Morris, Marx and Manifesto's Notes

Morris Marx and Manifesto's

Industrial Revolution
A massive change from a manual labour based economy towards a machine based economy. The impact of this was massive, spread throughout the world and affected almost every aspect of daily life.

During the industrial revolution people moved from working their own land to working in a landowners factory.
The conditions were awful, lots of pollution, many people died.
This is still going on, but we've moved the massive dangerous factories abroad, to India for example.

Carlyle
"For all earthly, and some unearthly purpose, we have machines and mechanic furtherances... the external and physical alone is now managed by machinery, but the internal and spiritual also.  Here, too, nothing follows its spontaneous course, nothing is left to be accomplished by old natural methods…Men are grown mechanical in head and heart, as well as in hand." Carlyle 1829
Suggesting that people were becoming mechanical, industrial machinery was changing people.

Ruskin
"It is not, truly speaking, the labour that is divided, but the men:- divided into mere segments of men-broken into small fragments and crumbs of life; so that all the little pieces of intelligence that is left in a man is not enough to make a pin, or the head of a nail…we manufacture everything there except men; we blanch cotton, and strengthen steel, and refine sugar, and shape pottery; but to brighten, to strengthen, to refine, or to form a single living spirit, never enters into our estimate of advances." Ruskin 1854

Ruskin talked about the impact of factories on people and how it changed them.

During this time there was also a huge amount of unrest.

William Morris
"Almost all the designs we use for surface decoration, wallpapers, textiles, and the like, I design myself. I have had to learn the theory and to some extent the practice of weaving, dyeing and textile printing: all of which I must admit has given me and still gives me a great deal of enjoyment." William Morris 1883

Morris was a disciple of  Ruskin, he tried to buck the trend of machine/mass production, he and his friends built his famous Red House, he decorated and furnished it with entirely his own handmade objects, and decoration.
You can still buy William Morris wallpaper, its very expensive (which he would not have wanted).

He also tried to resurrect the medieval workers co-operative as he believed that this was better for the worker, than working in a factory.

Morris moved into socialist politics.

The later years of socialism have been described as a time of disillusionment for Morris, but he continued to write articles and give public lectures in active support of the Socialist cause. Morris himself was perhaps the greatest British representative of what has come to be called libertarian socialism. He worked for Socialist unity, giving his last public lecture in January 1896 on the subject of "One Socialist Party." (excerpt from Mary's presentation)

The original idea of socialism was to create a classless society, (in order to achieve that the class system must be destroyed) a form of utopia.

A society where power resides in the majority and not in the hands of a few. A society where none are oppressed.

The Panopticon



(extract from Mary's presentation)

After time the prisoners become converted to the idea and begin self policing. Many were uncomfortable with the idea of covertly changing the way people think (mental conditioning?).

Modern society has become "disciplinary" and has a pervasive inclination to monitor and observe.

Foucault suggests that all hierarchical structures like the army, the school, the hospital have evolved to resemble Banthams Panopticon.
"A web of power is woven around us, tracking us, dictating norms and rules of acceptable behaviour upon us".

George Orwell's 1984?

In a country that has 1% of the worlds population but 20% of its CCTV cameras and in which the number of such cameras is expected to double in the next 5 years, the parallels are not hard to draw.

Ideology
Ideologies are a set of social values and beliefs that we collectively use to make sense of the world around us.
We make ideologies "normal".
and can be forcibly or invisibly enforced
Fashion can be an indicator of current ideology.

Ideologies perform four functions

• Explain political phenomena – give meaning to life
• Provide adherents with criteria and standards for evaluating right/wrong, good/bad
• Provide an identity and orients people with a social and cultural compass
• Provide us with a plan of action – what is to be done?

Karl Marx
Suggested that ideologies exist in class divided societies purely as a form of domination by the political ruling powers.

The ruling class use these ideas to regulate society.

Marx also said that "Ideologies are a false consciousness that swaddles people against deep critical reflection".

An excellent (free!) book on Marxist Art Theory;

http://rosswolfe.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/mikhail-lifshitz-the-philosophy-of-art-of-karl-marx.pdf


Hegemony
When ideology becomes common sense and is widely understood by everyone it becomes Hegemonic
Once hegemonic more people begin to see their ideals represented by it and it becomes easier for them to spread the idea.
This explains the sacrifices of the subordinate classes in the pursuit of nationalistic goals.

The church, school or media use Ideological State Apparatuses (ISA's) (which work like a form of hypnosis) to coerce or force people to conform to current ideologies.

"If democracy is ever to be threatened, it will not be by revolutionary groups burning government offices and occupying the broadcasting and newspaper offices of the world. It will come from disenchantment, cynicism and despair caused by the realisation that the New World Order means we are all to be managed and not represented." Tony Benn (Labour Politician)

See also; Russell Brand interview on not voting.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YR4CseY9pk

When most people in a society think and act alike, forgetting that there is no other option, or not wanting to disrupt the status quo, you arrive at a hegemony.

There is a growing worldwide awareness that despite ever-increasing prosperity, society is being impoverished by mass consumerism and globalization.

Beyond a certain threshold, peoples and nations - whilst continuing to get richer - become no happier.

A growing groundswell representing the desire of people to reconnect with the important things of life, what Ruskin described as 'Right doing' rather than 'Clever doing'?

We need less focus on Profit and exploiting nature and more focus on a government that serves the people they were voted in to serve.