战后欧洲讲座4.pptVIP

Intellectual protest against the Cold War in Europe 1956 film version: /watch?v=I4saYE3tIA0 documentary on Orwell: “a life in pictures” /watch?v=V4s9pdL7tpA 1984 film version of 1984 /watch?v=Z4rBDUJTnNU George Orwell’s critique of Cold War in 1984, the war is in fact a phoney war: by agreement between the superpowers to keep it on the periphery of the blocs, since real war would not only blow up the war but destroy their own rule This phoney war is kept alive by unremitting campaigns of hatred and fear against the shadowy foreign Enemy and manipulation of language The perpetual war system is then used by the ruling elite in each country to dominate the domination of the state over society George Orwell’s critique of Cold War Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four prescient of McCarthyism Joseph McCarthy Republican US senator 1947-1957 Initiated anti-communist “witch hunt” leading to work bans against suspected communists in government, media, film industry etc. echoing the “Berufsverboten” (exclusion from certain jobs) introduced by the Nazis against Jews… McCarthyism and West European intellectuals McCarthyism in Europe fuelled anti-capitalist, anti-americanism and was resisted Encouraged intellectual critique of capitalism in the form of neo-Marxist critical theory denouncing insurmountable contradiction between capitalism and democracy In France, the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre declared that Marxism was “the inescapable intellectual framework of his times” McCarthyism and West European intellectuals In France, the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre declared that Marxism was “the inescapable intellectual framework of his times” With fellow philosopher, Merleau-Ponty, called for “Western Marxism”, that is Marxism dissociated from Leninist dogma (Lenin- leader of Russian Bolshevik party) McCarthyism and West European intellectuals In Germany, neo-marxist “critical theory” was promoted by Jewish intellectuals that returned from exile in the United State