Author: Brynn

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Blog post/ class notes week 6

In Tony Judt’s chapter “America Has Gone Mad”, the anti-American view played a role in the identification of french intellectuals since most french intellectual circle shared that antiemrican sentiment. Intellectuals and popular classes found America to be suspect because of commerce and the business community, and also the free market capitalist activity in which french intellectuals criticized. Anti Americanism was associated in the French mind with antisemitism. America was seen as a culture that had opened itself up free for immigration, especially for the jewish immigrants coming to America from Germany and German-controlled areas. This is seen in the twentieth century in the wake of world war two.

In Tony Judt’s chapter, “We Must Not Disillusion the Workers, there is a self-abnegation of the intellectual class and the elected affinity that they see themselves associated with the working class. Because the intellectuals are very critical and negative of their own class, they seek to unite themselves with another part of society that was not as critical and negative of themselves (which in some cases ended up being the communist party). In a nut shell, Judt is trying to discern why the intellectuals are identifying themselves as a subset of the working class? Why is this appealing to them to go in that direction to begin with? The intellectuals, as a group who is self-abnegating, sees their class as negative, an empty class or worldview without a future. The french intellectuals viewed the working as a whole working community, who had a pure idealization of the working class. There is a connection to sacredness here, because humans (it is in there nature) to find other individuals or whole groups to try to associate themselves  with them (they hold the right values) some narrative that we have come to accept about them and create some idealized view of them. 

Marxism has a history of wanting to control history, who ever controls that then controls the means of production, then limited powers of the chief, and then conflict. After the conflict ends when one class is overthrown (proletariate takes power), the Communists utopia is the end result (the ultimate goal).  

The French communist party is in line with the soviet union which also plays into Antiamericanism (because they are pro-soviet). However, some french intellectuals became fellow travelers because they did not fully align with the french communists or the soviet union. The leaders of communist movements were thought of in an idealized way which is talked about by Hollander and Judt. Socialist realist art is officially recognized by the society union, where all working-class figures are portrayed as heroic and in this way workers are able to see themselves in the painting and relate to what they are seeing. They see something of value in the art because it represents their everyday lives as a popular artistic form. The working class would not understand or appreciate something like abstract or modern art since it lacks those personal and relatable elements that they tend to connect with. 

Communisms for some subset of western intellectuals became a quesi religion, a belief system that could not be disproven always a justification for any negative facts. The intellectuals appeal to marxism could be for many reasons including: the alienation from their own societies, looking for some way to identify themselves as positive instead of negative light, and the utopian aspect is appealing which is common for most religious projects (ex. Christianity). They could also see it as an agent of transformation through the working class 

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Blog Post for week of 9/21

Personally I liked the Hollander Themes reading because it talked about a concept that I was somewhat aware of but had not really put much thought into. Specifically why some countries: China, North Vietnam, Cuba and the SOviet Union did not have a lot of widely available information regarding the negative aspects of their societies unlike the United States. Something that stood out to me in this reading was a small section right in the beginning which mentions that how intellectuals traveling to those different countries tended to compare their own societies to the ones they were visiting. And this idea reminded me of a similar concept or basically another variation of this process that anthropologists did when doing studies on other cultures. They tended to compare their own culture to the ones that they were attempting to learn about. This connection brought me to the conclusion that biases commonly become a part of what someone is researching unless they can learn to separate their own cultures/societies from the one that they are writing about. Or similarly placing their societies or cultures above those that they are studying. 

Also in this reading I saw connections between the other readings that we had done previously, especially the one on Molnar and the concept of the “fellow- traveler” which I felt was explored in a bunch of different ways in Hollander’s chapter. 

To answer one of the questions that Riley gave us, I believe that many intellectuals aligned themselves with the soviet union because as Hollander’s reading says, those intellectuals are shown a carefully selected set of events meaning that they see only what those countries, in this case the Soviet Union, want them to see. I believe Hollander calls it a “technique of hospitality.”(6) Therefore these types of societies would be more appealing to them since they are not seeing any negative aspects of them. In the Aron reading, communism is placed in the “hope that the future will bring the advent of the classless society” so I guess that would that theres also only one way to get there and thats what they teach the soviet union. 

I also had a question about the nonpolitical vs political tourist comparison in the Hollander chapter which is: Can there be a combination of the two tourists? (page 19)

Between the Hollander and Judt chapters there was a shared idea of the dislike of America. Although Hollander is talking about comparing America and the Soviet Union, he says that by quoting barzan that “we, the united states, are so extensively unpopular. (page 16). 

America being unpopular is talked about in Judt, the word america came to be known as a collective term describing all the negative, undesirable, and disturbing things about Western life (190)

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Blog Post week of 9/14 summary for Progressive chapter

The chapter starts out by defining what a progressive in its many forms. Molnar says that the term progress is an emotionally charged one because “The modern concept of progress is the most immediately available term when people want to speak of history as openness on infinite improvement, social emancipation, higher living standards. The adjective form “progressive is a label under which any blatant nonsense of sentimental trach may pass without inspection. He gives another definition of progressive as an ideal of everyone and makes up history itself because it is shared by everyone, “all of mankind.” A Progressive intellectual believes that in order to be a human being is to believe in progress and have no limitations of any kind.

Modern Progressivism comes out of nineteenth-century radicalism. Molnar says that there is a double origin of progressivism. The philosophical origin: in which is grew out of a particular image of god, the universe, man and human nature, so more of a secular image. The other one is the Historical origin which has been an attempt to reconstruct the social and poplical unity of mankind after the Renaissance. Progressivism, therefore, becomes a secular concept and is no other order in the universe except the human order
Then Molnar goes into what I would describe as what it means to be a good citizen in a way. The “social man” who lives up to the standards of his environment is also a good man and in order for him to prove himself he must show this attachment to society with its goal and methods. The society itself that man lives in represents goodness and Molnar says that leaders much show that they and the people are attached to it and it fulfules their aspirations.

He talks about how Rousseau and his 19th century followers maintain that because of man’s essential goodness, any society or group, it left alone without outside pressure, finds a way of getting along
His mind is guided by general Will – which is the basic assumption of democracy, as it it interpreseted by the progressives which then becomes the elimination of power from human affairs.
Progressive assumes that freedom, being the absence of power, is a moral good in itself, used only for noble goals and in self-restraint

Americans have their own democratic system → the assumption is that free men are good and honest but will always be tempted to transgress morality

On the other hand, the progressive intellectual is willing to the use the coercive political power of the state when he wants to carry out his plans or when they are threatened
This type of person follows ideas of Robespierre – he does not pass up any opportunity for seizing power and settling a the command post
“ to speak in the name of a progressive” they voices the right of self-expression and of individual search for inner treah the free flowering of personality”

Talks about schools briefly and teachers

Molnar says my task is to analyze the philosophy, mentality, and attitudes of progressive ideologues to show their debt to a certain kind of world-view they have in common.
Identify the progressive intellectual in some of his protean (frequently changing) forms
Gives us a definition of progressivism – which is the ideological formulation of the philosophical belief in Progress as the Enlightenment presented it
Progressives share Marxist veneration for history as a mechanism guiding the ages and guiding mankind on the road to betterment
History then is one of the evolutionary forms. (123)

The progressive believes in the progress of history, man, society, of God Himself who is not a person but a product
Everything is in motion and has direction
Involvement of the progressive intellectual with the contemporary world
Molnar defines three categories according to background, aim and method
Discussion of the progressive intellectual as

  1. A liberal-humanist who secularizes the values men hold dear and seeks for the conditions of their realization in individual and social existence
    At the basis of the progressive world view there is a misunderstanding of human nature
    Where Humanitas comes from – Greco-roman idea, used by renaissance scholars to stress the rationaloty of man against the supposed irrationality of the Middle Ages (125)
    This who section is on humanism and Molnar gives a bunch of examples
    Molnar says that with the eclipse of humanism two things happened
  2. Why that sense further reduced and diminished the image of man that humanism has deprived of its sacral character and left in a mutilated state
    By the 18th century, the humanist became the scientist and the organizer of the scientific society (126)
    “Man, regarded by the consistently reasoning progress as a remarkably good mechanism, but far from possessing the excellence of his descendants a million years from now, or the perfection of the mechanism that engineers are now about to construct. (127)
    How does a humanist escape the dilemma of justifying good as well as evil
    Using existentialist humanism and scientific humanism
    Recognize that everyone shares this experience of being a stranger with him
    Revolt (129)
  3. The emphasis on values (128)
  4. A fellow-traveler of socialism and communism, for whom these values have coalesced into the primary one of the “perfect society” from which, in turn, these values will obtain a new life
    The progressive as a liberal humanist is still distinguishable by the vague and vacillating tribute he pays to the individual and to the concept of equilibrium between the individual and the community. (138)
    The progressive is confronted with a system and he becomes fascinated with its brutal affirmations, particularly when the system displays a logical approach and consistency
    The progressive is bound to be seduced by the doctrine that preaches the necessity
    Lots are written about the flux of the liberal intellectuals to the camp of Marxism; the fellow travelers and their lives
    Two main reasons for the option of progressive intellectuals for socialism in its Marxist forms, for Communism and for support of Soviet Russia
  5. That communism is a short cut to Utopia
  6. It brings the progressive intellectual closer to the history-making part of society → the masses→ the proletariat
    For the communist society of a nonalientated man – the short cut is not a shortcut but a freely chosen route
    For the progressive has a dual allegiance to western humanistic values and the Perfect Society
    The progressive only chooses the communist shortcut temporarily (will either get rid of the communist alliance or that the communism itself will become more amenable to the values of liberalism and humanism) Molnar said this is unclear (page 140)
    The force of the true Marxist’s conviction acts as a temporary stimulant on the progressive fellow-traveler (144)
    Molner talks about Merleauponty (who was himself a traveler) = who wrote that “marxism is not just a hypothesis, for which tomorrow, another may be substituted. It is the simple statement of the conditions without which there will be no mankind in the sense of the reciprocal relationship between human beings, nor will there be rationality in history… Beyond Marxism, there are only daydreams or adventures.. (144)
    In the revealed marxists truth, the fellow-traveler develops the same double standards as the Communist intellectual himself..
    Other groups hold that Marisms is a short cut to the ideal community such as the Christian intellectuals
    Tillich’s – “Belief-ful realism” – contains the negation of every kind of romanticism and utopianism, but it includes the hopes of a social and economic life in which the spirit of capitalism,- the symbol of self-sufficient finitide- has been overcome
    Socialism = selflessness – work for the common good
    Dual nature of the progressives’s attraction to Marxism
    One element follows from his extreme rationalism and the dreams of rationally organized society and the other from his equally extreme sentimentalism
    The people, the masses, the proletariat
  7. An esthete who finds no rational order in the universe and therefore no relationship between values and who, as a result, cultivates those – in preference beauty- which, although precarious, may be torn away from the general meaninglessness to become the exquisite flower of the day
    The progressive intellectual’s natural habit is Utopia → antipolics
    He is essentials an optimist who believes in the uninterrupted progress of mankind, leading the individuals to more freedom and society to a state of definitive ideological cohesion
    There are some progressives who not not have the same nation of progress and they find themselves in mechanization in teh way of life imposed by the industry
    They connact generate in themselves the progressives undivided enthusiasm for such transformation of natural beauty and character into th flatlands of “improved conditions”
    Life and death
    Under different costumes and set agaisnt different backgrounds the protrait is of the same man
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Blog post week of 9/7

When thinking about the culture of critical discourse (CCD), I thought that the whole concept would be good for any society since its not based on class or social status its simply based on whatever piece of information that one is presenting on and how they are able to prove it to their audience. We spent a decent amount of time talking about this in class and I thought it was easier to understand when Professor Riley gave examples of it. 

I liked the question that someone brought up in class on whether intellectuals actually follow the culture of critical discourse because I feel like in reality, a lot of people try to cut corners based on whatever status they hold. That also makes me think about the concept of truth which was brought up in the Gouldner chapter.  Specifically, Gouldner says that trust is democratized and all those claims are now considered equal within the CCD. (p59) Hypothetically, if someone were to present something that was not the truth and actually just fabricated information, does that mean that under CCD that falsified information would speak for itself? 

Particularly the section on education and how institutions are producing too many people who want to work in specific types of jobs. When Riley brought up how if any student came up to him and asked about getting a PhD in Sociology, he would have them think hard on that and see what the job market would be like. 

That applies to how i chose my career path. My majors do not have anything to do with my career path since at the time, I know that the job market was not looking too good for anthro and classics, especially in the archeological fields. Im on a pre-vet track and i keep getting told over and over again that we need more vets. Now especially after the height of covid, there is an oversupply of pets and not enough vets to treat them. 

In the Erastz religion reading, i did not have a full understanding of what gnostic religions were or what the movement was so googling it helped me get a general idea on the subject. In the reading, it says that the gnostic mass movement was the religious movent of antiquity. In the characteristics of gnostic movements, the 5th one stood out because it reminded me of the traditions that Stils was talking about in one of the previous readings we did. Specifically, the revolutionary tradition, where basically the world is evil and then gets replaced by something good. 

The part in the religion reading on symbols continued what was talked about in the Shils reading as well but in a slightly different light. In this reading, I felt that symbolism was more towards what it holds in Christianity. The Christian idea of perfection was broken down into two components which were teleological and axiological. The first meaning moving towards a goal and the second is of the highest value.

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Blog post for 8/31 readings

In class, we described intellectuals as individuals who produce decontextualized ideas as described in the Coalition of the Mind Reading. They are decontextualized since they are related to what you are thinking about as they provide more information on the idea. 

In the Shils reading, using symbols created a sacred object that is connected to the past. I thought it was interesting that in order for the intellectuals to remain connected to the remote symbols they needed a way of communicating with the past, which is where religion comes into play. With religion also comes educational systems because the leaders need to understand their own history and regimes. A stable society needs symbols that therefore link the societal members together. Also out of this comes hierarchies, where there is a possibility that those under leadership could reject it. 

Intellectuals work together to solve everyday problems and hurdles. Out of this comes a cultural value system that becomes apparent in every generation that follows. 

The Shils reading actually reminded me a lot on the concept that I learned about in Riley’s theory class starting all the way back to hunter-gathers. Individuals in a society learn to overcome complex problems by working together, and later on if that problem comes up again they automatically know how to solve it. The stories of ancestors are passed down through generations and in turn those stories become the sacred objects/symbols that help society to function as a concrete whole and even teach lessons in life. 

I thought it was helpful that we went over the intellectual traditions in class, since I honestly had not heard of them until I did the reading. Out of those five traditions, the apocalyptic traditions stood out the most to me. The basic concept is that evil will be replaced by good to create a better world. This felt very religious to me, as mentioned in the chapter. I also believe that this tradition shows how ideas from the past are still relevant today or found to be integrated into the ideas of today in some way shape or form. 

The Gouldner reading on The New class as a Speech Community, had a critique on Shils discussion of alienative disposition of intellectuals. In hindsight, I probably should have read Shils first and then Gouldner in order to get a better understanding of what Shils was referring to. 

Gouldner’s critique ultimately is on how Shils’ view is on the old class and their traditions (pages 33 and 34) Gouldner also believes that Shil’s intellectual traditions are more for western intellectuals. I like how he picks apart Shil’s work and then adds the idea of “voluntarism” or self-groundedness regarding one internal aspect (chosen, indigenous, and natural) I guess what he is trying to say is that people have the ability to make decisions for themselves and do not need outside influences imposing ideas on them. This idea of self-groundedness, how intellectuals take pride in their own autonomy as Gouldner puts it, therefore becomes a central principle in modern intellectuals’ way of thinking.

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Blog post week 1

I feel that we didn’t talk much about this in class, but I think it is worth bringing up since it is closely related to both sociology and anthropology (which is one of my majors). In the reading religious institutions are said to be important in the understanding of the sociology of individuals such as the way humans think and feel emotions. Those interactions that those individuals have with one another in the religious institution are what shape their wholeness as group. There is a sit of so-called “ingredients” as presented in the Coalitions of the Mind chapter, which was that there need to be at least two people for the interaction ritual to be considered an interaction ritual. For some reason that made me think about what happens if there is only one person and would that make it more like “witchcraft” or sorcery? Since those individuals would be by themselves, instead of interacting with people who share a connection its more based on objects.  Symbols were also mentioned as a way to keep that connection when the group is not together. I just thought that whole section was interesting.

In the Emergence of the Intellectual, humans have goals spurred by ambitions and social systems and groups also start to form. New inventions would then help humans achieve those goals, but at the same time, classes are formed and we start to see groups that have power over other groups of individuals. In one of my other classes that I am also taking this semester, Marxism was brought up because its one of the causes of humans continuing to destroy the natural world and its resources for their own benefit, such as to make a profit. The chapter talks about Marxism and it seems that that way of thinking bro0ught abo0ut bad things for humanity like famine, war and poverty in the eighteenth century. On the other hand, it seems once religion came along and Christianity became popular, the so-called “ideal world” concepts of peace, prosperity and unity were lifted to a higher level than they ever were before. After even more time has gone by in history, it seems that individuals have a much stronger concept of what it means to be an intellectual and their function and purpose. Even so, going forward other important concepts come into play that continue to change group dynamics as a whole. Redistribution of power and applying scientific thinking to coming up with ways to solve problems. 

Overall both of these readings brought to light things that I had learned previously or had not had the opportunity to think about at all. I also think that this class (which will probably be my last sociology class at Bucknell) will be a good rounding out of all the sociology classes and anthro classes that I’ve taken at Bucknell. On the first day ive already made so many other connections between my classes and i can’t wait to see what other connections can be made throughout the semester.