Culture and Dictators - Coursework Example

Reading Introduction Germany had undergone the leadership of Hitler, who introduced dictatorship in the country. Hitler considered “Aryan race” as supreme and had enmity towards Jews. Fascism had been the Hitler’s way of controlling the nation. Holocaust had been one highlight of Hitler’s rule in Germany. It was later Karl Marx, Engel and Hegel who in real sense understood the problems of common men and brought about principles of Marxism to practical world. However with the arrival democracy, Marxism started to fade way and liberalism took its hold in the world. Equality being the crucial point of democracy gave rights and choices to people. Freedom and equality had been concepts propagated by Greek philosophers like Socrates, and others like Descartes and Locks. However democratic government have not assured complete freedom to people. Hitler being the dictator of the previous Germany had his own rules and principles. His passion for party and country had made him the dictator of Germany. His book Mein Kampf was more than a political book. Hitler based the society on race and he thought race was the backbone of a state. However, the racial profiling of Hitler is the most disturbing fact attached to him. Hitler always had a notion that Aryan race of Germany is the superior of all races on earth. The idea he presented that Aryan’s produce great personality is highly controversial. There is no scientific evidence to it as well it does not make sense as all races cannot be related to Germans. The way he represents Jews as evil is pathetic and hence he project himself as a biased and hostile human being. The overly importance placed on Aryan race seems bit hard to accept. However, the education is needed and it should be given in the right manner to the people. As said instinct and will is essential for proper education. The Hitler’s way to educate the mass is not appropriate as he think the masses can be given education only by ruthless and fanatic measures. Hitler wants to given an impression that all thing great were produced by Germans. However, Asian culture also has varied kind of art forms and literatures and some greatest works in history. He is been a racist and a narrow minded person. Nevertheless, it is agreeable as art is the ability of a person to represent the age he is living in and It necessarily does not relate to any fashion. (Reading 1,11)“Art is a time conditioned phenomenon” One thing can be understood is that Hitler has true sense about artist and art. He indeed understands the value of art and how it contributes to the society. It can be understood that Hitler had lot of respect for artist and he definitely wanted to encourage the German artist population. He used art to symbolize the nationalism as an eternal art and he condemns Jews for not valuating art and measuring it on their own terms. The political style according to Mussolini adapting old tradition with new purpose and this is a right way of being politic. As he said, national consciousness is central for citizenship and patriotism. The national mystiques, festivals and myths are part of a nation and citizens celebrated unity with these. The nationalism is what encouraged a mass movement towards a political purpose. The masses are essentially different from mob, and the former had a purpose and passion toward a purpose unlike the latter. (Reading 2 ,pg 5) “The word mob is usually used for men and women who stand outside society, for those who through chaotic violence try to change it “.Mass movement with a secular religious idea is a practice seen in Germany and it had raised much voice in the country. As the reading suggests, symbolism is an essential part of myths and religion. It is a strong way of expression and a form of creativity. Fascism is an attitude and it converted spoken words into rites and formed political ideologies. For this same reason, the works of Hitler and Mussolini had been worshipped by the masses in the form of rites. Evidently we can see the terrorist view of Hitler in Nazi principles. Unfortunately,one can still see the idealism of Hitler in German population as they are one of the most racist people in world. Germans were religious and believed in Christianity and it helped them to achieve their political purposes. Religion and patriotic ideas definitely can be understood as the major power of Germans. Pietism has been a major force of Germans and their Christian ideology has been a part of political reform. Indeed it could be agreed upon that both masses and nationalism had been creators of German history. The Germany during the Emperor William was different and after his collapse, the country received the opportunity to fight for its rights. The mythology, symbolism and the feeling of masses are the main elements of politics and it helped them to achieve their dreams and desires. Holocaust is the most dangerous event that has happened to human history. The holocaust cannot go away from the civilization as man always has the propensity to repeat history. ( Reading 3,pg 89)“ Mass murder is not a modern invention”. The conditions of holocaust exist still now as it existed before. It is a fact that the civilized society is a genocide holocaust and even in present world we can see act of terrorism and biological attacks which is a shade of holocaust. It is right that the situation of people in today’s society is equivalent to that of prisoners and we suffer due to political, social and religious chaos. As the reading suggest, holocaust is not a modern phenomenon but had been happening in many countries throughout ages. Rage and fury always has been human instincts and is the main reason behind mass annihilation. Historical figures like Stalin, Hitler and Genghis Khan had been people who were propagators of mass annihilation. However modern genocide is social engineered and the greed of people in the modern world wants to destroy one another. They use the intelligence and technology for adverse purposes as the reading describes, the modern society is a garden where weeds are destroyed and only purposeful people are allowed to remain. Stalin and Hitler definitely did not kill people to obtain territory but did so because they did not fit according to their ideology. It is like designing the society against the will of nature. How cruel human can be? Hitler is the most inhumane person the world has ever seen who wanted to control the world. Today we call ourselves civilized but violence is portrayed in many corners of the society. Use of violence is definitely a most efficient and cost – effective means to achieve a purpose. It is true that bureaucratic hierarchy also nurture violence but in a different sense than loading bomb in a plane. The moral responsibility of a person is a result of the intimidation brought about by the superiors workers are objects of bureaucratic management. Bureaucracy like holocaust has the capacity to perform genocide. The reading is right in suggesting that modern society is submissive and has no reason behind their action. Socrates the greatest Greek philosopher explains virtue as a trait which comes from knowledge. Knowledge indeed is a weapon which can lead a person to perfection. A person who is ignorant can never distinguish good and the bad and can lead a confusing life. While Abelard being a person with independent thinking has doubts on God’s nature. Descartes has his own principles which state that reason is the only way to discover truth. He is the father of rationalism and he is right in suggesting that people need to think and find logical sense to the existence of God and the universe around them. Milton is also another writer who fought for the freedom of thoughts. So freedom is an important aspect which gives liberty to people. The religious concepts of Christianity gave scientific reasoning for discovering truth for liberalism. Religion always wanted man to be free in a way so that they can realize truth about himself and God. A free man can only live securely and with happiness and he is the one who can achieve enlightenment. The natural law can be explored with liberty and it gave chance to people to discover truth according to philosophers of eighteenth century. (Reading 4, pg.17) “ Natural law an old ideas , was given a new significance in the Eighteenth century”. Rousseau propagated that Man was naturally inclined to do goodness and this is true as human soul is pure and sinless. The conditioning of society and situation is which makes man vice. The new faith has the power to change man to progress. The German philosopher Immanuel Kant also believes in secularism where man is a moral being and his consciousness can reveal what is right and wrong. In true sense, our consciousness is divine and has knowledge about nature’s law but in a subtle manner. So we need to tune into the soul to understand our real self. But, intellectual freedom is essential to understand religion and self but the Western Churches hindered intellectual freedom. However, the economic thinkers brought out economic laws which gave liberalism in economic field. And above all government was formed to give liberty to people in their life. Democracy is an ideal way of ruling a country by giving enough right for people to choose their representative .Democracy was not a popular concept in older times, but gained popularity in recent times. In olden times, people were not given much importance as a part of ruling a nation. However, in the nineteenth century, the importance of individuals increased in Western countries which gave rise to democratic government. Communism was a famous ideology in Some Western countries lost to liberal democracy due to the equality it gave to individuals. The democracy was originated in Greece, but America would be a country which had practiced democracy in a justified manner. However, Marxism is an ideology which had an unfavorable attitude towards capitalism. The conflict between minority’s majorities is not an ideal way to build a society and this could be the reason for the failure of Marxism. The political freedom which democracy gave to people is definitely the reason behind the success of democracy. However, it is true that democracies overly privatize the economy and this can give rise to high proportion of rich people in the society. (Reading 5, pg.169)“ There is no doubt that in terms of practical government liberal democracy has for the time being at least won the battle against direct democracy”. And this aspect is visible in America where a high proportion of people are poor and the rich has more power on the society. The critics are right on the opinion that democracy does not assure material democracy. For liberal economy, modern capitalism is an ideal form of political concept. Even though there is democracy in many countries they are still suffering inequalities like racism, insufficient health care facilities, ethnic differences and poverty. The government does not proper control on many issue of the society. For a better society, there should be internationalization of economy and globalization so that all get equality. The issues like global warming, deforestation need a globalized action and the world is lacking it. And countries like America are not fair when it comes to democracy as people show discontent over government. Democracy was first experienced by western countries when other countries were neither liberal nor democratic. Now more than hundred countries are democratic except African countries. However democracy has not offered complete freedom to people. As Locke suggest men are born in complete freedom but society does not give them what they deserve. Democracy is not an easy thing to be maintained and nowadays only some Islamic countries and few other maintain monarchies. (Reading 6,pg 176)“ A democratic government can be given to any people, but not every people can maintain it” . Nowadays, all the countries that practice do not have social and economical prerequisite but claim to be democratic. In comparison with democracy, communism is a political ideology which has supported the common men And Marx and Engel has contributed much to communism along with Hegel. Reading 7 .pg.4) “But as communist the two were keen to raise the social question of industrial poverty , even if such economic development was widely advanced”. These people have literally and practically fought against the inequalities in the society. The capitalist Germany was attacked by both these men and there was an intense political struggle in the country. Marx has written and also valuable speech regarding the class conscious society. The Manifesto written by Marx had been republished with addition from Engel. Reading 7-9 , pg 9)“ Engel’s summary of the Manifesto , in his preface to the1883 edition was rather more succinct”. His respect for Marx is evident as he included biography of Marx in the new edition. The works of Marx had been used intelligently to establish the roots of Communism among masses. In fact, we can see that these literary works by Marx, Engel and Hegel are still influencing people to fight against equalities in society. However, the better work of communist thought were that of Lenin’s. The works of Marx’s had German philosophy, English and French doctrines. The bourgeois society and the class struggle had been the major concern of Communism. (Reading 7-9 , pg ECC43)“ The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption of every country”. In a capitalist society, labor class is a piece of commodity. According to Marx and Hegel, man is differentiated from animals due to his consciousness. But human being is more controlled by supply and demand existing in economy. However, Lenin brought much change to this system in Russia and worked for the benefit of working class. Marx, Lenin and Stalin are people who brought about revolution in West and introduced a new political ideology. Conclusion World has seen all kinds of leadership and fascism had been the most dangerous one. The drawbacks of such leadership like that of Hitler are that it stole freedom from people. The more of coercion on people were the terrible consequences of such rule. However with the contribution from Marxist leaders like Marx, Stalin and Hegel much relief was brought in nineteenth century. However, it had been overly revengeful to capitalist class which brought it down. The democracy had been the most successful kind of ruling the world has ever seen. The reason can be contributed to the fact that it gave high significance to freedom, rights and equality. But the countries under democracy are not perfect as it gave way to corruption and privatization of market. When one compare democracy with communism we can see that it is all about distributing equal benefits to all. The works of Marx, Hegel and Linen can make us understand that people need equality to build a perfect society. Read More