Explain the concept of: Historical Materialism Question for the group: - Is history progressive? (give the group some time to ponder this one) - Is history cyclical? Explain the concept of: Dialectics Question for the group: - Is historical change driven by the role of powerful/influential individuals or conflict between social groups? Explain the concept of: Base-superstructure Question for the group: - How does this challenge our view of power in international relations? Explain the concept of: World-system, core-periphery Question for the group: - Is America still a global hegemon? - Is China likely to replace America as future hegemon (what might this mean for the capitalist world-system)?
1. "Inasmuch as most good things are produced by labor, it follows that all such things ought to belong to those whose labor has produced them." 2. "Under capitalism, man exploits man, under communism, it's just the opposite." 3. "For the merchant, even honesty is a financial speculation." 4. "Anybody who knows anything of history knows that great social changes are impossible without the feminine ferment. Social progress can be measured exactly by the social position of the fair sex (the ugly ones included)." 5. "Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy." 6. ''The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." 7. "The landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed." 8. "When people speak of ideas that revolutionize society, they do but express the fact that within the old society, the elements of a new one have been created." 9. "History is not like some individual person, which uses men to achieve its ends. History is nothing but the actions of men in pursuit of their ends." 10. "The working men have no country. We cannot take away from them what they have not got." 11. "What is the burgling of a bank to the founding of a bank?" 12. "As far as economic theory is concerned, I am still a Marxist." 13. "If there is one thing of which I am certain, I am not a Marxist." 1) Abe Lincoln 2) JK Galbraith 3) Charles Baudelaire 4) Karl Marx 5) Chairman Mao 6) Spock 7) Adam Smith 8) Karl Marx 9) Karl Marx 10) Karl Marx 11) Bertolt Brecht 12) Dalai Lama 13) Engels quoting Marx ... context important with this one: flNow what is known as 'Marxism' in France is, indeed, an altogether peculiar product - so much so that Marx once said to Lafargue: 'Ce qu'il y a de certain c'est que moi, je ne suis pas Marxiste.'fl - Letter from Engels to Bernstein, 1882.