March 10, 2014
HIS 236

Important Class Info
-ex cred opportunity (10%)
-Thursday afternoon, talk on resistance theory and modern democracy
-student evaluations are up

The Brave New World
-how are Robinson Crusoe and BNW similar?
-alternative imaginary world
-Huxley: dystopian
-issue of technology and dehumanization…alienation
-most or all of our human relationships are mediated through technology, which alienates us -innovation of loneliness video
-“I share, therefore I am”
-relationships are based on emotion, technology eliminates that
-technology colonizes our being
-making people stupid is in the interest of the state. Define happiness in terms of material prosperity. It’s all about the maintenance of the capitalist world system. Consumerism becomes the “soma” of the modern world
-knowledge of the humanities becomes irrelevant. The humanities makes us fully human in
BNW people only puruse their immediate appetites, sex, and consumerism
-understanding the past, human relationships
-changes our relationship with knowledge
-the idea of the state using technology to keep tabs on its people. It’s already happening

Post War Economic Depression 1920s – 1930s
-dilemma of poverty
-started because of industrial revolution
-creates wealth, but also makes a lot of people poor
-vast majority of people in cities were poor
-about 30% of London’s population was classified as “very poor”
-countryside: rural poverty
-industrial workers had it the worse
-few opportunities of social advancements existed
-people were stuck in “generational poverty”
-political ideas develop: socialism, as result of the poverty
-trade unions start to develop
-coming together of workers to protest the working conditions
-better pay, better working conditions
-working class attracted to socialist ideas
-labor party in Britain develops (socialist)
-for the most part, the working poor remained loyal to conservative party
-they were religious, was against Marx because Marx was atheist
-liberal party: also a party of social
-state has a fundamental duty to reform
-state should have some role in the economy to create social harmony
-readjust justice systems
-provide consumer protection (prevented sale of tobacco to minors, free lunch for kids who can’t buy them)
-david Lloyd George, liberal politician
-creates a national insurance bill, based on taxes
-free healthcare

-taking care of the sick, disabled, and unemployed
-everyone btwn 17-60, make minimum wage, free healthcare
-beginning of welfare politics
-liberals were worried of socialist stealing their votes if they don’t’ start being more generous
-conservatives/tories: party of commerce
-cannot question adam smith and john locke
-free trade
-support hereditary nobility
-allign themselves with the anglecan church
-1910s-1920
-characterized by economic stagnation
-economy is not growing
-coal industry lost export markets
-gasoline replacing coals
-building ships, textiles, etc on decline
-textiles: decline because of overseas competition
-germany were experiencing problems just like Britain
-stopped buying a lot of british goods
-british exports dropped by about half
-unemployment rates start to sky rocket
-10% of the british population unemployed on the eve of the great depression
-soldiers coming back from WWI competing with workers who were already there
-shell shock – mentally maimed
-why wasn’t there a communist revolution?
-looked like capitalism was failing
-esp true after the great depression

-capitalism could no longer sustain human society
-ideas in propaganda, the “victory” of the first world war
-monarchy widely perceived as the institution that protected them against others
-monarchy becomes really important and influential across all class lines
-revolution became a real threat, tories change their stance
-stanley Baldwin smith (conservative prime minister) (1923 – 1929; 1935 – 1937)
-tory socialism
-two contradictory ideas coming together
-appeal as many people as possible
-changed tori