Frankfurt School:Herbert Marcuse's_Eros and Civilization (1955)-The Cabinet of Dr. Calgari (HW 4)

Quote: "Make Love, Not War"
-Herbert Marcuse (Eros and Civilization) 

BIO SUMMARY:

It is not due to conservatism, and it is not due to liberalism that America has been duped by a planned societal virus that came to America in 1933 during World War II.  The terms ‘Cultural Marxism’ and ‘critical theory’ were concepts developed by a group of German intellectuals in 1923 in Germany. They founded the Institute of Social Research at Frankfurt University, which was modeled after the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow, and later became known as the Frankfurt School.  In 1933, when the Nazis came to power in Germany, the members of the Frankfurt School fled to the United States.  They migrated to major U.S. universities including Columbia, Princeton, Brandeis, and California at Berkeley.  These intellectual Marxists included Herbert Marcuse (July 19, 1898 – July 29, 1979), who coined the phrase, "make love, not war," during the anti-Vietnam War demonstrations. Herbert Marcuse the last member of the original Frankfurt School, reached a broader audience in the 1960s with his critique of “consumer society” and the containment of opposition.

Marcuse's writings became very popular with the Counter-Cultural Movement of the 60s and early 70s. 'Eros and Civilization' was of special significance since Marcuse argued that Freud's pessimism about the prospects for happiness in civilization were derived from too rigid a notion of sexuality as the driving need for repression. Marcuse argued for a widened experience of sexuality through the embrace of eros, in general, within polymorphous sensuality, fantasy, and the arts. In this he was a leading inspiration to the "Flower Children," the theme of "Make Love, Not War," and a great portion of the Rock music and drug culture of the age. While much of this movement ventured far beyond the bounds of Marcuse's own North-German upbringing, he was obviously pleased by the attention and remained sympathetic to the movement.

Film Ideas:

In the climate of 1919, the aftermath of World War I weighed heavy on the globe’s conscious, no where more so than Germany where Kaiser Wilhelm’s power trip had cost them everything. Many lives had been lost, the economy was now a disaster and the social climate of the country was at it’s lowest point in decades as they had felt cheated by their government into getting involved in a war that should never have taken place.

The 1920s were the decade that saw the rise of the Dada and Surrealist movements. The first rejected all pretense, all standards, all sincerity. It was a profound expression of hopelessness and alienation. It led to the rise of the related art movement Surrealism, which cut loose from order and propriety, rejected common values, scorned tradition and sought to overthrow society with anarchy. It's said such movements were a reaction to the horror of World War I, which upset decades of relative tranquility and order, threw the European nations into unstable new relationships and presented the inhuman spectacle of modern mechanized battle. After the brutality of trench warfare, it would be difficult to return to landscapes and still life.

It is remarkable that during this period of turmoil and strife these great film artists were able to tap into the popular zeitgeist and create works of such telling beauty. Their far reaching influence spanned the globe, most prominently in the approach to light and shadow play seen later in the American films. All the same, even if the German Expressionist films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari had not had such a meaningful and lasting cinematic power, what stands alone as simply the films of this Weimar epoch are extremely valuable as art and as statements of a culture. To varying degrees, the films of this time are a revealing window into the Germans’ minds, souls, fears, and anxieties.

Mass Culture Today:

Not many of us would argue the fact that Americans have become used to living in an atmosphere filled with disappointment, immorality, victimization, and distrust.  TV, Movies, Books, Plays, News, Public Education.  They have all been tainted.  As each new piece of entertainment becomes more outrageous than the last, our schools rewrite history attacking our heroes and mocking the old ideals.  The result is apathy.  We feel powerless to rise up and make real changes.  But, the real source of the apathy is our not knowing the true source of our predicament. We are living in a kind of social depression that affects every aspect of our lives. Political correctness has a history which, surprisingly, extends much further back than the 1960’s with its hippies and anti-war movement.  It goes back to the time of WWI. The people espousing economic Marxism were certain when war came to Europe, as it did in 1914, that the common people would rise up in their various countries and overthrow their governments. They figured the general public would feel they had much more in common with each other across national boundaries than with the rich and ruling class in their own country.  Well as we now know history, they were wrong!