viernes, 24 de diciembre de 2010

La Guerra de la Independencia Española (a.k.a. Peninsular War)

Only available in Spanish...





1. Who plotted the "Motín de Aranjuez"? Why?
2. The "Afrancesados" could be seen as good willing spaniards who wanted the modernization of the country or traitors who collaborated with the french invaders. What do you think? Traitors or progressives?
3. Name the main "Guerrilleros" mentioned in the documentary.

jueves, 9 de diciembre de 2010

Marxism

Marxism is an economic and socio-political worldview that contains within it a political ideology for how to change and improve society by implementing socialism.

Originally developed in the early to mid nineteenth century by two German émigrés living in Britain, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Marxism is based upon a materialist interpretation of history. Taking the idea that social change occurs because of the struggle between different classes within society who are constantly competing to improve their conditions, the Marxist analysis leads to the conclusion that capitalism, the currently dominant form of economic management, leads to the oppression of the proletariat, who not only make up the majority of the world's populace but who also spend their lives working for the benefit of the bourgeoisie, or the wealthy ruling class in society.

To correct this inequality between the bourgeoisie, who are the wealthy minority, and the proletariat, who are the poorer majority, Marxism advocates, and believes in the historical inevitability of, a proletarian revolution, when the proletariat take control of government, and then implement reforms to benefit their class, namely the confiscation of private property which is then taken under state control and run for the benefit of the people rather than for the interests of private profit. Such a system is socialism, although Marxists believe that eventually a socialist society would develop into an entirely classless system, which is known as communism in Marxist thought.