Capitalism and Culture

The idea of capitalism has spread throughout the wold. It is the foundation of America's economy and is growing into other economies. Countries that had communist economies shifted into a capitalist one. The rise of capitalism came from World War II. Because it brought such havoc on the countries, America compensated by using capitalism to recover economically. The more people that work, the more money they make, the more money they can spend, and the more they can be taxed. America leads the charge of capitalist economy because they believe in the economic benefits and the social ones as one. Feminism rose too from capitalism. A capitalist economy needs people to work and put money into it. With this in mind, women are considered a necessity in the work force because that means more money can be made and more can be spent. Fundamentalism came about as well during the capitalist push. A capitalist society brought progression which gave freedom for other areas of society to progress as well specifically in religion. Most fundamentalist people believe in the literal form of their religion but with such a progression, people were able to progress from fundamentalist religion to being open to interpreting with cultural context. As the societies advance, people start to think more long term. The environment now came into consideration and the impact we as a people have placed upon it. Now we have new ethics and standards in place to protect the environment from the pollution we have contributed. People now think the long term impact of what they do affecting the environment that was not present in history. The visual sources depicted the good and bad of capitalism. One shows how globalization, the push for working to make money to spend, has turned people into becoming shells of humans. This picture is a bunch of women working in a row in a sweat shop in China (Figure 24.1). The second picture glamorizes globalization and consumerist economy with a man and woman on a motorcycle driving along the spring trail (Figure 23.2). This is meant to show how it's good to spend money and how life can be great if one works hard for it, the American Dream. The third picture shows a person with a skeleton mask and a sign saying how a free economy actually is just code for free to exploit people (Figure 23.3). A free economy, a capitalist society, where people can make as much money as they want with no limit or care as long as they work for it has holes. People can take advantage of the system and exploit others to get to a wealthy position. The last picture is just a map of globalization, a map with the countries that are the most lit (Figure 23.4). This is meant to show how the world is always moving, always busy working doing something never resting. Globalization through capitalism and progressive movements have changed the world for the better but we can not forget our dark past.

Considering islam

Islam is one of the fastest growing religions in the world. In some countries it is considered a sacred practice but in others it is something to be feared. For example in present day America we now have a growing population that is Islamaphobic. Why is that? Because people are misinformed. They make generalizations of it based on propaganda and misinformation. These documents are meant to portray how Islam truly has affected today's countries with little bias.

In document 22.1 it talks about how Turkey post-Ottoman Empire attempted to remove Islam in their politics and society. The author, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, writes about his perspective of Islam. He addresses that Islam is an important religion but in its foundational principle, it means accepting the differences of others including difference of religious opinion (Strayer 1121). Atatürk wants to remove the aspects of Islam in public government that contradict this religious freedom, including the caliphate that dictate people to practice Islam.

In document 22.2 it talks about how Iran took the opposite approach. They decided to take on Islam into their government and make it the standard religious practice. Author Ayatollah Khomeini writes a plan to establish how Islam can be incorporated into government practices. His views seem to be borderline extremists because he declares that the government should be adamantly against enemies of Islam, the westerners.

In document 22.3 it talks about Islam in a progressive manner post 9/11. 9/11 was a tragic event in America. On 9/11/01, thousands of people died in terrorists attacks by hijacking planes. These attacks were motivated by Islam extremists in the middle East. The author Kabir Helminski writes to show America how people who follow Islam are not all extremists like the terrorists. He writes about the good principles of islam and how it is meant to be progressive. Muslims are not inherently evil they just want to follow God using Islam as their path to get there. They do not want to force followers.

In document 22.4 it talks about how Islam is being abandoned. There are outdated principles of Islam like arranged marriage that are still practiced and forced upon young people. This author Ayaan Hirsis Ali writes to communicate how he was used to growing up in a Muslim culture. But she has grown to become secular and question it. He became enlightened to some of what she considers Islam's heinous teachings. Religion in general is becoming an outdated practice in his eyes.

Religion no matter Islam Hinduism Christianity Judaism or any other religion is becoming obsolete. People now are questioning it and starting to develop their own understanding of the world without the need to follow something.

The End of Empire

In today's society we do not have open empires. We may have countries that act like empires in terms of being a superpower but no set empires like the Ottoman or British empire. Empires ended because the oppressed people under the empire decided to revolt. There were multiple revolutions occurring simultaneously amongst the empires in early 1900s. African and Indian people were the main peoples that revolted against their rulers. In India, they revolted against the British empire. Their revolution was a journey instead of a quick event. This revolution introduced new tactics for change such as non-violence. Gandhi rose up and gave new rise to non-violent peaceful protest and civil disobedience. On the other hand though sometimes the initial revolution from their "mother" country can be violent and one revolution is not enough. For example in South Africa, they did originally revolt from the British empire in order to take their independence. However, the result from the first revolution was another power taking control and oppressing South Africans again specifically black Africans. Another revolution needed to take place for all people black and white to have equal independence and rights. In order to get equality there was horrific violence, wars, and there is still instability in political/societal structure in Africa. The main result of these revolutions was ultimate freedom. Freedom is great but it does not solve everything. There were various issues that still came up despite earning freedom. Once the empire left, they took away their structures of society, economy, government. The people who were once under someone that had control of everything now had to rebuild for themselves. It was a struggle. Structures and cultures changed in all the freed countries including in Turkey and Iran. New culture of Islam developed because the old form of culture was now no longer forced upon the people from the British. Freedom from old ways allowed new ideologies to rise up. Being free is something we as Americans can take for granted. It may not solve all the problems in the world but it sure a good place to start.

The Fight of Communism

Communism is an economic philosophy conjured to counter the economic philosophy of capitalism. During the 1970s, communism was the regime in 1/3 of the world (Strayer 1030). This came from revolutions in countries who were brought capitalism. Russia (USSR), China and plenty of others that still hold to communism today. Communism brought equality of income for all people. It allowed equalization for societies under this regime. However, this harsh equality frustrated some people. It kept them in a box of having to earn a specific amount of money for their family and then having the leftovers given away for their country. This is a way of socialism. A more extreme form of it. Communism had some benefits that capitalism didn't like feminism. Alongside the revolution from capitalism and embracing communism, USSR took on feminism. Marriage became a practice amongst two consenting adults, divorce was easily accessible, women had opportunity for jobs and education of their choosing (Strayer 1046). These benefits of communism were great but it did not sit well with Americans. It was one reason the Cold War arose between USSR and America. Their differences in philosophy communism vs capitalist. This war lasted for decades. There were plenty of scares with attacks of nuclear technology and military presence in colonies of the fighting countries. In result of this, it showed other countries what their philosophies were really like. During the war, negative propaganda of the opposing philosophies were shown and it pushed other nations to think through if they want to keep their communism. China and USSR ended up abandoning the practice and kept some form socialism but forgone the extreme philosophy. Documents were written in place to record the advance of communism and the Cold War. A five-year plan arose in USSR by Stalin of how to take on communism (Document 21.1 1070). Some fruits of communism were also written like personal accounts of communism affecting people through industrialization (Document 10.3 1074). Visual pieces were made to express the greatness of communism too. Glorified depictions of emperor Mao of China (Strayer 1084), a regular Chinese worker (Strayer 1083), and many other propaganda art was made to show how communism has brought prosperity and that China needs to keep it. But personal documents were also written to record the fear the Cold War brought to USSR and America. They feared of dying through the other country attacking all the time (Document 10.4 1076). No matter the economic philosophy anyone embraces, I think each should be to their own. Most war starts from one enforcing their beliefs onto someone else. If everyone was happy with their own, maybe conflicts wouldn't arise as much?

European Struggles

Europe was the center of tremendous growth but they were not impervious to hardship. Early 1900s was a hard time for Europe. World War I, Great Depression, World War II and other conflicts within and outside Europe. World War I caused discourse because there Europeans were split on the decision. Not everyone was willing to volunteer themselves or be drafted into a war especially one they may not agree with. The army men were not allowed to return home until four years of service. From this lack of support, Europe authorities learned to use propaganda to lure people into agreeing and supporting war later on in World War I. But for the second World War, propaganda did not as easily win supporters. Before getting World War I, there was the Great Depression. This was a big hit on capitalism. Many were going bankrupt, left homeless, unemployed and struggling to just survive. The Depression spread from America to European countries with a capitalist based economy. This discouraged other countries, Italy, Germany and Japan (Strayer 1006),  from adopting the western way of democracy. Then the second world war emerged. Genocide, gross acts of injustice, radical changes of social and economic infrastructure took place. Asia was the first place where war arose. It started with an dissatisfied super power, Japan but when war rose in Europe, the dissatisfied power was Nazi Germany (Strayer 1006). The famous attempted genocide of the Jews took place in Germany but other events were occurring as well. There were revolutions in the colonies Europe held. Europe had to deal with their own people they conquered rebelling as well as in fighting of Germany. To deal with this many documents and artworks arose to promote the importance of these wars. Hitler wrote an authentic autobiography and his plan to restore Germany after their devastation in World War I (Strayer 1018). Japanese authority wrote principles to keep during World War II regarding rulers, loyalty and fighting  (Strayer 1021). Beside documents, to get points across to support or discourage war, images were produced and spread. Some were in support and used to raise nationalism within the countries (Strayer 1026-1027,1029). They depicted bright colors, empowerment of minorities i.e. African-Americans and women to lure people into agreeing with war. However there were others that were in opposition of war. These depicted blood, gore, sadness, and chaos (Strayer 1030, 1032). Despite the great progress Europe made, this time period was steps of regression with war and Great Depression.