Categories
2009 Abstracts Stage 3

Zeitgeist: Addendum

Supporting the Zeitgeist movement is the ‘Venus Project’ which is becoming increasingly popular with online circles and demonstrates the flaws of capitalism and the ways in which we can use new technology to rebuild society and make humanity more efficient. Many people are labelling the Zeitgeist movement as the new Marxist movement with many different stances providing various angles on the whole concept. Essentially I am examining Zeitgeist Addendum and the Venus Project, and then will compare and contrast this with the works of Marx, mainly concentrating on his anti-capitalism views. I want to determine how similar the work of Marx is to that of Peter Joseph and make a decision as to whether this is a good idea or bad in the way it could be highly improbable with undertones of communism. I will also explore the similarities of Zeitgeist to the work of Adorno, which stresses how the late capitalist society is deceptive in its nature.

Categories
2009 Abstracts Stage 2

The Student Search for the Sacred: a Study into Bataillean Transgression and Time-Wasting Amongst Newcastle Undergraduates

For George Bataille, human beings have a natural desire to both create and destroy. This dualism can be considered a balance of time spent productively and time wasted. Modern Capitalist culture gives less room than ever for destruction and time‐wasting. As a result of this, the modern human being finds strange new ways to accommodate his desire to transgress the social dogma of spending time usefully. Could binge drinking and drug abuse be examples of such transgression? The Newcastle undergraduate, newly expected to manage his time effectively, is a fascinating example to study under the Bataillean spotlight. My Stage 2 Project shall take the concepts of radical French thinker George Bataille, and assess to what extent his theory can account for alcohol and drug abuse within Newcastle University students. This aspect of student behaviour will be examined under the Bataillean spotlight of transgression and taboos.