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Post WWI Europe “The Age of Anxiety”
Chapter 28 Part 1
Key Questions
• In what ways did new ideas in philosophy, psychology, and literature reflect the general crisis in Western thought? • How did modern thought impact art?• In what ways did new media such a motion pictures and radio become a part of modern culture?• How did nation-states and their leaders use media as part of their political programs?
Background
• New ideas and new scientific discoveries caused many to question traditionally held assumptions about reality, truth, life and meaning. • “crisis of the mind” – intellectual crisis
• Unrestrained industrialization • dehumanizing effect of mechanization and unrestrained
capitalism
• Growing militarism and brutality of WWI • Marxist ideology
• atheistic and violent
• Questioning of traditional religion- seen as hypocritical and ineffectual
Modern Philosophy
• Characteristics: • Attack on the idea of progress and complete confidence in human reason (Enlightenment thinking) • Attack on religious institutions, beliefs, and values (Christian) • Greater emphasis on passions, emotions, senses• Greater emphasis on the power of the individual • Growing sense of despair and alienation
• Nihilism – Friedrich Nietzsche • “God is dead; we have killed him….”• Life has no meaning- there is no eternal truth or value • Man must face the reality of a cold and cruel existence with
no hope
• Atheistic Existentialism – if life has no meaning we must create meaning through our ACTIONS (existence) • Martin Heidegger• Jean Paul Sartre• Albert Camus
New Science
• Discovery of subatomic energy and particles (Max Planck) –Einstein’s Theory of Relativity – time and space are relative
• Scientists split the atom
• Subatomic particles were discovered (quantum mechanics)
• Newton’s idea of an ordered and clockwork universe was challenged
• The universe lacked a fixed and absolute objective reality • There are only tendencies and probabilities
Psychology
• Sigmund Freud proposed that human behavior is essentially irrational • Driven by the irrational unconscious • Driven by sexual desires and aggressive pleasure seeking desires• Freud believed that religion was nothing was wishful thinking • Traditional beliefs and moral values crippled people with guilt which developed into neuroses
Literature
• Characteristics • Pessimism • Relativism • Sense of alienation• Complexity • Random stream of emotions and thoughts -”stream of
consciousness” – new style of writing
• Major authors- • James Joyce, Virginia Wolfe, George Orwell, Franz
Kafka
Art- new styles
• Impressionism • Expressionism•Cubism•Surrealism•Dada•Art Nouveau
Duchamp’s The Fountain
Media
• Radio • National broadcasting networks developed • Most households owned a radio
• Motion pictures • Escapism for the masses - mass entertainment • New media became a propaganda tool for governments
and political leaders • Examples- The Triumph of the Will – • Leni Riefenstahl’s film of the Nuremburg Rallies in Nazi Germany
• Walt Disney was enlisted by the US Government to create a series of propaganda cartoons
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