History Re-Read

it could be argued that prior to 1909, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti was a failed writer, and that the Futurist Manifesto was something of a publicity stunt. He had had little success with a drama for the stage performed in Paris the same year the Manifesto appeared, and similarly disappointed with an attempt at writing a novel a year later.

He later enjoyed considerably more success with Zang Tumb Tumb, as a self-promoting...

Futurism fuelled Italian Fascism, aesthetically; its Russian variant inspired a worker’s revolution and then ameliorated the early years of communism for an erstwhile bourgeois class that then had to behave itself in keeping with proletarian principles.

Today, Futurism has become part of the consumerist landscape.

Modern smartphone cameras have all manner of devices to recreate the iconography of movement established by Futur...

The claim that Capitalism is subject to periodic crises, with each in turn making life worse for the proletariat, has been central to Marxist thought since 1848, when the manifesto was published more or less at the same time in French, German and English.

The document, itself, reads like a work of Victorian fiction. In English, the modern reader is reminded stylistically of the great European romantic writers, Hugo and Dumas, in...

Here, Marx and Engels, discuss three kinds of socialism: Feudal Socialism, Petty-Bourgeois Socialism, and German or "True," Socialism. They talk about each as a stepping-stone to Communism. Each a penultimate stage in the march of history. The literature and no less the readership relating to each is critiqued with contempt. Especially the German ‘philistine’ petty-bourgeoisie: 

“To the absolute governments, with their foll...

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The German Communist Party (the DKP), campaigning in this year’s German elections had a banner proclaiming Die Krise heißt Kapitalismus! A Crisis Called Capitalism.

This claim has been central to Marxist thought since 1848, when the manifesto was published more or less at the same time in French, German and English.

That there is a state of economic crisis is something most adults living in the west since 2007 -2008 would agr...

This issue remains all over the media.

Wearing a mask to abide by the law based on the principle of protecting others is an example of negative freedom; choosing to wear a mask based on a concern for the wellbeing of oneself and others is an example of positive freedom.

If someone decides not to wear a mask at all, there might be valid reasons for her or him not to do so. They sometimes find it ill fitting and a problem if th...

Here, Mill bemoans the lack of strong will among the men of his day, comparing them to the kings of Holy Roman Empire who resisted the Popes. He then goes on to dismiss the Protestant mind-set, which, in the form of Calvinism, he detests. It all comes across as uncomfortably elitist today. The tone can be gauged from the following.

If it be any part of religion to believe that man was made by a good being, it is more consistent ...

This issue remains all over the media.

Wearing a mask to abide by the law based on the principle of protecting others is an example of negative freedom; choosing to wear a mask based on a concern for the wellbeing of oneself and others is an example of positive freedom.

If someone decides not to wear a mask at all, there might be valid reasons for her or him not to do so. They sometimes find it ill fitting and a problem if th...

The fifth President of the United States, James Monroe, proclaimed in 1823 that the New World, the Western Hemisphere, was closed to further colonization; and that any attempt by the European powers of the Old World, whether Portugal and Spain diminished powers in the south to recolonize or Britain and France in the North to newly colonize would be viewed as acts of hostility.

Yet America’s self-appointed role as protector ...

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It was not mentioned explicitly in the analysis that Lodge had earlier stated his position in a corollary to the Monroe Doctrine following the recent opening of the Panama canal, which was expected expand American shipping (both merchant and Naval) to rival and then supersede that of Britain and Germany.

In a separate development, Japan were rumoured to want to purchase Magdalena Bay on the Baja California Sur on the Baja Califo...

The Roosevelt Corollary of December 1904 was made as part this President’s state of the Union address that year. It asserted that the United States would intervene as a last resort to ensure that other nations in the Western Hemisphere fulfilled their obligations to international creditors, and did not violate the rights of the United States or invite “foreign aggression to the detriment of the entire body of American nations.”

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