Romanticism and Russia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Romanticism and Russia - Essay Example The basic premise of Romanticism is that everything cannot be explained by reason or logic. Romanticism also upholds the fact that the human emotion is pure and expressing it was important. This was a reaction to the previous movement which is Enlightenment. Enlightenment emphasizes the power of logic and the scientific method over anything else. The romantics, on the other hand, looked for deeper and more meaningful meanings other than numbers and the like. The romantics are more sensual and more rooted to conveying human emotion (Moscovici, 3). And in contrast with the Neo-Classicists, the Romanticists in not just an observer to the creations of the divine but now a creator of fragile meaning and beauty. Romanticists also point out the frailties of the human beings, hence, the common themes of depression and despair on romantic literature (Moscovici, 9). It also asserted the importance of the individual and personal experiences, making a unique hero, because promotes originality. E xamples of this would be Frankenstein and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Romanticism also posits relativism in all aspects. There are no absolute truths unlike in Classicism or Enlightenment. For romantics, there is no right and wrong, even in aspects of morality, but each society was encouraged to make their own sets of rules . According to the Romantics, the theories of Enlightenment prevent emotions and creativity, turning man into a robot and man must liberate himself from these chains – through romanticism. Romanticists are also socially involved, as well as politically (Melani). However, they were also a bit aloof as they often distance themselves from the public, preferring to live in far flung areas. As noted, these romanticists express their own thoughts and feelings and as noted earlier too, this period was happening almost in the same era when the French Revolution also took place (late 1700s). Many authors tried to uphold romanticism in the revolution and the revolu tion, also partly owes some of its principles on Romanticism. With this, artist took stands, wrote works with highly politicized subjects. In other countries, like Germany for example, romanticism boosted nationalism by letting nationalism have an intellectual anchor. Romanticism links various branches of knowledge, from art and humanities to social sciences, psychology, politics and in philosophy . II. Russian Revolution There are two Russian Revolutions. The first one was in 1905, but it did not really gain momentum and failed to revolutionize the government, so to speak. This essay will focus on the 1917 revolution. The 1917 revolution transformed Russia into the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic from monarchy. This had two phases, one led by the peasants and the other phase led by the Bolsheviks (Palmer, Colton and Kramer, 725). The 1917 happened during the last phases of the World War 1. The World War 1 happened in 1914 and Russia was in it. Most of their resources were put o n the efforts for the World War 1 and many soldiers died. On March of 1917, when it was said to be one of the coldest and snowiest winters in St. Petersburg, many people were starving as the weather kept them from city markets (Banks, et al, 535). Workers, most of them hungry, lined up for hours just to get bread. These workers are quite impoverished compared to the Russian monarchy. They have very little money and they hope to spend it on little loaves of bread out in the cold (Banks, et al, 535). The people protested yet again (just like in 1905, Bloody Sunday) when the skies cleared. For four days, people went out in the streets of St. Petersburg and shouted statements like â€Å"Down with the government!†, â€Å"Down with war!†

Book review of Economic Sophisms, by Frdric Bastiat Essay

Book review of Economic Sophisms, by Frdric Bastiat - Essay Example In this book Economic Sophisms Bastiat tries to combat the problems of protectionism through many arguments. His famous satirical work known as the ‘Candle makers’ petition’, which is reproduced in many economic textbooks all over the world, is also included in this book. (Hart, 4-7; Hazlitt, 5) The collection consists of three parts. The first part contains the popular essays; the second is his sophisms, consisting of 35 articles on protectionism. The third part was written in a short period of time before his death and consists of the thought that society and the economy are in harmony and government intervention was unnecessary - ‘The world is not sufficiently aware of the influence that sophistry exerts over it.’(Bastiat, 93) The author’s thesis is that one should have the freedom to buy anything from anyplace as that is in one’s best economic interest. The most important argument present in the whole book is how a few men have been able to loot others by making them believe that they are getting looted for their own benefit. Many still lack the basic understanding of such economics and that kind of looting is prevalent even now. Since, the not so intelligent common man, might not be able to decipher the intricacies of an economic policy, the ones forming the rules are in a position to loot the poor off their wealth. Bastiat not only uses wit and satire but also uses the words of the policy makers to point out the fallacies to the general public (Spencer). The book consists of a number of styles of writing. Keeping in mind the general public as the reader Bastiat includes a number of different yet simple styles which they can understand. His book consisted of essays in conversational prose, written informally, and this is the dominant type. They have a very conversational tone and quotes from individuals having the opposite view have often been incorporated in these. This style reflects the fact that they might have been used in speeches before and contains reactions or exclamations from the writer (Hart, 8). The second type of essay format he uses is essays written in dialog form where Bastiat created characters to build up a conversation where ultimately the free market supporter would win the debate. The characters would often be in professions such as petitioning, economist, woodcutters, ironmasters and artisans (Hart, 9). Thirdly, he would write essays consisting of economic tales, which shows his love for literature. These economic tales point out important economic aspects to the layman in an easy manner, and included funny remarks. Important stories include ‘Reciprocity’, ‘Stupidville’ and ‘Childishtown’. These tales make the work of economics less boring and ignites the enthusiasm of the reader (Hart, 10). The fourth type of essays was fictional letter to government officials. These were similar to the economic tales and were considered funn y and satirical. These fake letters were written to many fake government officials such as Council of Ministers, various Cabinet Ministers and to the Chamber of Deputies, sometimes even the King, and contained requests for easy solutions of economic complexities. The writer uses a ‘reductio ad absurdum’ method to push his point usually taking up a topic used by his opponents. Sometimes ridiculous demands made by the opponents were used to show