Chapter 28 The Age of Anxiety

1
Chapter 28The Age of Anxiety

• Uncertainty in Modern Thought
• Modern Art and Music
• Movies and Radio
• The Search for Peace and Political Stability
• The Great Depression, 1929-1939

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Uncertainty in Modern Thought

• Most people believed in progress, reason,
  individual rights rational human mind
  science 1880s-1920s
• 1880s thru 1920s some serious thinkers and
  artists. optimist thinking of times

• WWI influenced intellectuals who believed mankind
  violent, irrational animals
• French poet critic Paul Valery expressed this
  uncertainty in work saw Europe looking at
  future w/ dark foreboding

3
Modern Philosophy

• Freidrich Nietzsche rejected Christianity
  argued West overemphasized rationality stifled
  passion/animal instinct that drive creativity
  Most famous line God is dead, murdered by
  Christians who no longer believe in him
• Henri Bergson believed immediate
  experience/intuition as important as
  rational/scientific thinking for understanding
  reality
• Georges Sorel rejected democracy said
  socialism would come to power through a huge
  general strike of all working people this would
  shatter capitalism

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Logical Empiricism

• Logical empiricism rejected most traditional
  philosophy from existence of God to meaning of
  happiness.
• Ludwig Wittgenstein argued in his Tractatus
  Logico-Philosophicus in 1922 that philosophy
  logical clarification of thoughts so it is study
  of language (which expresses thoughts)

• Great issues of ages God, freedom, morality
  waste of time since it cannot be tested by
  science/math. Statements only reflect personal
  preferences opinions. Of what one cannot
  speak, of that one must keep silent.

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Existentialism

• Existentialism analysis of existence meaning
  of life is through free will, choice personal
  responsibility
• Most existentialists were atheists Influenced by
  shattering of beliefs in God, reason, progress
  (WWI)
• Jean Paul Sartre Being and Nothingness (1943),
  Existentialism is a Humanism (1945) believed
  individuals must give meaning to life through
  actions

• Albert Camus refused the label of existentialist
  but is linked w/ this mode of thought. Wrote
  essay The Rebel, a novel, The Stranger. Camus
  believed in Socialism, against marriage, won
  Nobel peace prize for his writings against
  capital punishment

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The Revival of Christianity

• Post WWI thinkers/theologians tried to revitalize
  fundamentals of Christianity
• Believed humans sinful, imperfect need Gods
  forgiveness
• Leading Christian existentialists Soren
  Kierkegaard (19th cent) who rejected formalistic
  religion committed to remote/majestic God

• Karl Barth sought to re-create religious
  intensity of Reformation. Religious truth is
  made through Gods grace

7
The New Physics

• Progressive minds accepted Darwinian concept of
  evolution and believed science based on hard
  facts controlled experiments
• New physics believed atoms fast moving
  particles (electrons protons)
• Marie Curie radium emits sub-atomic particles
  does not have constant atomic weight

• Max Planck showed in 1900 that subatomic energy
  is emitted in uneven spurts (quanta) not steady
  stream
• Albert Einstein undermined Newtonian physics
  further w/ idea that time space relative to
  viewpoint of observer only speed of light is
  constant theory of special relativity

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Freudian Psychology

• Sigmund Freud human behavior irrational.
• Key to understanding mind is primitive irrational
  unconscious called the id which is driven by
  pleasure seeking desires
• The id is constantly at battle with other parts
  of mind. The rationalizing conscious part is ego.
• The ego mediates what a person can do, while the
  superego, is driven by what a person should do
  (deeply ingrained moral values)

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Twentieth-Century Literature

• Intellectual climate of pessimism, relativism,
  alienation also expressed in literature
• Novelists used stream of consciousness technique
  to explore psyche (Virginia Wolf, James Joyce)
• Writers such as Marcel Proust, James Joyce,
  William Faulkner wrote about complexity
  irrationality of human mind

10
Art and Entertainment

• Cubism concentrated on a complex geometry of
  zigzagging lines and sharply angled, overlapping
  planes

Guernica (1937)
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Non-representative Art

• Dadaism "Dada" was a nonsensical word that
  mirrored a post-WWI world that no longer made
  sense.
• Attacked all accepted standards of art and
  behavior, delighting in outrageous conduct

Marcel Duchamp
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Surrealism

• influenced by Freud's emphasis on dreams

Dalis The Persistence of Memory
13
Movies

• Moving pictures were first shown as a popular
  novelty in peepshows and penny arcades in the
  1890s, especially in Paris.
• Motion pictures became the main entertainment of
  the masses until after WWII.

• Motion pictures, like radio, became powerful
  tools of indoctrination, esp. in countries with
  dictatorial regimes.

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DEMOCRACIES IN THE 1920S
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I. Weimar Republic

• The Social Democratic Party (S.P.D.) took control
  of the government on November 9, 1918

• Fear of communist revolutions throughout the
  country prompted Party Leader Philip Scheidemann
  to proclaim an republic, but without official
  consent from any other parties.

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Threats from the Left

• Germanys lack of experience with democratic
  traditions made the Weimars hold on power
  tenuous
• The Weimar Republic had to rely on conservative
  military groups to save it from communist
  outbreaks throughout the country

• The govt was given support by the military
  provided that the govt maintain discipline in
  the army and root out Bolshevism
• In effect, the Weimar govt became a prisoner of
  the German army
• Freikorps vs. Spartacists

17
Treaty of Versailles, 1919

• To Germans of all political parties, the
  Versailles Treaty represented a harsh, dictated
  peace, to be revised or repudiated as soon as
  possible.
• France was eager to punish Germany (but even more
  eager to ensure its future security against
  German aggression)

• England believed a healthy German economy was
  essential to a healthy British economy (John
  Maynard Keynes Economic Consequences of the
  Peace, 1919)
• Conservatives, including influential military
  elements, saw the signing of the treaty as a
  stab in the back or the diktatthe dictated
  peace

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New Constitution created in August 1919

• Reichsrat upper chamber represented the Federal
  states.
• Reichstag lower house elected by universal
  suffrage supplied the Chancellor and Cabinet.
• President elected for a 7-year term.
• Female suffrage granted

• Kapp Putsch, 1920
• Ruhr Crisis, 1923
• Beer Hall Putsch, 1923
• Dawes Plan, 1924

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rejoined the world community of nations

• Locarno Pact, 1925 Germany and other European
  nations agreed to settle all disagreements
  peacefully.
• Germany allowed to join League of Nations in 1926

• Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928 Renounced war as
  "illegal" except for self-defense signed by 62
  nations but had no real enforcement mechanism

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II. France economic problems

• Challenges were similar to those in Germany
• Death, devastation, and debt of WWI created
  economic chaos and political unrest

• Throughout the 1920s, the governments
  multi-party system was dominated by parties on
  the right (conservatives) - Supported status quo
  and had backing of business, army, and Church

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III. Great Britain

• Wartime trend toward greater social equality
  continued, helping maintain social harmony.
• Representation of the Peoples Act (1928) women
  over 21 gained the right to vote.

• Yet, the concentration of wealth in Britain was
  more geared towards the top than any other
  European country
• Top 1 owned 2/3 of the national wealth

22
Growth of social welfare

• Labour party rose as a champion of the working
  classes and of greater social equality
• Conservatives regained power by framing the
  Labour party as pro-communist when it officially
  recognized the Soviet Union

• Stanley Baldwin (1867-1947) ruled Britain between
  1924 and 1929. Was a conservative
• Showed the same compromising spirit on social
  issues female suffrage, expanded pensions to
  widows, orphans and the elderly.

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The Irish Question

• After Easter Rebellion (1916) the extremist Sinn
  Fein faction gained prominence in Ireland.
• Prompted a civil war between the Irish Republican
  Army (IRA) and the Black and Tan, Englands
  special occupation forces there.

• October 1921, London created the Irish Free
  State, from which Ulster withdrew, as part of the
  British Commonwealth (Northern Ireland)
• In 1922, Britain granted southern, Catholic
  Ireland full autonomy after failing to suppress a
  bitter guerrilla war.

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The Great Depression (1929-1933)

• Long-term problems within the U.S. economy
• Overproduction of agriculture in Europe
• Stock Market Crash
• Hawley-Smoot Tariff
• bankers began recalling loans made to Germany and
  other European countries

• Impact on Europe
• Shattered the fragile optimism of political
  leaders in the late 1920s
• Decline of production occurred in every country
  (except Russia with its command economy).
• Mass unemployment resulted Germany hit hardest
  (43) Britain 18, U.S. 25

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Attempted remedies

• New Deal- Keynesian approach
• Scandinavia's response to depression was most
  successful under its socialist gov't

• British recovery
• abandoned gold-standard, reorganized industry,
  increased tariffs, reformed finances, cut govt
  spending, balanced budget (although unemployed
  workers received barely enough welfare to live
  on)
• Economy recovered considerably after 1932.

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With France

• Impact of the depression didnt occur immediately
  as France wasn't as highly industrialized as
  Britain, Germany the US
• The depression increased class tensions and gave
  birth to a radical right that supported govt
  reorganization along fascist lines.

• Popular Front Threat of fascism prompted
  coalition of republicans, socialists, communists
  and radicals
• Popular Front led by Leon Blúm
• French New Deal failed
• France remained politically divided as Germany
  continued its rearmament in late 1930s