Men make their own history
Write an essay, four pages in length (double spaced, times new roman), on one of the following quotations. In your essay, explain the concept to which the quotation refers, apply it to any modern socio-political or economic situation and argue for, or against the utility of the concept as an accurate interpretation of the situation.
1. “The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere”
2. “The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his ‘natural superiors’, and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous ‘cash payment’.”
3. “With the change of the economic foundation the entire immense superstructure is more or less rapidly transformed. In considering such transformations the distinction should always be made between the material transformation of production which can be determined with the precision of natural science, and the legal, political, religious, aesthetic or philosophic-in short, ideological-forms in which men become conscious of this conflict and fight it out.”
4. “The mode of production in material life determines the general character of the social, political and spiritual processes of life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but on the contrary, their social existence determines their consciousness.”
5. “That which exists for me through the medium of money, the which I can pay for, that I am, the possessor of the money. My own power is as great as the power of money. The properties of money are my own (the possessor’s) properties and faculties. What I am and can do is, therefore, not at all determined by my individuality.”
6. “Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.”
Answer preview to men make their own history
APA
1247 words