‘A Christmas Carol is more than a story of one man’s redemption.’ Discuss Charles Dickens constructed his Victorian novella, A Christmas Carol, as a critical blast against the very rationale of utilitarianism. He detested this Victorian Weltanschauung that valued a person based on their ability to contribute to society’s productivity, and A Christmas Carol was born from his observations of selfishness and avarice as being the dominant features of British society. In an acquisitive society, the form that selfishness predominantly takes is monetary greed, and this sole focus on financial gain can be seen to have far-reaching consequences. For instance, Malthusian thinking adopted by many at the time, viewed the poor as “idle” and as “surplus population”. Scrooge, and by extension the merchant class of which he is emblematic, view the impoverished as worthless, and it is this callous disdain, formed from society’s narcissistic focus, that Dickens seeks to attack.
He looked to overthrow the capitalist system in favour of the structuralist approach (Perry, 2009). Marxists will always argue that the most important thing is the question of how a small group of people can exploit a vast majority of the population. They would study the power and wealth and look at the importance of social class division (Fulcher, J et al, 2007). Karl Marx believed there were only two basic classes’ the middle and the working class. Marx called the middle class the Bourgeoisie as they were either land owners or the bosses of factories and controlled society.
Politics, religion, social organizations and pretty much every formal group in existence has some set of values that leans towards one of these social ideologies. Both Marx and Weber developed their ideologies whilst living through the industrial revolution, and therefore both witnessed key moments in the dawn of the modern western capitalism. For Marx, he saw the private ownership of manufacturing as ‘an evil that needed correcting’, In his arguments he emphasized that distribution of wealth and aristocracy were severely flawed between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat and built cases for greatly improving the standards for the ‘common’ worker. Whereas Weber had the idea that religion and capitalism are a necessary beginning to any social order. In comparing Marx and Weber there are some fundamental differences that have to be explored.
Marxist 'critical theory' exposes the myth of 'value-free' social science. Marxist perspectives draw our attention to the issue of political and economic interests in the mass media and highlight social inequalities in media representations. Marxism helps to situate media texts within the larger social formation. Its focus on the nature of ideology helps us to deconstruct taken-for-granted values. Ideological analysis helps us to expose whose reality we are being offered in a media text.
The main theme of the works of Madonna is not theory per se, but posttheory. It could be said that Lacan’s analysis of subcapitalist capitalism holds that language is dead. “Sexual identity is part of the defining characteristic of reality,” says Marx; however, according to Hamburger[2] , it is not so much sexual identity that is part of the defining characteristic of reality, but rather the absurdity, and hence the economy, of sexual identity. Bataille promotes the use of the subconceptual paradigm of context to read and analyse society. Therefore, the characteristic theme of Hubbard’s[3] critique of subcapitalist capitalism is a mythopoetical reality.
Executives are hired to act as fiduciary agents of their stockholders for the purpose of increasing wealth (Smith, 2003). He argued that CSR amounted to spending the stakeholder’s money that clouded decision making by reducing the firm’s focus on maximizing profits, thereby placing the firm at a competitive disadvantage (Smith, 2003). Friedman’s approach is practical and takes into account the interests of both firms and society. However, it is not realistic to think that a firm can separate business and social responsibilities. According to Mintzberg "the strategic decisions of large organizations inevitably involve social as well as economic consequences, inextricably intertwined...there is no such thing as a purely economic strategic decision."
Abstract This research paper tackles Capitalism in Arthur Miller's most well known play "Death of a Salesman (1949)". It also tries to show how Miller criticizes Capitalism, Materialism and the idea of what is so called the "American Dream" in this play in an implied way. However, Arthur Miller is an American playwright who is widely known as one of the most important writers who adopt the middle class issues. In his play, Miller sheds the light on the exploitation of the capitalist society, and the repression on workers who are lost in such a system form of economy. Furthermore, this paper tries to explain how The American Dream, somehow, supports the idea of Capitalism.
Neo-Liberals would say it is too important to be left to the government; they would however say that the government and state are influenced by numerous factors such as factors deriving from individuals, corporations or interest groups (O’Brien & Williams, 2010, pg. 21). What about Economic-Nationalism though? Economic-Nationalists would take the statement the other way and say that the state and government are quintessential in the international political economy (O’Brien & Williams, 2010, pg.17). Ha-Joon Chang writes persuasively and brilliantly in 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism.
Text response ‘ in A Christmas Carol the main character is Christmas itself. To what extent do you agree?’ Charles dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ first written in 1842 is a social commentary on the sudden industrial growth of the capitalist Victorian society in which he lived. Dickens for most is condemning the division between the rich and the poor, which existed within England at the time. The novel is set in the festive and upbeat time that is Christmas, which to Dickens was no better way of representing a society that had many blemishes. Dickens presents us with a man who fought hard to succeed in business however lost touch with not only himself but also the wider community including those close to him.
Also the Tsar had created the Okrana secret police, so he controlled all political opposition. This was useful because the intelligence couldn’t give class conscious to the lower classes because they feared the Okrana secret police was watching them. In addition an important tool to control the civilians was the huge army which was loyal to the Tsar. Although the regime had some issues like poverty, mixed nationalities and humiliations from Japan, they were steadily moving from being a prehistoric country to an industrialized empire. There was a huge economic growth because of Stolypin`s reforms, mainly on grains and coal.