In this project I plan to look at the inter-faith town of Glastonbury and the varying beliefs and religions which make it into the new-age subculture it is today. Then I will look into various challenges to beliefs and religions in general looking at such scholars as Freud and Marx and how religion may merely act as a comforting device . Finally I will investigate in what respects such views of religious belief can be applied to these new-age religions which are strife in and around Glastonbury and how they may simply be acting as a refuge. I will also look at arguments and so-called ‘proof’ as to how this may not be the case, e.g. miracles, healing etc. Glastonbury has been a site of pilgrimage for hundreds of years with people claiming a magnetic pull which draws creative and spiritual people to the area. It has become an inter-faith town with many incomers settling of various faiths and beliefs, making Glastonbury one of the most spiritually diverse places in the country.During the last fifty years there has been an increased interest in new ways of finding a meaning in life other than that of following established religions. This new way of thinking involves many different paths and each one is seen as having its own unique value and truth. All of these paths have a common awareness of the divine, although this is expressed in different ways. It involves going about everyday life whilst incorporating spirituality into it as not to get wound up in the material things in life. People who want to live this way find themselves drawn to Glastonbury; perhaps because of the many myths and legends, perhaps because it is where you can find like-minded people, and many different channels of which to express your spirituality. Religion as comfort. Do humans follow religious beliefs because they want protection from the world which scares them? maybe because it gives their lives meaning and purpose and stops death being the end? Also it may give people faith that someone or something cares for them and that their life and the world has importance. Freud:” what the common man understands by his religion – with the system of doctrines and promises which on the one h and explains to him the riddles of this world with enviable completeness, and, on the other, assures him that a careful Providence will watch over his life and will compensate him in a future existence for any frustrations he suffers here.” Marx : For Marx, religion was an illusion. It dulls the pain of oppression for the proletariat but at the same time it blinds them from their true reality. Thus, it stops them from seeing what needs to be done to end their exploitation. Religion is a form of social control keeping the rich rich and the poor poor.“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed culture, the sentiment of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”
Tag: Marx
The conception of the revolutionary vanguard has been pertinent in political thought since Plato’s Philosopher Kings. Indeed this notion has informed the superstructure of political and revolutionary theory and practice ever since its genesis. That is to say that there are a minority of elite, the ‘vanguard’, whom harbour superior sociological insight and who thus possess the intellectual capabilities to lead others to overcome their contextual peril. My central intention was thus to investigate the change in this very notion of the revolutionary vanguard. There have been a number of post-ideological reformulations regarding such a conception. However, placing such an exploration within the theoretical studies of my second year, I decided to examine several philosophers and protagonists of the vanguard, whom belong to the Marxist tradition, these being: Marx, Lenin and Gramsci. I then juxtaposed such theoretical assertions parallel to the post-ideological views of Zapatismo, which are the revolutionary views of the Mexican resistance movement known as the Zapatistas/EZLN. Territory & Change. My project thus traced the development of my central concept, being that of the vanguard, in revolutionary thought. Marx himself spoke little of the notion, yet the necessity of examining his thought derived from the work of Lenin and Gramsci whom pertain to the Marxist tradition. Both Lenin and Gramsci spoke of the notion of the Party, in which the dichotomy of the elite and the masses is both inherent and necessary for the revolution. Although Gramsci attempted to overcome its inherent elitism, he still necessitated the need of the leaders. However, within the contemporary thought of the Zapatistas, one can document an absolute abolition of the vanguard. One in which necessitates a ‘non-philosophy’ of listening-Zapatismo. These masked revolutionaries show that revolution does not have a face, but is a mirror in which greed is forced to see itself. They show us that we do not need a leader, but that we all may put on the mask of revolution and pertain with all those who dare say YA BASTA! (ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!)
My territory for this project is The Big Issue Magazine, which after a thorough study illustrated a multiplicity of recurring themes, namely those of alienation, exploitation and ideology and the broader issue of social exclusion. “The Big Issue was set up as a business in 1991 to give homeless people the chance to make an income. It campaigns on behalf of homeless people. It allows homeless people to voice their views and opinions.” It is essentially concerned with giving those people remaining in poverty a voice in the media but also to provide a positive image of the homeless themselves, within society. I decided to use Marx and primarily his and Engel’s text The German Ideology as one of the prominent sources for my essay. This is for numerous reasons. Firstly, I wanted to look at The Big Issue Magazine in terms of Ideology and consequently the impact differing ideologies have on society (for this I also looked at the ideas of Louis Althusser). I also hoped to appropriate his views on alienation and exploitation to the modern consensus of what it is to be homeless and in poverty. However, I discovered that it was possible to suggest that although Big Issue vendors appear to be “helping themselves” they too are in the midst of exploitation at its most sinister level. This discovery lead me to the text by David Harvey entitled The Condition of Postmodernity. It discusses the fact that since the 1970’s there has been a somewhat disintegration between the differing classes of society and this provides a veiling, a montage of fictional images, so to speak, of the community’s true circumstances. So my project therefore concentrates itself on this change, namely the modern and postmodern attitudes towards the inequality of people and consequently society’s attendance to such matters.
OBJECTIVES – To look at what is thought to be the Italian Mafia in Twenty First Century Southern Italy in the light of philosophical theories. – Take specific aspects of the Mafia thought such as the attitudes towards death, silence and their own identity in an attempt to understanding the conditions that must be upheld by a Mafioso. SOURCES -G.W.F Hegel’s Lordship and Bondage that features in The Phenomenology of Spirit. -Karl Marx and Frederick Engel’s Communist Manifesto -Thoughts presented in these texts in reference to the Mafia through the eyes of Bataille, Deleuze and Nietzsche. -Secondary reading in both Marx and Hegel. -Contemporary Italian and British Newspaper articles. -Contemporary BBC Internet Website news articles. -True Life Crime books written on the Mafia. TERRITORY -Exploration into the Sicilian Mafia; Cosa Nostra, through the means of contemporary documentation of the events involving the Cosa Nostra as a whole and more specifically particular Mafiosi . TRANSITION OF CHANGE Section 1- How the birth of the Cosa Nostra in Sicily which was born out to a class struggle to which the theories of Marxism can be applied has, over the years moved towards being an organisation which incorporates notions that can be more aptly applied to Hegelian thought. Section 2 – The transition of change of the self consciousness of a Mafioso who desires to become a Capomafia in reference to Hegel’s Lordship and Bondage.
Aims • To look at the role that capitalism plays in the running of the major record labels in the modern day music industry, and to compare this with the way in which independent labels are run, i.e. understand the goals of the respective labels • To understand how the industry works and whether Marx idea of a worldwide monopolisation of capitalism can be defended. • To look at the future of the music industry after advance such as the internet and the resurgence of independent labels and what role capitalism will play in the years to come.
• My chosen territory: magazine advertising • My aim: explore the field of magazine advertising, investigate the truth within, and discuss in reference to the changes in the philosophies of truth. • My workbook explains how the concept for my project evolved from researching my chosen territory, and lead into the philosophy involved. • I started to research a few facts and figures about advertising in the media, and then gathered some examples of the advertising itself. • Then I began to investigate the possible philosophical issues that could be involved, for example: Karl Marx – discussing the power of the consumer on ads – the ‘masses’ have become the middle classes, who hold the most jobs, consume the most goods, and provide the state with the most revenue. Bertrand Russell – the pursuit of happiness – an admirable social goal, which he defines as “a profound instinctive union with the stream of life”. And also, Marcuse, Adorno, and Horkheimer – in respect of manipulation -they formulated the Frankfurt School vision of the innocent man and the guilty social institutions. I took a closer look at Sigmund Freud who described how non-satisfaction of powerful instincts leads to ‘cultural frustration’. And also his nephew Edward Bernays, perhaps the world’s first Spin Doctor, he called for the implementation of mass psychology by which public opinion might be controlled. • But then I struck on the concept of truth. Its significance and value is universally recognised, and yet is often manipulated by the advertising industry. Surprisingly, a complete account of the nature of truth has been notoriously elusive. Whereas the aim of science is to discover which of the propositions in its domain are true, i.e. which propositions possess the property of truth, the central philosophical concern of truth is to discover the nature of that property. It is not, What is true? but rather, What is truth? • There are 3 main theories. Firstly, the Correspondence Theory – an Aristotelian thesis, perhaps the most widely held account, it states that a belief is true provided there exists a fact corresponding to it. However if it is to provide a complete theory of truth, then it must be supplemented with accounts of what ‘facts’ are, and what it is for a belief to correspond to fact. • A popular alternative is to identify truth with verifiability. This idea can take on various forms. The Coherence Theory, developed by Bradley and Brand Blanchard, involves the further assumption that verification is holistic. Another version, from Dummett and Putnam, states that a true proposition can be verified by the appropriate procedure. In mathematics this amounts to the identification of truth with provability and is sometimes referred to as ‘intuitionistic truth’. Such theories however, appear to overestimate the link between knowability and truth, for we can easily imagine a statement that, though true, is beyond our power to verify. • The third major theory is the Pragmatic Theory, which argues that true beliefs are a good basis for action, and takes this to be the very nature of truth. True assumptions are said to be, by definition, those that provoke actions with desirable results. But again, the central objection is that the link it postulates, in this case between truth and its utility, is overestimated.
A production by Gemma Madden featuring: – an exploration into the rise of marxism – a study into theatre from the greeks to Marx – Brecht’s new theatre and its aim to change the world – the decline of political theatre today ‘a view into the rise and fall of political theatre’