During this past semester I have learned how to survive when I get to college. In this class, we had blogs due every Friday for every week forcing me to spend my time wisely. These blogs have also kept my information very organized and I feel as though I am a ten times better student than last year.
This last semester has also taught me a lot about research. I now know that in order to completely know your topic, you must know and research every angle of it. All the way from films to photographs, you must know every angle of your topic. Also, writing and reading about my topic was ten times easier because I could actually understand what the writers were saying. I have also found out that I hate non-fiction readings unless if I am completely interested in the topic. That was probably the most challenging part of the blogs, reading Communist Manifesto was very boring and the language they used was hard to understand at times. I am fairly happy I chose the Berlin Wall to study because I knew nothing about the Cold War and the Berlin Wall before this. I also feel like I am very knowledgeable with the idea of communism now and that will stick with me forever.
I am happy that I can now say I know about the Cold War and the events that happened around the world during that time like the Vietnam War and the Cuban Missile Crisis. This project has taught me so much about how I need to use my time and how you must do your work if you expect to achieve.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Manifesto of the Communist Party
aI read the Communist Manifesto written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848 expressing the views from communists all over the world and put together into one book to explain why it is good for countries and the world as a whole. This book was written for one reason only and that was to promote communism throughout Europe and more importantly, throughout the world. After this book was written, the Soviet Union was created because of the ideas that Marx expressed in this book.
Over the last one hundred years this book has been looked at as the book that started several wars and several decades of difficult living in Russia and eastern Europe. On the other hand, this book has been looked at as the Bible for freedom fighters and socialists around the world for it's description of a well balanced and perfect life. Karl Marx was definitely a revolutionist and created tension for the political powers who wanted to control the world. The only thing this book wasn't expecting after its release was for Russia to turn into a total dictatorship and for lives to be wasted over the protection of one man's power. This book is a very credible source because it is the heart and brain behind communism. This book was the start of the Communist revolution and the base for every communist country since. This book is completely biased because it was only written to explain how communism is perfect and how it would trump other political systems in the future.
The book starts out by explaining in depth on how Europe is going down hill economically and socially and that something must be done about it. It states that Europe "has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation." It goes into depth about the troubles and hard times that the world is and will face during the years to come. He explains how the rigors of the world can all be healed by the power of communism. Then Marx goes into explaining the history and how Europe has gotten to where it was and how the problem could be fixed. He speaks about the Communist party and compares it to the current Proletarian party at the time and how communism could fix everything and make the world a peaceful place instead of a place that wages war. Then he ends it encouraging people especially workers to stand up and do something about it. He tries to 'pump up' the working class saying, "we shall have an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all" and finishes it by saying that the Proletarians "have nothing to lose but their chains" which I think expresses perfectly how Marx feels.
This book wasn't exactly written for somebody who wants a fun and interesting story, but more to inspire people to stand up and unite and be optimistic about a perfect world. Marx uses incentive to persuade people that something must be done about the world. The Manifesto wasn't a fun read either, but it was very interesting because it ties directly into my topic and I learned a lot of the ideas behind communism. The book was also very hard to understand at times especially since it was written in the 1800s and some political groups that are mentioned several times simply do not exist anymore.
This book didn't really have any special style other than it was informational spit out fact after fact. I guess it was almost a propaganda book since it persuaded a whole revolution to occur in Russia. It also gave me a ton of historical information that I had never even heard before such as political leaders and the word bourgeois which was the word for the class of modern capitalists at the time. By reading this book, not only has my comprehension grown, but also my knowledge of how people lived and how they viewed their world and government.
I think this book is a must read for anybody who is ever interested in communism and equal rights for everyone, wasn't that in fact what our Martin Luther King Jr. was also striving for. Everybody always views communism in such a bad sense when all they ever really wanted was a peaceful place to live and equal rights and opportunities among the people. This book gives the other side to a hard topic to grasp at time, communism may only be a dream, but only time will tell how perfect our world can get.
Over the last one hundred years this book has been looked at as the book that started several wars and several decades of difficult living in Russia and eastern Europe. On the other hand, this book has been looked at as the Bible for freedom fighters and socialists around the world for it's description of a well balanced and perfect life. Karl Marx was definitely a revolutionist and created tension for the political powers who wanted to control the world. The only thing this book wasn't expecting after its release was for Russia to turn into a total dictatorship and for lives to be wasted over the protection of one man's power. This book is a very credible source because it is the heart and brain behind communism. This book was the start of the Communist revolution and the base for every communist country since. This book is completely biased because it was only written to explain how communism is perfect and how it would trump other political systems in the future.
The book starts out by explaining in depth on how Europe is going down hill economically and socially and that something must be done about it. It states that Europe "has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation." It goes into depth about the troubles and hard times that the world is and will face during the years to come. He explains how the rigors of the world can all be healed by the power of communism. Then Marx goes into explaining the history and how Europe has gotten to where it was and how the problem could be fixed. He speaks about the Communist party and compares it to the current Proletarian party at the time and how communism could fix everything and make the world a peaceful place instead of a place that wages war. Then he ends it encouraging people especially workers to stand up and do something about it. He tries to 'pump up' the working class saying, "we shall have an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all" and finishes it by saying that the Proletarians "have nothing to lose but their chains" which I think expresses perfectly how Marx feels.
This book wasn't exactly written for somebody who wants a fun and interesting story, but more to inspire people to stand up and unite and be optimistic about a perfect world. Marx uses incentive to persuade people that something must be done about the world. The Manifesto wasn't a fun read either, but it was very interesting because it ties directly into my topic and I learned a lot of the ideas behind communism. The book was also very hard to understand at times especially since it was written in the 1800s and some political groups that are mentioned several times simply do not exist anymore.
This book didn't really have any special style other than it was informational spit out fact after fact. I guess it was almost a propaganda book since it persuaded a whole revolution to occur in Russia. It also gave me a ton of historical information that I had never even heard before such as political leaders and the word bourgeois which was the word for the class of modern capitalists at the time. By reading this book, not only has my comprehension grown, but also my knowledge of how people lived and how they viewed their world and government.
I think this book is a must read for anybody who is ever interested in communism and equal rights for everyone, wasn't that in fact what our Martin Luther King Jr. was also striving for. Everybody always views communism in such a bad sense when all they ever really wanted was a peaceful place to live and equal rights and opportunities among the people. This book gives the other side to a hard topic to grasp at time, communism may only be a dream, but only time will tell how perfect our world can get.
The Great Debate, a little late
As most people know, Communism still exists in our world today, some people still agree with it and some or lots do not. Communism moments have won several countries across the world and mainly in Africa and Asia.
The big debate between the two sides however is whether communism is good thing and how it relates to democracy as a governing tool. The idea of communism is hard for people such as Americans to understand sometimes because it introduces the idea that everybody is equal and there is no groups or minorities in a communism driven country. One side of the spectrum believes this is impossible however and they have proof to back it up even. There is no possible way that everyone can be economically equal in any country because how would anybody be able to govern them, they would have to govern themselves and have so many rules that make it so the neighbor to your left has just as many possessions as the neighbor to your right. "This is never possible because humans always have the desire to be better and achieve greater standing."(Aslund, 1997) Also, in Soviet Russia, Stalin gained power and prevented the Soviet people too much but taking out his competition for the rule of Russia. Communism allowed him to create special secret police forces such as the KGB to take out people going against him keeping the Russian people living in fear of speaking out and going against him.
There is not much of a plus side when looking at communism however it seems like China is doing okay at the moment. Russia could have succeeded with their government yet the leaders were given too much power and the economic to a huge fall during the Cold War because few goods were going in and out of the country. Do not get any of this wrong though, the idea of communism gives hope to people that there could be a perfect world and that capitalism will be taken out by socialism in the future. The course of our future according to Karl Marx is determined by the clash of opposing forces rooted in the economic system and the ownership of property.(Barrett, 1999)
There is no right or wrong when comparing government ideas and the way countries work, only personal opinions and history shows what has proved to work and what has failed. There is no way to know what our future holds for the world and for our democracy; only time will tell.
Aslund, Anders, Russia after Communism (1997)
Barrett, Thomas, ed., China, Marxism, and Democracy (1999)
The big debate between the two sides however is whether communism is good thing and how it relates to democracy as a governing tool. The idea of communism is hard for people such as Americans to understand sometimes because it introduces the idea that everybody is equal and there is no groups or minorities in a communism driven country. One side of the spectrum believes this is impossible however and they have proof to back it up even. There is no possible way that everyone can be economically equal in any country because how would anybody be able to govern them, they would have to govern themselves and have so many rules that make it so the neighbor to your left has just as many possessions as the neighbor to your right. "This is never possible because humans always have the desire to be better and achieve greater standing."(Aslund, 1997) Also, in Soviet Russia, Stalin gained power and prevented the Soviet people too much but taking out his competition for the rule of Russia. Communism allowed him to create special secret police forces such as the KGB to take out people going against him keeping the Russian people living in fear of speaking out and going against him.
There is not much of a plus side when looking at communism however it seems like China is doing okay at the moment. Russia could have succeeded with their government yet the leaders were given too much power and the economic to a huge fall during the Cold War because few goods were going in and out of the country. Do not get any of this wrong though, the idea of communism gives hope to people that there could be a perfect world and that capitalism will be taken out by socialism in the future. The course of our future according to Karl Marx is determined by the clash of opposing forces rooted in the economic system and the ownership of property.(Barrett, 1999)
There is no right or wrong when comparing government ideas and the way countries work, only personal opinions and history shows what has proved to work and what has failed. There is no way to know what our future holds for the world and for our democracy; only time will tell.
Aslund, Anders, Russia after Communism (1997)
Barrett, Thomas, ed., China, Marxism, and Democracy (1999)
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