Scream by Edvard Munch THE AGE OF ANXIETY Chapter 26

MODERN THOUGHT AFTER WWI Disillusionment Doubt re: human progress Caused by WW1 death & severe casualty toll Friedrich Nietzsche Most famous quote: “God is dead” Those who control words, control society and culture… relevance Superman (Übermensch): breaks out of society’s rules & formulates new moral codes for himself… all about the self Books: Thus Spake Zarathustra The Will to Power Life comes from random chance happenings No purpose for life Life is meaningless Rules are the constructs of those in power (traditional values might have been different with another culture) Traditional values have no ultimate meaning There is no ultimate meaning & life has no purpose The end of life is the end Accept the meaninglessness of life and move on

MODERN THOUGHT AFTER WWI (A) Paul Valéry: Post-WW1mankind suffers from a “cruelly injured mind” Plagued by anxiety & failure of 19th c. “progress” (B) Henri Bergson: Experience & Intuition AS VALUABLE AS Rational & Scientific Thinking (C) Ludwig Wittgenstein: “Logical Positivism” = only scientifically verifiable statements matter Why bother with “transcendent truth?” B C

MODERN THOUGHT AFTER WWI: Christianity Resurgent Christianity: Søren Kierkegaard (A) 1st existentialist Christian ethics & love GOD <> Man Karl Barth (B) “Father of Neo-orthodoxy” Confessing Church = anti-Nazi GOD is sovereign, man is not C. S. Lewis Mere Christianity Screwtape Letters / Chronicles of Narnia A “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” C “Grace must find expression in life, otherwise it is not grace.” E F B G H

New MEDIA & Uses Radio aka “Wireless” Cinema: G. Marconi (It) invents GE, RCA > KADA (US) BBC 1922 “public radio” Cinema: Silent films 1st, then… “Talkies” Useful as propaganda Leni Riefenstahl: Triumph of the Will (Triumph des Willens)

GROWTH OF DEMOCRACIES Kellogg-Briand Pact: 15 countries renounced war “as an instrument of national policy” Early attempt at a peace movement (idealistic, doesn’t work) Demonstrates the aggressive political optimism of the 1920’s Disillusionment follows in the artistic/literary circles; politics is philosophically a different place Various parties competed for seats in Parliaments & for influence among various constituencies Communists, Socialists, Social Democrats – all wanted workers votes Fragmentation of political spectrum grew as economic situations worsened

INTERWAR POLITICS… Political instability: Search for governmental forms that will not lead to war and will control the chaos of the post-war world Reparations: end of Germany’s prosperity Rampant, soaring hyper-inflation (4 trillion marks to 1 US Dollar) by November 1923 Dawes Plan put in place to curb runaway inflation in European nations

ARTISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL DISILLUSIONMENT Despair over the inability of mankind to solve his own problems by recourse to reason Give special attention to all 1920s artists as a representation of the times: German Expressionism: Grosz & Dix Dadaism: Duchamp, Tzara & Hoch Surrealism: Dali Cubism: Braque & Picasso Abstract: Kandinsky

German Expressionism: Grosz & Dix

Dadaism: the Anti-Art, Anti-?

Soviet Socialist Realism

Surrealism: Dali

Abstraction: Wassily Kandinsky

Cubism: Pablo Picasso

ENTER THE GREAT DEPRESSION Stock Market Crash in the US (Oct 1929) Wiped out the $$ of millions of people Banks went BK because of bad debts US banks call in their loans; bad for Europeans who owe millions of dollars to the US; Promise of a New Deal puts Roosevelt into office 1933 Great Depression GNP

Can you name the nations?

Europe & Great Depression Germany’s solution: print billions of marks; leads to hyper-inflation = worthless money France: depression hits later but is more persistent GB: less effected and also more socialist oriented; Liberal party surpassed by Labour Party [briefly], then coalition government Countries go off the “gold standard” Massive unemployment worldwide; Europe socialism strongly rooted in Scandinavian countries (welfare, pensions, healthcare… avoids worst of Depression)

1920s POLITICAL MOVEMENTS Authoritarianism: Totalitarianism: Human tradition = gravitating toward strong leaders in times of crisis Authoritarian regimes: try to maintain peace and order; minimal restriction on freedoms (if you go along; passive acceptance) Totalitarianism: Seeks to control the totality of people’s lives Religion, leisure activities, culture (art, music, books), media, politics Afraid of and discouraged deviation