasingly piles rubble on top of rubble and hurls it before his feet. He would like to pause for a moment so fair, to awaken the dead and to piece together what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise, it has caught itself up in his wings and is so strong that the Angel can no longer close them. The storm drives him irresistibly into the future, to which his back is turned, while the rubble-heap before him grows sky high. That which we call progress is this storm" - quote by Walter Benjamin. This is certainly a very interesting and thought provoking quote – …show more content…
After thorough analyses of the works of various historians as well as philosophers, I can strongly say that I agree that Benjamin's quote is an accurate representation of present day occurrences. Is what we are referring to as progress really progress at all, or is it just a continuation of the past into the modern day? We are so caught up in believing that we are 'progressing' that we do not realize what little progress is indeed occurring - all in regards to class, race, gender, and sexuality.
Issues of class and race will undoubtedly always be present, but how much of an effect do they actually have on history? How much have we learned from the past to progress ourselves regarding these issues? In the present day, one would be quick to say that race alongside class are perhaps the most important contributing factors to the events of history. As well, many would be quick to say that race is also the area in which society has made its greatest progress. However, upon further examination, this can be proven otherwise. According to the tenets presented by Karl Marx, history is directional and advances due to the changes in class circumstances, or, in other words, history happens as a result of the continuous power struggles between the bourgeoisie (the upper class) and the proletariat (the laborers). This is
However, Karl Marx, a German author, states that “[t]he history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles” (Marx, 62). He identifies history as class struggles which categorize the people from different classes in “eternal forms” as Plato thinks about identities. In Marx’s The Communist manifesto, he introduces two classes, which are Proletariat and Bourgeois. The Proletariat works for Bourgeois, but the Bourgeois owns the majority of the capital. In Bourgeois society, there is a gap between rich and poor, and being poor becomes a consent struggle for the Proletariat. In this society, the Bourgeois has the identity of being rich, and the Proletariat owns the identity of being poor. As long as the Bourgeois exists, the
To understand Karl Marx’s view on race and ethnicity, one must first comprehend his theories on social structure, capitalism, materialism and alienation of the common worker. Marx was writing during a period of industrial advancement and believed the basis of all social and historical conflict was imbedded in the struggle between classes. Moreover, during the industrial revolution, Marx saw how manufacturing businesses owned by the Bourgeoisie were excelling, while a vast majority of the working class (proletariats) were still living in poverty. These large income divides between the Bourgeoisie and the proletariats only reinforced Marx’s theory that history
I think self-reflection, or a careful cogitation of one’s personal work, is very important. It will help me think about my strengths and weaknesses in my writing skills and learning process, so that I can improve my weaknesses in the future and become a better writer. I believe, I have many strengths and many weaknesses that can be seen transparently through my drafts, revisions, and final essays, or writings, this semester. My overall strength includes the ability to pick out good examples from articles and the ability to construct good development of my body paragraphs after my revisions. On the other hand, my overall weakness includes having some unclear explanation of thoughts, unclear topic sentences, confusing thesis statements, having undefined terms, difficulties transitioning from one idea to another. I have learned that to have a good essay, I must revise my papers more than once because there are always flaws that can be fixed or improved. My writing process has evolved from having difficulties writing down or explaining my thought process to being able to explain and clarify examples to help support my thesis statement.
Marx's ideas on labor value are very much alive for many organizations working for social change. In addition, it is apparent that the gap between the rich and poor is widening on a consistent basis. According to Marx, the course of human history takes a very specific form which is class struggle. The engine of change in history is class opposition. Historical epochs are defined by the relationship between different classes at different points in time. It is this model that Marx fleshes out in his account of feudalism's passing in favor of bourgeois capitalism and his prognostication of bourgeois capitalism's passing in favor of proletarian rule. These changes are not the reliant results of random social, economic, and political events; each follows the other in predictable succession. Marx responds to a lot of criticism from an imagined bourgeois interlocutor. He considers the charge that by wishing to abolish private property, the communist is destroying the "ground work of all personal freedom, activity, and independence". Marx responds by saying that wage labor does not properly create any property for the laborer. It only creates capital, a property which works only to augment the exploitation of the worker. This property, this capital, is based on class antagonism. Having linked private property to class hostility, Marx
Additionally, by studying class, sociologists allow themselves a greater understanding of the apparent ‘class conflict’ which is suggested by Marx. Although Marx’s understanding of class is outdated, due to its reliance on people’s relationship to the means of production being the main influence over their class, and its lack of consideration towards the social or cultural aspects of class (McLellan, 1986), his understanding of the conflicting interests of the classes bridges an important gap between the personal influence of class on people’s lives, and how this impacts society as a whole. Furthermore, sociologists study class because of its influence over society and its structure, as Marx said ‘the history of all hitherto existing society is a history of class struggles’ (Cannadine, 2000, p. 1). Thus, class must be studied in order to
On Sunday, December 3, 2017, I delivered my first oral presentation on Janette, a peer in my Communicating Effectively course at Manhattanville College. The objective of the project was to familiarize yourself with a classmate, ask/answer questions provided by Professor Brosnan, and then share the knowledge you gained about the individual in a two-minute presentation. The presentation was required to introduce the classmate, what graduate program they are pursuing, why he/she is in the program, their long-term career goal(s), current occupation, favorite class, and an interesting fun fact. The oral presentations were done in the classroom without any visual aid, allowing you to use notes if preferred. By analyzing my 1 minute and 25 second presentation using the “7 Step Presentation Process” I uncovered my strengths and weaknesses as a presenter.
I intend critically to examine, from the standpoint of Marxist theory, the arguments for race, gender and class studies offered by some of their main proponents, assessing their strengths and limitations and demonstrating, in the process, that Marxism is theoretically and politically necessary if the study of class, gender and race is to achieve more than the endless documentation of variations in their relative salience and combined effects in very specific contexts and experiences.
What did you learn this semester? The golden question from all friends and family members when you come home for breaks. One would think that since my first language is English, writing papers would be easy. It should be, but it is not. I have learned that my writing was not as good as I thought it was. I have learned that throwing a paper together last minute does not work as good in college as it did in high school. I realized early on in the semester that I have trouble analyzing pieces of writing, I can give a summary all day, but analysis is not a strong suit of mine. Sometimes teachers believe that we automatically know how to write, we are not born with reading skills. It would be hard to believe if someone said that they learned nothing from English 111. From English 111 I learned that summarizing is not the same as synthesizing. I also learned that I needed to strengthen my critical reading, thinking, and composing skills. I also gained a better use and understanding of rhetoric knowledge such as audience, purpose and evidence. In conclusion English 111 taught me to be more aware of my conventions in writing. I believe that I have gained knowledge in critical thinking, rhetoric information, and conventions from this semester that have strengthened my writing and I can provide examples to back the clause.
Now that I have completed the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth course Crafting the Essay, I feel I have tremendously grown as a writer. Even after submitting the first assignment, I looked back at a position paper I wrote for school that I received an A+ on, yet I saw several flaws I wished I had changed.
In The Communist Manifesto, Marx famously claimed that “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle (Marx, p.219).” For Marx, the engine of history is the productive power. In every society, there
All human societies have been class based in some way, shape or form and, interpreting this in the most basic way, it can be said that in every known human society there has been a fundamental division between two broad social groups, the buorgeoisie that own and control the means of production, and the proletariat who own nothing but their ability to sell their labour power (that is, their ability to work) in return for wages. The anger and dissent over the differences in social classes has never wavered
Karl Marx, also a philosopher was popularly known for his theories that best explained society, its social structure, as well as the social relationships. Karl Marx placed so much emphasis on the economic structure and how it influenced the rest of the social structure from a materialistic point of view. Human societies progress through a dialectic of class struggle, this means that the three aspects that make up the dialectic come into play, which are the thesis, antithesis and the synthesis (Avineri, 1980: 66-69). As a result of these, Marx suggests that in order for change to come about, a class struggle has to first take place. That is, the struggle between the proletariat and the capitalist class, the class that controls
Without a doubt the lessons and exercises on time management were the most meaningful to me. They brought insight into why I seemed to be constantly working yet still never really got anything I wanted to accomplish throughout the day finished. I realized the majority of the activities I had been spending the most time on didn’t reflect my values of hard work and self discipline and long term academic goals to be successful in college. This motivated to completely change the way I managed my time by effectively striking a balance between my maintenance, committed, and free time.
“Be a reflective teacher. Honestly look at what you do from time to time. Evaluate the purpose of your role as a teacher.” (Robert John Meenham, 2011)
The aim of the reflective essay is to highlight my own personal development skills that I have developed during first semester of my module. However, in this report I will make sure my learning ability phase and what this module has allowed me to work and understand in improving my personal skills and purpose. My major aim is to develop and assess an in depth range of my personal traits as a student in order to endorse my future development plan.