""It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but, on the contrary, their social existence that determines their consciousness (Marx)." That being said... Benjamin was one (if not) of the hardest readings we have read in this class in my opinion. He keeps moving from topic to topic...very confusing. I haven't been so frustrated in my life until I read Benjamin's text. The quote above was one of Carl Marx's quotes which was said to be the sentence to describe historical materialism which comes up frequently in Benjamin's text. In the beginning of the text, Benjamin brings up a problem with Historians and how some history is lost. This takes us back to Fasolt's text where he states that historians rather take the easy way out and only account for recorded history and history that actually has evidence (at least to my understanding of the text).
On p. 257, Benjamin brings up a point on one of Ben's questions on what could be done; in this case, he states what the problem is against Fascism. "Then we shall clearly realize that it is our task to bring about a real state of emergency, and this will improve our position in the struggle against Fascism." This quote stands out because according to recorded history (one in which students were taught by TEXTBOOKS) is that many countries did take a stance against Fascism in WWII. Benjamin then goes on explaining a reason why Fascism was successful at one point and states that it is because its opponents treat it as a historical norm.
What I understood from this passage is that the people are the problem thinking that it is normal. Benjamin also discusses an important point in which the Germans did not progress and the reason he gives is that "they moved with the current" meaning they went with the flow... didn't question Hitler and did not complain. This is actually very interesting because I learned in the past that prior to WWI, the Germans were deep in debt, unemployment was at an all-time high, inflation, etc. So Hitler was their only resort to freedom; though this sounds ironic. A similar story we see in the news today is Libya... even though Al-Qadafi is known among Libyans as a corrupt leader, some still want him in power.... my conclusion from that and this may sound weird, but I have hear many discussing this point. Libyans would rather have their own native leader lead the country then an outside western world leading it.
Libyans do not want to see another Iraq. Every Arab country on earth knows that the US is running Iraq and not the Iraqi gov't.... the Iraqi gov't is just for show...puppets. So the Libyans do not want western people running their country. This isn't just my opinion, I hear many talk about this issue. Americans think that most of Libyans oppose Gadhafi which is false. Western media only shows one side of the story; they only show the opposition in intention to show the world the most of the Libyans want Gadhafi out... which isn't true. That was my experience... now back to the article. I however failed to see Benjamin position himself with the text... maybe because of the phrasing he uses. Benjamin also brings up a good point in the text where he states that if we really want to make sense of a time period in history (the Holocaust for example) then we must forget about all the history that follows it.
First, I agree with you that this was one of the hardest readings we had to read. However, you did an excellent job at making sense of this part of his theses and after reading your post I feel like I have a greater understanding of what he is talking about. Second, I completely agree with you on the issues with Libya and being able to relate it a little with Hitler. Lastly, the point that you made about the media distorting realities is 100% true, as is done with almost all of world issues. This could be because of the "international good guy" thinking and not wanting to upset the people.
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