Karl Guthe Jansky

The Many Obstacles of Capitalism I have been struggling with the reality that as Americans we are conditioned to become productive members of a capitalist society. Over the past few years I have slowly expanded my awareness regarding the capitalist system that drives this country by studying, working, and observing my surroundings. I have averaged an internship per year and landed several jobs, yet the roles I have played in these various companies have been largely unfulfilling. When I take a…

Founding sociological theorists such as Karl Marx, Emilie Durkheim, and Max Weber analyzed society in different ways, but all aimed to discover and bring to light how it functioned. The ideas of all three of these theorists, along with Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Harriet Martineau, and W.E.B. DuBois can all be found in the film Elysium, directed by Neill Blompkamp, a story about a society divided by class, status, and political implications, whose main character finds a way to overcome the…

In “Marxism and History” by Christopher Hill, Hill begins his article with the assertion that Marxism has influenced history more than any other branch of knowledge. Hill offers six points to describe how the ideas of Marx have transformed history and historians in the (then) 100 years since the creation of The Communist Manifesto. By analyzing these six points laid out by Hill, one can come to understand Marx’s legacy for historically understanding social class and economy. First and foremost,…

This supports item A as it states 'a set of rules laid down by the state in the interest of the ruling class'. This is reflected in crime statistics; the most common offenders are young, black males between the ages of 15-21. A counter argument to this is the idea of Strain Theory developed by Robert Merton. Traditional Marxism argues that it is increased aggression and individualistic nature of the capitalist society that inspires individuals to commit crime, however Merton comments that it…

A particular example of social fact is racism. Racism is described as the belief in racial differences, which can cause discriminatory acts – where a distinct biological group is described as inferior; the members of a particular race are commonly faced with derogatory racial based comments, stereotypes and non-equal treatment. One of the main causes of racism is an individuals surrounding factors during their years of development and education – the passing down from generation to…

Secularization refers to the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values toward non-religious values. It refers to the belief that as societies progress, particularly through modernization and rationalization, religion loses its authority in all aspects of social life and governance. Stark provides many pieces of evidence that disagree with the theory of secularization. He believes that secularization is an exaggeration that has been passed over the years - a…

Communist Manifesto Communism, where does the idea come from? By definition, communism is, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs. But who came up with communism? What are the goals of it? And what is the theory behind it? That is what the Communist Manifesto attempts to explain to us. The Communist Manifesto includes four different sections, the first talks about the…

The Communist Manifesto is a political pamphlet written in 1848 by German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It was published in London just as the series of political upheavals began to erupt, which were also known the Revolutions of 1848. The Communist Manifesto explains the goals of Communism and the theory underlying the influential movement. It argues that class struggles are the motivating force behind all historical developments. The Manifesto was later identified as one of the…

conquest, colonial Asians and Africans started to seek their identity and belonging. Influenced by powerful Europe, the idea of nationalism spread to the countries that maintained its formal independence while confronting the West. On the other hand, Karl Marx inherited the idea of progress from the Enlightenment, and created the theory of Marxism, which…

In the excerpt Anti-Duhring called Theoretical, Friedrich Engels takes a historical materialist approach to show that the capitalist mode of production is fundamentally contradictory. From this theory, he follows a trace of social and economic conflicts that occur from this contradiction. The following essay will define historical materialism as described by Engels, as well as explaining the fundamental contradiction and the two contradictions that arise from it, and finally concluding with a…