WESTERN MARXISM and the

FRANKFURT SCHOOL

KEY ISSUES1. What happened to Marxism after Marx?

2. Multiple different Marxisms

3. Changing nature of Western societies

- Why has the revolution not yet happened?

4. New types of Marxism: - FOR understanding new social conditions- Produced BY new social conditions

History after Marx

• Marx dies in 1883

• Marx’s legacy:

- Intellectual: social theory

- Practical: Socialist movement

(“The International”)

Changing social conditions in the West

1880s to 1930s

1) Appearance of mass media (esp. cheap newspapers) and mass leisure

- Cinema (beginnings of ‘celebrityculture’; beginnings of

‘Americanization’)- Radio (possibilities for propaganda:

Mussolini)

2) Rising working class standards of living

Development of welfare state

Beginnings of mass consumerism

(e.g. USA: mass car ownership by 1930s)

3) Crises in capitalism

Wall Street Crash, 1929 - Large number of businesses go bust- Many capitalists ruined- Mass unemployment- Hyper-inflation

4) Challenges to capitalism

- Communist revolution in Russia, 1917- Increased popularity of Fascism:

Hitler wins power in Germany, 1933

“EASTERN MARXISM”Marxism in the Soviet Union (USSR)

Russian Revolution, 1917

Communist Party attempts to foster democracy

VERSUSCommunist Party keeps all power for

itself

Death of Lenin, 1924

“WESTERN MARXISM”Response in Western

Europe to the Soviet Union

1) Admiration & emulation by some

2) Increasing distrust of Stalin by others

- More information becomes available

- Not communism but totalitarianism

- By late 1930s, Stalin the mirror-image of Hitler

Need to develop a new sort of Marxism:

1) More flexible: not just base creates superstructure (“mechanistic Marxism”)

2) Not a state religion; not dogmatic

- could criticise Communist Party and USSR

3) Attuned to new social conditions

4) DOESN’T claim Communism would emerge inevitably;

- the revolution depends on circumstances

WESTERN MARXISM’S TWO QUESTIONS:

1) Why has the Revolution not yet happened?Physical repression: armed forceIdeological repression: dominant ideologies

Marx: “culture” not very important; merely part of the social superstructure

Western Marxism: “culture” very important; controls how the working classes think

2) What forces are emerging in society that can lead to Revolution?

WESTERN MARXISM and the FRANKFURT SCHOOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lkUeQMQAp4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8QqdWclgww&feature=endscreen

The Frankfurt School - Members• Institute for Social Research

University of Frankfurt, 1923

• Multi-disciplinary membership:

Max Horkheimer (philosophy)

Theodor Adorno (philosophy and musicology)

Walter Benjamin (philosophy and literature)

Herbert Marcuse (Freudian psychology)

“Critical Theory”Sources:

1) Marx; 2) Max Weber; 3) Sigmund Freud

Following Marx:

Most sorts of social science see only the surface of society

Must find the hidden workings of society

Frankfurt: against positivism

- “scientific” sociology / Durkheim

- can only see surface-level things

Updating of Marx

1) Must avoid the flaws of other sorts of sociological theory:

BOTH Theoretical AND Practical

BOTH Theory AND Data

2) Must avoid flaws of “Eastern Marxism”:

- must be open to being corrected by evidence

- must change as society changes

Frankfurt view of “Total administration”

- dominance of instrumental rationality

- complete bureaucratic control

The main bureaucracies:

1) The State

2) Capitalist Economy (Monopoly Capitalism)

3) Leisure industries & mass media

Mass MediaAdorno and HorkheimerThe “Culture Industry”Mass Culture: standardised culturefor “the masses”

1. Propagates dominant ideologies- audiences influenced- conformist thinking and behaviour

2. Pacifies the populace- superficial pleasures- a break from unfulfilling jobs

3. Outcome: capitalist system reproduced over time

Sigmund Freud

1) Social shaping of individual psychology

- “blank slate”

Frankfurt view (Fromm; Adorno): - psychology shaped by dominant

ideologies e.g. capitalist ideologies

- these make people passive and conformist

Social shaping of collective psychology

- a social group e.g. the capitalist class

- a whole society e.g. capitalist society

All societies need to repress individuals’ natural, biological instincts

- sex drives - violent tendencies - uncontrolled egotism &

selfishness

Modern Western (capitalist) societies repress natural instincts very much

PROBLEM - Too much repression:

a) Individual becomes “neurotic”

- Individual is psychologically sick

b) The whole society becomes “neurotic”

- The whole society is psychologically sick

Frankfurt view (Herbert Marcuse – 1960s):1) Capitalist society overly represses natural

instincts2) Individuals in capitalist society are made

neurotic e.g. craving wealth & fame3) The whole society is neurotice.g. happiness = consumer goods4) Encouragement of worst human traits: a) Greed b) Seeing others as objects to be

used c) Hatred of ‘foreigners’ and ‘outsiders’5) Solution: Critical Theory as therapy –

makes society realise its own sickness